Skubalon?

Skubalon is a word that the Apostle Paul used in Philippians 3:8. It can be mildly translated "Dog doo doo," or some kind of excrement by an animal or possibly human. What I have learned about this word is very strong and could be considered by some to “bad language” (or Blue Laws) in the Roman or Jewish culture during the time of the Apostle Paul.

In Philippians 3:8 the ESV version of the Bible reads: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish [or skubalon], in order that I may gain Christ...”

The ESV, NASB, NKJV and the NIV versions translated this word as rubbish. The HCSB translated the word as filth. The NLT uses the word garbage. These translations failed to capture the true spirit of the meaning of the word. However, I think that the KJV version actually comes closer to the meaning of the word than any other versions by using the word dung. (That should please some of the KJV nazi out there!)

Obvious the translators of these various translations and paraphrases can’t upset our moralistic sensibilities of the most of the American “Christian” sub-culture so they opted to use less “colorful” wording.

I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to say if the text was really translated to reflex the meaning of the Greek word use by Paul the English versions could read as follows: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as bullshit, in order that I may gain Christ...”

It seems that word Paul uses is lot like the way we use the word bullshit in our culture. It may be shocking to some on the fundamentalists and moralistic folks in the church but this probably a very close translation. Obliviously, modern translators wimp-out!

I thought using this word would make a really good web address, and blog for promoting Reformed Theology. I think it is funny! So my web page that is under constant construction is www.skubalon.net . This blog is titled After Skubalon, Light which is a take off on a Latin slogan during the reformation Post Tenebras, Lux which means After Darkness, Light. My blog can easily be translated as After Bullshit, Light, which is where I was before I came to the Reformed understanding of the Christian faith.

Timotheus