God's Swear Jar

Dan McClellan I'm curious, I would love to know for whom this was considered authoritative. What groups out there were like, "We've got to follow the Didache. In our household, we follow the Didache." "You're keeping an apostle in your room for more than two days?"

Dan Beecher "How long has he been here? A day? Okay, you're fine. Have some goat."

Dan McClellan Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher It's a glorious day.

Dan McClellan It has been very lovely.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan I don't know what it's like downtown, but where I am, it has been pleasant, and- Oh ... I couldn't be happier.

Dan Beecher Yeah. It's go for a walk season right now.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And that's always lovely. And it is also a wonderful time to discuss, to talk about, to have some fun with some Bible stuff.

Dan McClellan That's what we're here for.

Dan Beecher And today, I'm excited. The first thing we're going to talk about is something that I had never heard of. I don't know what it is. I did some research. I kind of know what it is now, but I'm glad to learn about it.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Poked around a little bit. That's going to be fun.

Dan Beecher And when I read it, I mispronounce it in my mind, so you say the name of it.

Dan McClellan Didache.

Dan Beecher Okay. So we're doing that.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher And then at the end of the show, you guys are going to want to stick around because it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to talk about profanity.

Dan McClellan Yes.

Dan Beecher We're going to have some fun with some naughty words. So that's going to be good. I'm going to really enjoy that. But let's do our first segment, "What Is That?" And for this "What Is That?"

Dan McClellan The Didache.

Dan Beecher Mm-hmm. I wanted to say Didache- ...

Dan McClellan Didache.

Dan Beecher Didache.

Dan McClellan Anyway. The Didache.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan The Didache.

Dan Beecher You can look up the spelling in the show notes if you want to. But talk to me about this thing, because it's actually- Yes ... the more I read about it, the more exciting it kind of was.

Dan McClellan Yeah. It's a fascinating text. It's not a very long text. It shakes out to about 16 chapters, I think, with seven to 10-ish verses per chapter.

Dan Beecher You know what? You can't call that a chapter. They're cheating.

Dan McClellan It's a paragraph, really.

Dan Beecher Those are sections.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And so it dates to around the end of the first century or beginning of the second century CE. Scholars have kind of wiggled back and forth on where exactly to date this, but usually you're going to find people say somewhere between 70 and 110 CE. So this is something that was probably in circulation before some of our New Testament texts were even written.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And the Didache, the Didache, the Didache, if you're nasty, it's basically a kind of an instruction book. Didache means teaching or doctrine or something like that. So it's basically instructions to Christians on how to be a good Christian. And it includes things like the baptismal prayer and the Eucharist prayer, and there's even kind of a secondary Eucharist prayer that some people think may be earlier than the first and may have been borrowed from a Jewish blessing on food.

Dan Beecher Hmm.

Dan McClellan So a lot of cool stuff in there. But we didn't have a manuscript of it for a long time. We have references to it. Eusebius of Caesarea, for instance, in his Ecclesiastical History, talks about this. Other patristic authors make reference to this text. But we didn't have a manuscript of it until the 1870s or something like that, like 1874.

Dan Beecher Yeah, that's crazy.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And so we've only known about this for the last couple hundred years. And it probably-- I don't know the story of whether or not it entered into the debate about canonicity when that was going on.

Dan Beecher Oh, yeah.

Dan McClellan We certainly have Eusebius talking about the canon, and this is in the fourth century CE, and describing it as something that is not canonical but is known to the churches and used in the churches. It's just not considered inspired and authoritative because it doesn't seem to claim apostolic authorship or anything like that. It just seems to be an anonymous dude's instructions.

Dan Beecher And the- But if it was referenced by all of those various writers, clearly it had some sort of importance in the ancient times in terms of people were looking to it. As you say, it was kind of instructions for how to do Christianity, right?

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And I think it would've been influential in certain areas, and other areas would've been like, "Eh, we're not so big on how they're doing this part."

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And the references aren't like, "And this is because of the words of the Didache."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan It's not that kind of reference to the Didache.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan It's like, "And then there's that text over there."

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan "The Didache, as they call it." "Those rubes over there." They don't use that word, but they use-- We'll get to profanity later in the show.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan But there was in Constantinople- which is now Istanbul.

