Skubala!

[Jair]

Just how crass was this word considered to Greek speaking audiences of the time? It appears in Philippians 3:8, and I have heard some people say that it was a quite crass Greek word for dung. But how crass? What would be the most authentic modern English equivalent? Surely not… or… could it be?

I don’t know much about Greek whether ancient or modern so hopefully someone here can enlighten me a bit on this curiosity.

[mlinssen]

Just how crass was this word considered to Greek speaking audiences of the time? It appears in Philippians 3:8, and I have heard some people say that it was a quite crass Greek word for dung. But how crass? What would be the most authentic modern English equivalent? Surely not… or… could it be?

I don’t know much about Greek whether ancient or modern so hopefully someone here can enlighten me a bit on this curiosity.

There are a few "registers" where you can find Greek. One of them is what is known as Strong or Strong's:

https://biblehub.com/greek/4657.htm

It's very biased towards Christianity although it sometimes does have some hilights

Then we have the absolute authority on ancient Greek: LSJ or Liddell Scott Jones. Countless websites offer entries to that, a lean one is Logeion.uchicago.edu:

https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%83%CE% ... E%BF%CE%BD

but for all my work I use Perseus:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... ku%2Fbalon

I love using the concise Middle Liddell because it essentially ignores the NT. The full version doesn't:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... ku%2Fbalon

Regarding your quest: you appear to be somewhat right. The word does mean dung, and once again we have an ancient Greek word that means one thing everywhere and something entirely different only in the NT. Was it considered crass? I have no idea!

[robert j]

Just how crass was this word considered to Greek speaking audiences of the time? It appears in Philippians 3:8, and I have heard some people say that it was a quite crass Greek word for dung. But how crass? What would be the most authentic modern English equivalent? Surely not… or… could it be?

I don’t know much about Greek whether ancient or modern so hopefully someone here can enlighten me a bit on this curiosity.

There are a few "registers" where you can find Greek. One of them is what is known as Strong or Strong's:

https://biblehub.com/greek/4657.htm

It's very biased towards Christianity although it sometimes does have some hilights

Then we have the absolute authority on ancient Greek: LSJ or Liddell Scott Jones. Countless websites offer entries to that, a lean one is Logeion.uchicago.edu:

https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%83%CE% ... E%BF%CE%BD

but for all my work I use Perseus:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... ku%2Fbalon

I love using the concise Middle Liddell because it essentially ignores the NT. The full version doesn't:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... ku%2Fbalon

Regarding your quest: you appear to be somewhat right. The word does mean dung ...

Among the Greek resources that Linssen provided links, the LSJ and Middle Liddell translations for the Greek term σκύβαλα (skubala) include dung, excrement, manure, offal, filth, and refuse.

The "biblehub.com" link suggests the derivation of the term as --- "4657skýbalon (from 2965 /kýōn, "dog" and 906 /bállō, "throw") – properly, waste thrown to dogs ..."

... and once again we have an ancient Greek word that means one thing everywhere and something entirely different only in the NT.

Linssen seems to be trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill (or a dung heap). The Greek term is found only once in the NT, in Philippians 3:8. In the "biblehub.com" link provided by Linssen, the page with parallel translations for the verse provides 27 Bible translations https://biblehub.com/philippians/3-8.htm. In those, the term is variously translated as garbage, rubbish, dung, filth, refuse, and dung heap.

Certainly not the case for some other NT Greek terms, but here I think all those bible translators provide a reasonable representation of the Greek term σκύβαλα.

[Jair]

Fascinating. The reason I am curious as to it’s crassness is because of the implications of what a true authentic translation could be. And if that were to be the case, if you know what I mean, I think there would at the very least be some very humorous irony in the whole thing.