Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing

by Melissa Mohr

  But scholars who study ancient literacy: William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 266.

  Although he was a Roman citizen: For Martial’s biography, see J. P. Sullivan, Martial: The Unexpected Classic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

  The patron-client relationship: Richard P. Saller, Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 119–45; Richard P. Saller, “Patronage and Friendship in Early Imperial Rome: Drawing the Distinction,” Patronage in Ancient Society, ed. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (London: Routledge, 1989), 49–62; Michele George, “The ‘Dark Side’ of the Toga,” Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, ed. Jonathan Edmondson and Alison Keith (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008).

  “can’t please without”: Martial, Epigrams, 1.35.

  “my little book”: Ibid., 11.15.

  “my page is wanton”: Ibid., 1.4.

  “a lascivious truth of words”: Ibid., 1.1.

  “May I die, Priapus”: Ziolkowski, “Obscenity,” 43; The Priapus Poems, 67.

  “Then came Corinna”: Christopher Marlowe, The Complete Works, ed. Fredson Bowers, 2nd. ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 2:321.

  The rhetorician Seneca instructs: Seneca, Controversies 1.2.23, quoted in Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Source-book of Basic Documents (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 388.

  Crepo, for instance, must be a polite: Adams, Latin Sexual Vocabulary, 249.

  “Dido and the Trojan leader”: The Essential Aeneid, trans. Stanley Lombardo (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006), 57.

  Cicero’s letter about the word mentula: Cicero, “Epistulae ad Familiares 9.22,” The Latin Library (online), accessed July 23, 2012; “Letters to His Friends,” trans. Evelyn Shuckburgh, The Perseus Project (online), accessed July 23, 2012.

  the external genital organs: “Vulva,” Free Dictionary, Farlex, Inc. (online), July 23, 2012.

  During its long tenure: Ostler, Ad Infinitum, 159–76.

  was used this way into the eighteenth century: Ibid., 292–301.

  “a language for male initiates”: Ibid., 193.

  Chapter 2

  In the Bible, swearing: The ancient Romans used oaths as well, but the swearing that has come down to us can be traced most directly back to the Bible. For more on Roman oath swearing, see “Jusjurandum” in A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, ed. William Smith, William Wayte, and G. E. Marindin, vol. 1, 3rd ed. (London: John Murray, 1901).

  “Go from your country”: I have generally used the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (NRSV), most often in the New Oxford Annotated Bible version. When I use other translations, I will note them.

  first covenant with Abraham: Jeff A. Benner, “The Revised Mechanical Translation of the Book of Genesis,” The Mechanical Translation of the Hebrew Bible, Mechanical Translation Project (online), accessed August 9, 2010; Sheldon H. Blank, “The Curse, Blasphemy, the Spell and the Oath,” Hebrew Union College Annual XXIII (1950–51): 73–95; Tony Cartledge, Vows in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 147 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992); René Lopez, “Israelite Covenants in the Light of Ancient Near Eastern Covenants,” part 1, CTS Journal 9 (2003): 92–111, and part 2, CTS Journal 10 (2004): 72–105; Nahum Sarna, Understanding Genesis, The Heritage of Biblical Israel 1 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1966); E. A. Speiser, Genesis, The Anchor Bible Commentary 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1964); John A. Wilson, “The Oath in Ancient Egypt,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 7, no. 3 (1948): 129–56; Yael Ziegler, Promises to Keep: The Oath in Biblical Narrative (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

  “If anyone have intercourse”: No. 199 in “The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650–1500 BCE,” Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, Internet History Sourcebooks Project (online), 1999, accessed August 9, 2010.

  what scholars call a self-curse: Paul Sanders, “So May God Do to Me,” Biblica 85 (2004): 91–98.

  “He can, and then he lifts it”: Harry G. Frankfurt, “The Logic of Omnipotence,” Philosophical Review 73 (1964): 262–63.

  This appears to be divine humor: For more about obscenity in the Bible, including prophetic scatology, see Jeremy F. Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Speech in Early Christianity and Its Environment, Supplements to Novum Testamentum 128 (Leiden: Brill, 2008). For more about the covenant of circumcision, see Ralph F. Wilson, “The Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham (Genesis 17).” Jesus Walk, Joyful Heart Renewal Ministries (online), accessed August 9, 2010.

  As the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo wrote: Philo, Questions and Answers on Genesis, trans. Ralph Marcus, Loeb Classical Library, Philo Supplement 1 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953).

  the most famous of which: For my discussion of the third commandment, the following commentaries were helpful: Waldemar Janzen, Exodus, Believers Church Bible Commentary (Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 2000); Cornelis Houtman, Exodus Vol. 1, trans. Jonathan Rebel and Sierd Woudstra, Historical Commentary on the Old Testament (Kampen: Kok Publishing House, 1993); J. Philip Hyatt, Commentary on Exodus, New Century Bible (London: Oliphants, 1971); Noel D. Osborn and Howard A. Hatton, A Handbook on Exodus, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1999); William H. C. Propp, ed., Exodus 19–40: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, The Anchor Bible Commentary 3 (New York: Doubleday, 2006); Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, The New American Commentary 2 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006).