Dan Beecher I've heard a whole song about that.

Dan McClellan Yeah. It's "Nobody's Business But the Turks." And there was a guy named Metropolitan Philotheos Bryennios, who found a copy of the Didache, which was transcribed around 1056 CE.

Dan Beecher Wow.

Dan McClellan So, the 11th century. So, it's like 950 to 980 years after it was originally written, but that is the only manuscript of the entire thing in existence.

Dan Beecher That's crazy. And that must have been-- You think about the various archaeological finds that people do. You think about the Dead Sea Scrolls or whatever.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher And those are wildly exciting, but they're texts that we already had. We had versions of these texts, and you can compare and contrast, you can do a bunch of interesting stuff with them. But this, they must have been pooping themselves- ... when they realized what they had.

Dan McClellan Well, I'm sure many of them were. They published translations pretty, well, not incredibly quickly, but the text itself was published in 1883, the Greek. So, that was a full 10 years after its initial discovery, and then translation into English was published in 1884, a German translation same year, a French translation the year after that. So, it was in circulation by the end of the 19th century, and certainly caused a big splash. But not considered scripture.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And a lot of it is not very surprising. Most of it bears a striking resemblance to the Gospel of Matthew.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan And there is also a lot that folks think might be drawn from a shared source from which the author of the Epistle of Barnabas also drew. So, it has a bit of a family tree- Huh ...

Dan Beecher textually.

Dan McClellan And so it's not like there was anything phenomenally groundbreaking. There is one thing, though, that is interesting, that is mentioned quite early on in the Didache, which is a condemnation of abortion.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan It's the earliest known Christian condemnation of abortion that exists.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher One of the things that's almost surprising about that is that they had abortion.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher I don't know that that's surprising, but it does seem like that must mean that it was a widespread practice.

Dan McClellan Well, yeah, and it was linked with the Greco-Roman world along with exposure, infanticide.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan Where when somebody didn't want an infant, they would just leave it out somewhere. So, you have, I think it's in chapter three. What does it say? I probably can't sing that.

Dan Beecher No, you can't.

Dan McClellan But there's a lot of, "My child flee from all evil," and everything like it. It starts off with this thing called the two ways discourse.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the difference between the two paths is great. This then is the path of life, and then you have the two great commandments, and then the golden rule. And whatever you do not want to happen to you, do not do to another. And then you get into a lot of other- Interesting ...

Dan Beecher stuff.

Dan McClellan And again, a lot of it resonating quite a bit with Matthew, with the Sermon on the Mount, and stuff like that.

Dan Beecher It's funny because you hear so many people-- One of the things that I see on videos similar to yours, where talking about myths about the Bible, one of the big myths is that the golden rule is somewhere in the Bible, which it isn't. But here it is, it's in the Didache.

Dan McClellan Yeah. There's something close to the golden rule in the New Testament. But yeah, not those exact words. And then we get into chapter two, "And now the second commandment of the teaching. Do not murder, do not commit adultery." And then we have some things that are not really in the New Testament. "Do not engage in pederasty."

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Which is, what do we have in the Greek? Paedophilerstis is the word. Then we have, "Do not commit adultery," natch. "Do not engage in," oh, I already said that. "Do not engage in sexual immorality. Do not steal, do not practice magic. Do not use enchanted potions. Do not abort a fetus or kill a child that is born."

Dan Beecher Huh.

Dan McClellan So, when people get tangled up in the whole abortion debate, frequently folks will appeal to the Didache and say- Interesting ...

Dan Beecher "Oh, look.

Dan McClellan It's right there.

Dan Beecher It's right there." It explicitly says, and there's an argument- It's right there in the not scripture.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher What's so hard about this?

Dan McClellan Oh, well, and the folks who point that out tend to ignore some of the stuff later on- In the Didache?

Dan Beecher ...

Dan McClellan in the Didache.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Yeah. For instance, I think it is in chapter...

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan "Do not shun a person in need, but share all things with your brother, and do not say that anything is your own."

Dan Beecher Wow.

Dan McClellan "For if you are partners in what is immortal, how much more in what is mortal?"

Dan Beecher Uh-huh.

