RELIGIOUS EUPHEMISMS IN THE BIBLE

 

One factor which makes the translation of the Old Testament difficult is the presence of euphemisms. As you are aware, a euphemism is an acceptable way of wording what might be considered too crude to mention in polite society. Most of the euphemisms we use today involve bodily parts and functions.

But interestingly, the translators in King James' day were not so squeamish as we are today when it came to the language they employed. For example, in I Samuel 25:22, 34; I Kings 16:11; 21:21; and II Kings 4:8, threats, or actual cases of violence, were employed by one group on another against “all who pisseth against the wall.” (KJV) In fact, the people uttering the threats were not angry because their city walls were being defaced, the phrase simply refers to “all males,” or “every mother's sons” (NEB).

But in addition to this category of euphemisms, there are what we might term religious euphemisms. Thus, today we might use gosh, gee, jeez, gee whiz, or holy cow to refer to the Persons of the Trinity, or even “dear me” in place of Dio mio (“my God” in Italian).

The same phenomenon appears in the Bible when, for example, Matthew (writing mainly to a Jewish audience) refers to “the kingdom of heaven” instead “the kingdom of God,” as appears in the other Gospels.

And then there is the ubiquitous presence of “LORD” or “Jehovah” throughout the Bible to avoid using God's personal name of YHWH, probably pronounced as “Yahweh.” To avoid this name and perhaps taking it in vain, the ancient scribes wrote it using the vowels for adonay (“Lord”) instead. In that way the reader would know to say “adonay” whenever YaHoWaH appeared in the Bible. That is how we got the English word “Jehovah,” which really never existed at all. This proves to be a bit of an embarrassment for the Jehovah Witnesses, who make a big deal out of always needing to use God's real name. Thus, they usually don't buy the standard scholarly explanation that I have just related.

In addition, sometime before A.D. 800 when the vocalized Hebrew text of the OT was standardized, the group of Jewish scholars called the Masoretes included a special mark at roughly 18 different verses to indicate that the Hebrew text they inherited was at those points altered sometime in the distant past in order to smooth over readings that could possibly be considered offensive to God's honor if allowed to stand. But before summarizing those marked passages, you must keep in mind that not all modern Bible scholars accept that those texts have indeed been changed. Instead, some feel that the proposed emendations made no earlier than the Christian era were the result of the imagination of those later Jewish scholars.

As an example, look at one of these eighteen Tikkûn Sopherim, or Emendations of the Scribes: Habakkuk 1:12. The extant Hebrew text translates to read: “Are you not of old, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.” Since the last sentence appears to be a non sequitur in that context (as well as being an extremely rare allusion to the possibility of resurrection), the Masoretes deduced that the original read, “You shall not die.” But even mentioning a lifetime in the context of the eternal God was felt to be demeaning, and so it was changed to a more acceptable, but less understandable, wording instead.

A number of English translations agree with this reasoning and restore it to “You shall not die” or an equivalent phrase. These include NIV, NEB, Jerusalem Bible, and TEV. And several noted commentators agree with this assessment. However, O. Palmer Robertson sticks with “We shall not die” for the following reason: “Linking himself with the eternity of God which he had just developed, the prophetic mediator conjoins the covenant people with himself. Yahweh is their God. Therefore it is impossible that they could perish. Instead of serving as an instrument of annihilation, the enemy being raised up by God against Israel must function as the divine tool for justice and for rebuke.”

As a matter of fact, one other prominent Bible scholar carefully reviewed the eighteen passages in question and concluded that the Sopherim was only correct in two cases, the other proposed changes being later midrashes, or commentaries, on those passages. Keep this controversy in mind when reading the following proposals.

Genesis 18:22 The original reading, "and God still stood before Abraham," became "and Abraham still stood before God," because it appeared offensive to say that the Deity stood before Abraham.

Numbers 11:15 Moses pleas with God, "Kill me, I pray thee... that I may not see thy evil" (i.e. the punishment God will visit upon Israel). That is altered to "that I may not see my evil" in order to avoid the idea that evil is ascribed to God.

I Samuel 3:13 The presumed original wording of "for his sons cursed God" was changed to say, "for his sons cursed themselves" because it was felt to be too offensive to say that Eli's sons cursed God without being reprimanded by their father. We run into exactly the same euphemism in Job 1:9 where Job's wife tells him (literally) “Bless God and die,” in place of “Curse God and die.”

II Samuel 16:12 The phrase "will God see with his eye" is made to read "will God look at my affliction" in order to avoid anthropomorphizing God too much by picturing Him as having eyes. An identical alteration is made in Zechariah 2:12. And we see a similar phenomenon with Ezekiel 8:17 where God's nose is changed into “their nose.”

I Kings 12:16 The reading "to his God, O Israel... and Israel went to their God" becomes "to your tents... to their tents," because it was viewed as departing from God and the sanctuary in order to worship idols in their own tents. The same change was done with the parallel passage, II Chronicles 10:16.

Jeremiah 2:11 "my glory" became "their glory", because it was too offensive to say that God's glory was changed for an idol. This same sort of change was felt to have been made in Hosea 4:7.

Job 7:20 Job says to God, "Why have I become a burden to thee?" But the existing Hebrew text reads "to myself" to remove the implication that anyone could actually burden God.

Job 32:3 "They/he condemned God" is altered to "They/he condemned Job". This change makes little sense now but does remove the unacceptable idea of anyone condemning God.

Lamentations 3:19 "And thy soul will mourn over me" reads "and my soul is humbled within me", because of the doubt that any of our actions could cause an omnipotent God to mourn.