  As the catechism of the Catholic Church puts it: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 576.

  “Telle us a fable anon”: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson, 3rd ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987), 287, line 29.

  God was one of hundreds of gods: Two especially good books about the history of God’s relationship to other ancient Near Eastern deities are Robert Wright, The Evolution of God (New York: Little, Brown, 2009), and Mark S. Smith, God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World, Forschungen zum Alten Testament 57 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008). Other texts that I consulted are: Jan Assman, Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel and the Rise of Monotheism (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008); Susanne Bickel, Silvia Schroer, René Schurte, and Christoph Uehlinger, eds., Bilder als Quellen/Images as Sources: Studies on Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts and the Bible Inspired by the Work of Othmar Keel, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis Special Volume (Göttingen: Academic Press Fribourg, 2007); William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2005); Clyde E. Fant and Mitchell G. Reddish, Lost Treasures of the Bible: Understanding the Bible Through Archaeological Artifacts in World Museums (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2008); W. Randall Garr, In His Own Image and Likeness: Humanity, Divinity and Monotheism, Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 15 (Boston: Brill, 2003); Roberta L. Harris, The World of the Bible (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995); Karel van der Toorn, ed., The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism, and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East, Biblical Exegesis and Theology 21 (Leuven: Peeters, 1997); Greg Herrick, “Baalism in Canaanite Religion and Its Relation to Selected Old Testament Texts,” Bible.org, July 24, 2004, accessed August 9, 2010.

  scientists used multispectral imaging: “The Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest,” Archimedes: The Palimpsest Project (online), October 29, 2008, accessed August 9, 2010.

  God goes by several different names: Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, 2nd ed, Biblical Resource Series (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2002); Smith, God in Translation, in particular Chapter 3: Christopher Heard, “When Did Yahweh and El Merge?” Higgaion, November 6, 2006 (online), accessed August 9, 2010; “From Adonai to Yahweh: A Glossary of God’s Names,” The Bible Study (online), acces
sed August 9, 2010.

  When the Most High: This passage is textually very difficult—there are many different versions in many different manuscripts. For more information about it, see Smith, God in Translation, 139.

  “the LORD’s own portion”: As I have said above, The New Oxford Annotated Bible is based on the NRSV. It is interesting to note that even in this “monotheistic” reading, the verses imply that Yahweh would have given other peoples to other gods.

  The Bible contains several more instances of God appearing as just one of many gods. Yahweh participates in another divine council in Psalm 82: “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment”; or, in a more literal translation, “Elohim stands in the council of El; among the elohim he pronounces judgment.” Here, elohim is used as both a singular noun and a plural one—it stands for the one and only Yahweh, but also for the other gods on the council. And El is named outright as the chief god of the council, more evidence that the Elyon we saw earlier probably refers to El. In another song, Moses asks, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?” (Ex. 15:11).

  Scholars of a less determinedly monotheistic bent: The scholars who see monotheism as developing slowly through the Bible are amply represented in these notes already, including Dever, Wright, and Smith. Catherine Keller names some scholars who argue that elohim refers to God and his heavenly court or to the Trinity in her “The Pluri-Singularity of Creation,” in Creation and Humanity: The Sources of Christian Theology, ed. Ian A. McFarland (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009). Many other scholars and amateurs who espouse these views can be found online as well; for example, James Patrick Holding, “Is the Bible Polytheistic?” Tekton Education and Apologetics Ministry (online), accessed August 9, 2010, and “Elohim = The Plural God,” Believer’s Web (online), May 5, 2003, accessed August 9, 2010.

  Vows are another important way: See Cartledge, Vows in the Hebrew Bible.

  He takes over many of his rival: Wright, The Evolution of God, 120–24.

  Yahweh also takes on many attributes of El: “From Adonai to Yahweh: A Glossary of God’s Names”; Wright, The Evolution of God, 110–15.

  Yahweh had perhaps the hardest time displacing: For more about Asherah, consult Dever, Did God Have a Wife?; Smith, God in Translation; and Wright, The Evolution of God, 118–20.

  “To [Y]ahweh [of] Teiman”: Dever, Did God Have a Wife?, 162; Othmar Keel and Christoph Uehlinger, eds., Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel, trans. Thomas H. Trapp (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 210–82.

  “put your hand under my thigh”: Meir Malul, “More on Pahad Yishaq (Genesis XXXI 42, 53) and the Oath by the Thigh,” Vetus Testamentum XXXV, no. 2 (1985): 192–200.

  testis was also a “risqué and jocose” word: Adams, Latin Sexual Vocabulary, 67.

  There is a famous statue: Fant and Reddish, Lost Treasures of the Bible; Keel and Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses and Images of God, 210–82, for numerous images of goats feeding on trees, associated with Asherah and other goddesses.