Dan McClellan So, yeah. And now we've got our acts.

Dan Beecher That's downright un-American, is what that is.

Dan McClellan Yes. McCarthy was not a fan of the Didache, famously- ... and would interrogate it regarding whether it is now or has ever been a member of the Communist Party. So, yeah, there's stuff in the Didache that the people who want to appeal to the beginning of chapter two are kind of like, "Eh, we repassed that.

Dan Beecher We don't pay-" ...

Dan McClellan much attention to that. But there's an argument to make also that the abort a fetus part, that abortion was understood to mean after the quickening.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan And if it was prior to the quickening, they may have used a different word. I'm still tracking down the data on that, but that is something that I've heard people argue about that. Not sure about that. And then we get Ten Commandment stuff. Do not desire what belongs to your neighbor. Do not commit perjury. Do not give false testimony. Do not speak insults. Do not bear grudges. Do not be of two minds or speak from both sides of your mouth. Or speaking from both sides of your mouth is a deadly trap. So, lots of good stuff. And the Two Ways discourse represents a kind of dualism that was popular in Greco-Roman period Judaism. We see this in, for instance, the Dead Sea Scrolls. You have the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan So, it's this binary notion that the world exists in good and evil, and so you want to make sure you follow the path- Right ... of the good. Choose the good way. And then you have the, "My child, do all this and don't do all the other stuff." And I think that's the first five or six chapters, the Two Ways. Yeah, chapters one through six are about the Two Ways.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And then we also have some household code stuff.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan Chapter six is interesting because then it... Where's the household? I think the household code stuff.

Dan Beecher Uh-huh.

Dan McClellan I don't know how many takes I've burned making TikTok videos where I just fumble.

Dan Beecher Uh-huh.

Dan McClellan Stuff like that.

Dan Beecher A single phrase that- Yes ... doesn't want to roll off the tongue trippingly.

Dan McClellan But in chapter seven, you have instructions on how to baptize.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan You have the words you're supposed to say, instructions on how to pray. You have the words you're supposed to say. I love this on chapter eight. "Do not keep your fast with the hypocrites, for they fast on Monday and Thursday, but you should fast on Wednesday and Friday."

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan I want to know what beef was going on between- Right?

Dan Beecher ...

Dan McClellan the Monday Thursdayers and the Wednesday Fridayers.

Dan Beecher Yeah, that is an interesting... Because it doesn't seem like it should make a difference. It's clearly just markers as to which group you're a part of.

Dan McClellan I guess. They obviously thought there was some kind of moral underpinning to hump day being- Right ... your fast day or what. And I don't know if hypocrites is code for Jewish folks.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan It certainly could be. This is a period when they're still not entirely disentangled from Judaism. I think a lot of scholars would say we haven't quite achieved the parting of the ways yet- Mm ... if this is a first-century CE text. And so maybe within Judaism, there's a group that's the United Front of Judea and then- Right ... or the People's Front of Judea, and then the splitters over there are the- The Judean ... Judean People's Front, and they do Wednesday and Friday, and- Right ... so some schismogenesis as David Graeber might have called it. They're just looking for arbitrary ways to distinguish the in-group from the out-group, and then they focus on those arbitrary identity markers very heavily.

Dan Beecher Yeah. You hit on one of the things that I actually was interested in as I was reading about this, which was the idea of sort of Jewish Christians versus non-Jewish or Gentile Christians. When I was reading about this, it seems like it's sort of straddling a line between those or somehow there's conversation between Jewish... Clearly, a lot of the people who followed Jesus still considered themselves practicing Jews.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Now, the very first, the opening sentence of the entire document is, "The he kyriou di ton dodeca apostolon tis ethnesin." So, the teaching or the doctrine of the Lord through the 12 apostles to the Gentiles.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And so the document seems to be addressing Gentile followers of Jesus. And you'll remember when we had Matt Thiessen on, he talked a little bit about how Paul seems to suggest that Judaism is an ethnic designation.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan And so if you become a follower of Jesus, who is a Gentile, you don't adopt all the trappings of the different ethnic group. You don't start to put braids in your hair. You don't do all the stuff that is their identity marker. You are a distinct ethnic group, but you are a follower of Jesus. And so it seems like this is probably aimed at just the Gentile followers of Jesus.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Although, again, we're still in the midst, the milieu of this disentanglement of Judaism from the followers of Jesus, which is why I've taken to not referring to Christianity or Christians in this time period. These days, I refer to followers of Jesus or Christ followers or something- Right ...

