The Bible is one of most epic pieces of literature ever published. The stories are raw and unfiltered. And the more you dig down deep, the more impressive it becomes.
Most people imagine the Bible as containing only sanitized, polite, church-safe language. Gentle words. Soft phrases. No rough edges.
That assumption is very wrong.
An instance of this can be found by studying one of Christianity’s most influential writers, the apostle Paul, who deliberately used a word in Scripture that would have made his original audience flinch.
And modern translations have spent centuries trying to clean it up.
The verse no one likes to talk about.
To set the stage, Paul is writing a letter to the church in Philippi, making concerted effort to drive a point home. By the time Paul pens this letter, he’s In prison. It’s nearing the end of his ministry, and he’s writing to believers he deeply trusts.
The story picks up In Philippians 3:8, Paul begins dismantling his own résumé:
- His education
- His religious credentials
- His law-keeping
- His reputation
Then he says this: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… I consider them σκύβαλον (skýbalon).”
Most English Bibles translate that word as meaning rubbish, garbage, or refuse.
Sounds harmless enough, right?
It isn’t.
What Paul actually said.
The Greek word skýbalon was not polite religious language. It was actually crude vulgarity. In first-century usage, it meant:
- Excrement
- Dung
- Filth thrown to dogs
- Human waste
In modern English, the closest clean equivalent would be: “I count it all as crap.”
Now replace that word with the harsher, modern .slang word and now you get it. In this instance, Paul wasn’t being careless. He was being very deliberate.
Why translators softened it.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Paul’s word choice made people uneasy, it didn’t meet the status quo, so translators cleaned it up. And not because the Greek is unclear; not because the meaning is debated, instead it was changed because:
- Churches prefer reverent language
- Readers prefer comfort
- Shock disrupts religious control
So a word meant to offend religious pride became something you could read aloud without blushing. Paul didn’t intend that.It completely changes the ultimate context, which always matters.
Paul wanted to shock you.
Paul is saying: “Everything I once bragged about… my achievements, my obedience, my status… compared to Christ, it’s all human waste.”
He was obliterating self-righteousness. And this wasn’t a one-off moment.
In Galatians 5:12, Paul says of false teachers: “I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves.”
That’s not subtle either. If you don’t know the word, Google it.
Paul spoke with intent; he knew exactly what he was doing.
He also proved that holiness isn’t sanitized speech, it’s posture of the heart.
Here’s where people get uncomfortable- Paul was spirit-filled, theologically precise, God-inspired… And still chose raw, abrasive language when truth demanded it.
Why?
Because:
- Truth sometimes requires shock to break pride.
- The Bible was never meant to be fragile.
- It was meant to cut, expose, and wake people up.
The real issue.
The problem isn’t that Paul used a crude word. The problem is that modern believers have grown more concerned with politeness than truth. Paul wasn’t trying to sound holy.
He was trying to destroy illusions. And he clearly succeeded.
The takeaway.
Yes, Paul used a word equivalent to a curse-level vulgarity. Yes, he did it intentionally. Yes, translators softened it for comfort. Yes, scripture is far more raw than we might like to admit. And no, God is not threatened by honest, forceful language
The truth is, if Paul were writing today, he wouldn’t be invited to speak at most churches. And that should bother us because maybe the gospel was never meant to be comfortable, instead, only true.
Ponder this: If Paul were to write a letter to your church today, what do you think it would say?
~Devin
Devin Osborne
