The Bible is R-rated. When kids are taught the David and Goliath story, most teachers leave out the fact, that after David knocks out the giant with a rock, he decapitates him.
The Bible is filled with all sorts of stuff that make up an R-rated film: sex, war, murder, genocide, adultery, bribery. Such content naturally lends itself to censorship.
A great example comes from Daniel chapter 5, where the Babylonian king sees something that terrifies him: fingers of a human hand writing on a wall.
The message written was one of judgment and that very night the king was killed. This story is where we get the phrase, "the writing is on the wall," signifying coming misfortune.
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| Rembrandt's depiction of Daniel 5. |
The censorship though, comes in verse 6, which records the king's reaction to the writing. Most modern translations render it: "His limbs gave way" (NRSV) or "his legs became weak" (NIV).
But the Aramaic is literally: "his loins loosed" (Ar. charats sheray) which, to put it bluntly means, "he pooped his pants."
Apparently, most modern translators felt this was offensive and avoided it, but the literal translation certainly conveys the fear the king was experiencing!
2 comments:
okay Brandon - my question is how did you find this? Did someone tell you about it? Because I have this image in my head of you searching the bible for poopy references.
Ha! "The writing is on the wall"...and I always thought of that as a rather ominous statement. It was! God doesn't mess around.
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