Dan Beecher like that. Just throw out a date. When do you think Christianity started?

Dan McClellan Oh, gosh. No, I'll wake up with a horse head in my bed- ... because that's not my debate.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And it is an ongoing debate. With- I'm just kidding.

Dan Beecher Sure.

Dan McClellan It's not that fierce, but- Right ... I would say folks would say probably not until second century at the earliest.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So maybe this is when people are starting to be like, "You know what? I don't think we want to be a part of this group anymore."

Dan Beecher Use these words.

Dan McClellan You know what?

Dan Beecher Do it Wednesday and Friday. We're skipping all this Monday, Thursday stuff.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And there's just so little that we know about this period. We don't have a ton of Jewish texts from this period. The rabbinic texts are all being edited and compiled, starting around 200 CE.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So between the second and the third century is when we get the earliest rabbinic literature, and then third to fifth century, we get a big bunch of other literature. And so apart from whatever we might discover, letters or the Dead Sea Scrolls or things like that, we don't really have anything saying, "So here's how we did th..." And apart from Josephus- Right ... who's writing in the mid-'90s, we don't have a ton about their practices, the daily life of a Jewish household and local practices and things like that. We've reconstructed an awful lot, and what we get between 200 and 500, 600 CE, some of that we say, "Well, this was probably going on 150 years earlier in the middle of the first century CE," but we can't really say for sure, so unless we can correlate it with some archaeological data or something like that.

Dan Beecher So- Yeah ...

Dan McClellan but yeah, that's a debate that is going on on a higher level than I operate when it comes to- Sure ... when it comes to Judaism and Christianity.

Dan Beecher One of the things that was interesting about this when I was thinking about it was that it did sound like, I've come to think that it's probably not this, but when I first started reading about it, it felt like this was kind of the Christian Talmud. You know what I mean? It was like exploring what things are. But now it sounds like it's not unlike the Talmud. There's no conversation about which direction we could go. It's just telling you what it's supposed to be.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher It's- Just laying down the law.

Dan McClellan Yeah, and speaking down to the audience as well.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan "Child, this is how you're going to do things."

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And yeah, there's no House Hillel and House Steve says this. It's just laying it down.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And there's a lot of interesting stuff in here. As we've seen, there's advocacy for communalism, and even a rationalization for it.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan So and oh, here's another one. We're criticizing people here. Who are we criticizing? "And the path of death is like this." So chapter five is like, so that was the path of life. Here's the path of death, and then it describes all the things the people on the path of death do. "For they love what is vain and pursue her rewards, showing no mercy to the poor, no toiling for the oppressed, nor knowing the one who made them, murderers of children and corrupters of what God has fashioned, who turn their backs on the needy, oppress the afflicted, and support the wealthy." "They are lawless judges of the impoverished, altogether sinful. Be delivered, children, from all such people." So these are vice lists.

Dan Beecher This is what we have in particularly- Thank goodness we don't have any Christians who support the wealthy now.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher That would be spooky if we had those.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Once you can no longer count how many homes you own - Yeah ... you're running afoul of the Didache.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And then we have this interesting, we have the Eucharist, and with respect to the Thanksgiving meal, and the Greek is . And if anybody who finds themselves in Greece for any reason, is a good thing to learn.

Dan Beecher That's the one word that I managed to learn of modern Greek when I was there, was .

Dan McClellan The other ones you got to know are and . means yes, means no.

Dan Beecher means y- Oh my gosh. Because means no here, so...

Dan McClellan Yeah. "And with respect to the thanksgiving meal, you shall give thanks as follows. First, with respect to the cup, we give you thanks, our Father, for the holy vine of David, your child, which you made known to us through Jesus, your child. To you be the glory forever. And with respect to the fragment of bread, we give you thanks, our Father, for the life and knowledge that you made known to us through Jesus, your child. To you be the glory forever. As this fragment of bread was scattered upon the mountains and was gathered to become one, so may your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom. For the glory and the power are yours through Jesus Christ forever." And then it says, "But let no one eat or drink from your thanksgiving meal unless they have been baptized in the name of the Lord. For also the Lord has said about this, 'Do not give what is holy to the dogs.'"