  In the Sermon on the Mount: For more on Matthew 5:33, see Jo-Ann A. Brant, “Infelicitous Oaths in the Gospel of Matthew,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 63 (1996): 3–20; R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007); Akio Ito, “The Question of the Authenticity of the Ban on Swearing (Matthew 5:33–37),” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 43 (1991): 5–13; Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, trans. Thomas P. Scheck, The Fathers of the Church 117 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008); Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1–7: A Commentary, trans. James E. Crouch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007); Barclay M. Newman and Philip C. Stine, A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew, UBS Helps for Translators (New York: United Bible Societies, 1988); John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2005); Manlio Simonetti, ed., Matthew 1–13, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture New Testament 1a (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001); Ben Witherington, Matthew, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2006); Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, Book One, trans. William Findlay, New Advent (online), accessed August 10, 2010; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, New Advent (online), accessed August 10, 2010; Philipp Melanchthon, Verlegung etlicher unchristlicher Artikel. … Werke, ed. Robert Stupperich (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1951), quoted in Luz, Matthew 1–7, 267.

  Christ also seems to single out fighting words as worthy of divine condemnation. In the Sermon on the Mount, he explains that in the past, murder was outlawed, but that he would forbid anger itself, as well as insulting words that express anger: “if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult [say raca to] a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matt. 5:21–22). This passage is notoriously difficult to interpret, however. Raca is an Aramaic word that apparently means “empty-headed” or “fool,” and scholars are not sure how that term compares with the Greek for “fool” used in the final phrase. Is Christ making the point that raca and fool are terrible insults and should not be said in anger, or that Christians should not utter even such mild insults as fool? Scholars also do not know what to make of the scale of punishments Christ sets out. Are “judgment,” “the council,” and “the hell of fire” supposed to be equivalent, different ways for describing the same punishment, or increasingly awful?

  The Quakers, in contrast: For an introduction to the Quakers, see Margery Post Abbott, Mary Ellen Chijioke, Pink Dandelion, and John William Oliver, Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003) and Pink Dandelion, An Introduction to Quakerism (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  “plainer words than these”: George Fox, The Works of George Fox: Gospel Truth Demonstrated (Philadelphia: Marcus T. C. Gould, 1831), vol. 5, part 2, 165.

  More than a thousand years later: Idolatry is still a pressing concern in the New Testament, but more in terms of how to begin spreading Christ’s message to the gentiles (non-Jews) after his death. There are still many other gods to choose from—Jesus lived in the Roman Empire, after all—but the near-hysterical fear that pervades the Hebrew Bible, that Israelites will go off and worship strange gods, is gone.

  To the ancient Israelites, excrement: For the concept of defilement, see Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2002).

  NRSV, NIV, ESV: NRSV = New Revised Standard Version; NIV = New International Version; ESV = English Standard Version; NASB = New American Standard Bible; ERV = Easy-to-Read Version.

  As these various translations show: For more about biblical obscenity, including an argument that the compilers of the Talmud were ashamed of several words they found in the Hebrew Bible, you could have a look at Jeremy F. Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Speech in Early Christianity and Its Environment, Supplements to Novum Testamentum 128 (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

  Hebrew is like Latin: Joel M. Hoffman, In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (New York: New York University Press, 2004); Angel Sáenz-Badillos, A History of the Hebrew Language, trans. John Elwolde (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

  Biblical Hebrew is extremely euphemistic: S. H. Smith, “‘Heel’ and ‘Thigh:’ The Concept of Sexuality in the Jacob-Esau Narratives,” Vetus Testamentum XL, no. 4 (1990): 464–73.

  “In this chapter we have”: Matthew Henry, “Commentary,” Biblegateway.com, accessed August 10, 2010.

  Scholar Ziony Zevit takes this euphemism: Scott F. Gilbert and Ziony Zevit, “Congenital Human Baculum Deficiency: The Generative Bone of Genesis 2:21–23,” American Journal of Medical Genetics 101, no. 3 (2001): 284–85; John Kaltner, Steven L. McKenzie, and Joel Kilpatrick, The Uncensored Bible: The
Bawdy and Naughty Bits of the Good Book (New York: Harper One, 2008), 1–11.

  One biblical law is a case in point: Jerome T. Walsh, “You Shall Cut Off Her … Palm? A Reexamination of Deuteronomy 25:11–12,” Journal of Semitic Studies 49 (2004): 47–48; Kaltner, McKenzie, and Kilpatrick, The Uncensored Bible, 99–106.

  in the immortal words of sixteenth-century Scottish poet: The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (London: Longman, 1806), 161.

  “An idle word is one”: Jerome 146.

  Chapter 3

  Two books on medieval obscenity were very helpful to my thinking about this chapter: Nicola McDonald, ed., Medieval Obscenities (York: York Medieval Press, 2006), and Jan Ziolkowski, ed., Obscenity: Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European Middle Ages, Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions 4 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998). I have modernized the spelling and punctuation of quotations when necessary for clarity.

  the Lindisfarne Gospels: British Library, “Online Gallery Sacred Texts: Lindisfarne Gospels” (online), accessed May 12, 2010; Michelle P. Brown, The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (London: British Library, 2003), 16–83.