Dan Beecher Hmm. So- So yeah, that's a very different Eucharist prayer than we get from the Gospels.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Which basically is, "This is my body, this is my blood. Take, eat."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And then you have the very next chapter says, "And when you have had enough to eat, you should give thanks as follows. We give you thanks, Holy Father, for your holy name, which you have made reside in our hearts, and for the knowledge, faith, and immortality that you made known to us through Jesus, your child. To you be the glory forever." And then it goes on. And this is the part that's maybe related to the Jewish blessing on the food because organizationally it bears some resemblance to the Birkat Hamazon. Which is the blessing of the food, which is something that is supposed to be pronounced with the last bit of food before everybody finishes.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan And that might have been, some people think this might have been an earlier version of the Eucharist. That that was the Eucharist prayer, and then later on, they were like, "We're going to do our own," just to get a... And they were like, "Well, I really like this other one," and so they kept it for after the meal. Or because maybe the Eucharist was something that was done at the very end.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan There's not a lot of clarity about that kind of stuff. And then that prayer ends, "If anyone is holy, let him come. If anyone is not, let him repent.

Dan Beecher Maranatha!"

Dan McClellan What does that mean? The curse.

Dan Beecher We don't know what that means?

Dan McClellan Mara is Aramaic for Lord, and natha would be come.

Dan Beecher Oh, okay. One of the things that was interesting to me about that prayer that you just said was the, because you have talked specifically because it was your doctoral dissertation, the idea that his name is what resides in our hearts. That's really interesting.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher You've talked about the divine name being the thing of power, the thing of indicating divinity or whatever. It's just an interesting phrasing, I thought.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Well, and in the Gospel of John, you have Jesus praying that everybody be protected by the name which you have given to me, and the name is going to be distributed. You have, in the Book of Revelation, and a name will be written on their forehead that is secret and all this kind of stuff. So, the name of God is this communicable vehicle for divine agency and love and glory and all that kind of stuff.

Dan Beecher Hmm.

Dan McClellan That you see even there.

Dan Beecher There you go.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And then we get into the organization of the church.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And we get a lot of stuff about apostles and prophets. "Let every apostle who comes to you be welcomed as the Lord, but he should not remain more than a day. If he must, he may stay one more, but if he stays three days, he is a false prophet."

Dan Beecher Oh, wow.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan "When an apostle leaves, he should take nothing except bread until he arrives at his night's lodging. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet."

Dan Beecher So...

Dan McClellan Wow.

Dan Beecher We're really cutting these apostles off at the legs, aren't we?

Dan McClellan Yeah. You can imagine some of these apostles running around like, "Look, this per diem is just not cutting it." "We've got to talk with the-- Go upstairs to the 26th floor, and we got to talk about what's going on here."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And every true prophet who wants to settle down with you, I don't know in what sense that settle down with you. I think it just means stay with you. "Deserves his food. So, too, a true teacher, like the worker, deserves his food. Therefore, you shall take every first portion of the produce from the wine vat and the threshing floor, and the first portion of both cattle and sheep, and give it to the prophets, for they are your high priests. If you do not have a prophet, then give it to the poor. If you make bread, take the first portion and give it according to the commandment. So, too, if you open a jar of wine or oil, take the first portion of it and give it to the prophets." So, you got to pour one out for the homies.

Dan Beecher Right. Meaning either the prophets who are visiting you or the poor, and take the first portion of your- And the interesting, this is definitely describing these prophets are just itinerant preachers who are just sort of going from house to house.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Basically, "Hey, can I stay at your place? I'll give you a little bit of prophecy. You give me your best food- Yeah ... and I'll move on to the next joint."

Dan McClellan Will prophesy for food.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan But only for one day.

Dan Beecher Right. Two at max.

Dan McClellan Otherwise. Yeah, two max. We can do one plus, but that's all we get. And then take the first portion of your money, clothing, and everything you own, as it seems good to you, and give it according to the commandment. So, it's pretty strict rules.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And I'm curious, I would love to know for whom this was considered authoritative. What groups out there were like, "We got to follow the Didache. In our household, we follow the Didache." You're keeping an apostle in your room for more than two days?

Dan Beecher How long has he been here? A day? Okay, you're fine. Have some goat.

Dan McClellan The first portion.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And then we get into the Lord's day when you gather together, break bread, after you have confessed your unlawful deeds, that your sacrifice may be pure. Let no one quarreling with his neighbor join you until they are reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be defiled.

Dan Beecher Hmm.

Dan McClellan For this is the sacrifice mentioned by the Lord. In every place and time, bring me a pure sacrifice, for I'm a great king, says the Lord, and my name is considered marvelous among the Gentiles. Which is evidently- Okay ... riffing on Malachi, chapter one.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And then it talks about bishops and deacons, gentlemen who are not fond of money, who are true and approved, for these also conduct the ministry of prophets and teachers among you. And then we get into chapter 16, which is the last one, and we're beginning to quote scriptures here, and I don't know if the text just cuts off. We have chapter 16, verse eight. It says, "Then the world will see the Lord coming in the clouds of the sky..."

Dan Beecher To be continued.

Dan McClellan I have not looked at the actual manuscript itself to see if maybe that's the end of the page, or maybe they wrote, "Ah."

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And somebody went- She was dictating ... "Why would he take the time to write out ah?" Perhaps he was dictating.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan So, fascinating text.

Dan Beecher I want to know what the Koine Greek version of dot dot dot is.

Dan McClellan Yeah. I want to see that.

Dan Beecher Is that how it was pronounced? Is it K-O-I-N-E? How do you say that?

Dan McClellan Koine is- Koine. Yeah, but if you're in Greece, it's Keene.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan But Keene is not the Greek that they speak.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Or that's old Greek.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Katharevousa is also older Greek. Dimotiki or Dimotikos, I've heard both. That's what most people refer to contemporary Greek as.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Yes.

Dan Beecher But what I read was that this... So, help me understand. So, this text was written in the Koine? You just told me.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher It was written in that, and so is that contemporary with the ancient times, or is that contemporary with, you said that this manuscript is from 10- Oh, yeah.

Dan McClellan The manuscript's from the 11th century.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan But yeah, it preserves much older Greek.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Which is one of the reasons that scholars agree that this is our best shot at reconstructing what it may have looked like in the first century CE.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan I would love to do some text critical stuff on this, whenever I just have a handful of extra days with nothing else to do. But, I would be interested to see what relationship this manuscript has to the quotations we have, if we have quotations from those patristic authors, or if we just have yon Didache kind of- ... oblique references.

Dan Beecher So, yeah.

Dan McClellan All right. So, that's the Didache.

Dan Beecher There you go. Very interesting, little bit of non-canonical scripture.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Well- Whatever it is ...

Dan McClellan a couple of notes that I'm seeing. Clement evidently quotes it as scripture.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And I don't know if that's Clement of Rome or Clement of Alexandria.

Dan Beecher It's Clement of West Philadelphia.

Dan McClellan Born and raised. But, it's also a part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's canon.

Dan Beecher Oh, okay.

Dan McClellan And those manuscripts date to later, but it sounds like we don't have a complete manuscript, at least not in Greek. I would have to see what we do have- Yeah ... in Ethiopic.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan And we have discovered fragments, like Oxyrhynchus Papyri. We've discovered some fragments of this there. So, we have some things that go back many centuries prior to this manuscript, but the manuscript is the only full, complete manuscript we have, or at least evidently is the fullest we have.

Dan Beecher Interesting.

Dan McClellan All right.

Dan Beecher Yeah. Well, that was awesome. That was very interesting. And now, let's talk dirty with- Watch your language.

Dan McClellan All right. Not that kind of talking dirty.

Dan Beecher Well, why not?

Dan McClellan Well, to some- I was going to say. We can do that.

Dan Beecher There's a little bit of that.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher I've seen Song of Solomon. You can't trick me. There's plenty of talking dirty.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher So, what are we talking about here? We're talking about profanity.

Dan McClellan Yeah. I get asked frequently, is there any swearing or profanity in the Bible?

Dan Beecher And- Okay, so like the ancient Hebrew, the ancient Greek- Yeah ... does it include some swears? Because when I was looking at this a little bit, obviously the internet is replete with articles about why profanity is bad, and biblical reasons- ... why we need to avoid profanity.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And shame on you. But it is a fascinating question. Translators probably don't necessarily take things and make them... Do we even know how powerful words were back then? Because we have a scale of how bad we think a certain- Yeah ... particular swear word is now.

Dan McClellan Yeah. As far as we know, the FCC back then was primarily focused on other things. But, yeah. There are words that are considered, a lot of kids growing up, you can't say certain words.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And it's different from family to family. Shut up is profanity in some houses.

Dan Beecher Oh, yeah.

Dan McClellan So, there's not a one-to-one correspondence. They didn't seem to have the words that were like, "Okay, now you've crossed a line by using that word." But they were sensitive to vulgarities. So, I would say it's probably more accurate to talk about vulgarities- Mm ... than profanity as it's conceptualized today.

Dan Beecher Sure.

Dan McClellan And they had a few different categories of profanities or vulgarities back then. But I think there might be one example of something that would qualify as profanity as we understand it today, and we'll get to that one, but I wanted to start with Ezekiel. As the great poet once said, "Even Ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone." But Ezekiel was pretty fond of using some vulgar expressions.

Dan Beecher Hmm.

Dan McClellan Particularly in talking and using this metaphor of Israel as the unfaithful wife.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan Oh, I got to remember what the passage is. I'm pretty sure it's Ezekiel. It's in my book. Give me just one second. What- I have a stack three feet high of the finished copies of my book now.

Dan Beecher That's exciting.

Dan McClellan Yeah, it's very exciting. But there's a part where God is talking about some other countries, and is like, yeah. And just content warning, going to use some vulgar terms in- Yeah ... this section. So, God is like, "You're going to go down to Egypt and play the whore, and they're going to fondle your virgin nipples," and- ... all this kind of stuff. And I wish I could remember. But it's supposed to be kind of it's supposed to have the hearer or the reader clutching their pearls. It's supposed to be a little shocking.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And then I'm going to have to find that one in a second. But the one that I have pulled up, Ezekiel 16:26, "You prostituted yourself with the Egyptians." And the NRSVUE says, "Your lustful neighbors." And the Hebrew doesn't say that.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan The Hebrew says, "Your neighbors large of flesh." And basar, which is the word for flesh, is probably a bit of a euphemism here.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan In other words, this means your well-endowed neighbors- Yeah ... or maybe your aroused neighbors or something like that. Your large-membered- Right ...

Dan Beecher neighbors.

Dan McClellan God seems to be sensitive about what the other nations of the earth are packing.

Dan Beecher The turgid nature of the Egyptians.

Dan McClellan Yeah, because they were a much larger empire- Uh-huh ... during most of the time the Bible was being written. And so, God had to show respect for that.

Dan Beecher I've heard that about the ancient Egyptians.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Well, and something that my doctoral supervisor and very good friend, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, wrote about in her book, "God and Anatomy"- Oh, right ... is that the same might be said of God. The word in Isaiah 6, so this is Isaiah's calling.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan His prophetic call. He has a vision, he's in the temple, and it says, "God's train filled the temple." But the word for train there is, I believe the word is shuv, but fundamentally it means hanger downs.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan And it can be used to refer to the hem of a robe or a garment. You see that a couple times in Exodus. But then in places like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, it's used to refer to either the butt or the genitals.

Dan Beecher Sure.

Dan McClellan And so there's a way to approach this text as saying, "And God's hanging dong, and it's filling the temple."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And the seraphim who are sitting there, they have six wings, and they're covering their eyes, and they're covering themselves, and it says they're covering their feet, and feet can be a euphemism for genitals.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And so it might be embarrassing the seraphim, where they're like, "Oh, geez." So, yeah, the God of Israel might also be talked about in the same ways.

Dan Beecher Yeah, and this is not the only case where euphemistically large genitals are referred to. I know in Song of Solomon, I think it's Song of Solomon 5, there is a thing about...

Dan McClellan I read this.

Dan Beecher You can correct me on this. I think it's 5:14. Yeah, I've got it here.

Dan McClellan It's 5:14.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Read it.

Dan Beecher That is translated as, "His body is polished ivory," or something along those lines. But this says that it is comparing the body to an elephant tusk.

Dan McClellan Hmm. He's tusky.

Dan Beecher He's got a tusk.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher He's swinging tusk.

Dan McClellan And the description of Behemoth in Job, by the way, a lot of people think it's talking about is a tail like a tree branch or something like that. That's probably a euphemism as well.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan A lot of scholars suggest that that is talking about something else being like the trunk of a tree.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Ezekiel 23:20 is a famous one. A lot of skeptical folks, a lot of people wanting to mock- Mm ... or deride the Bible point to this one. Again, we're talking about our metaphor of, "She increased her prostitutions, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt." Oh, there. That's the verse I was thinking of. Okay, I'll get to that. Anyway, "And lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys- Right ... and whose emission was like that of stallions." So, yes.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan The issue of horses.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And then the next verse is, "Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts."

Dan Beecher Boom.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Yeah. I think we're getting vulgar.

Dan McClellan So yeah, there's some vulgarities there, and the idea is generate this mental imagery, and have the people go, "No, no, I can't take it anymore. It's too provocative," in their Victorian sensitivities.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan But there's also sexual violence that goes on.

Dan Beecher Mm.

Dan McClellan Because God is not just wagging his finger at the naughty metaphorical wife. God also threatens a lot of things. Threatens to sexually shame the unfaithful wife publicly.

Dan Beecher Oh, wow.

Dan McClellan We also have a passage in Deuteronomy 28, where it actually uses what was probably a quite vulgar word- "You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall..." And then the NRSVUE says, "Another man shall lie with her." But the Hebrew does not say, "Lie with her." Later manuscripts change the verb to say, "Lie with her."

Dan Beecher Mm-hmm.

Dan McClellan But the verb is actually shagal, which a lot of scholars understand to be a vulgar term for rape.

Dan Beecher Oh, wow.

Dan McClellan So it's not just that she's going to commit adultery. It's that you're going to marry a woman, and then somebody else is going to... And then imagine some kind of vulgar term for sexually assault- Wow ... that new wife. But it was probably intended to be shocking.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan It was probably intended as something like what we would understand as profanity. Another example where the audience is supposed to go, "Oh, I can't believe you said that."

Dan Beecher One of the things that we should talk about is just the concept of profanity, vulgarity, and how... I've actually done quite a bit of reading about this.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher And it serves, contrary to some of the articles that I read about this, it serves a really good, powerful sort of psychological function.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher It's actually really great to have words that have extra power to them.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Because sometimes you need a little extra oomph. You need a little extra zing for whatever it is that you're doing.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And it actually has positive psychological effects. There are studies that have been done where people can withstand more pain if they're swearing during it. That's literally a thing that they had them do.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And people who swear are actually more trustworthy, apparently, than people who don't.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher There's a sense in which it's like this person is being upfront about themselves- Yeah ... and is not hiding something.

Dan McClellan And I think it's interesting that the more you reserve the profanity, the more rhetorically impactful it is.

Dan Beecher Sure.

Dan McClellan And so a lot of people, you have a lot of people who are champions of profanity who would be like, "Why do people even think they are such things? They're just words. We shouldn't even think that they're anything different." But if they just become regular words that nobody thinks twice about, then they lose their power as the- It ruins them ... the rhetorical punctuation mark.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Which, yeah, can be means of effective speech. And in the Bible, they're doing it.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And one of the ones that I really like that I laughed at the first time I read this. This was in the time period between getting baptized as a Mormon and leaving on my mission. I read the entire Bible cover to cover.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And I got to this part in 1 Kings, and there are a few examples of it. But it's 1 Kings 14, I think is the first example, where somebody is threatening. And it says, and this is the NRSVUE, "Therefore I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel." However, it does not say male. It doesn't say zachar in the text. It says mashtin bechir, which means urinator against the wall. Which in the King James Version, which was what I was reading this first time, it says, "And will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall." So I think it's hilarious that the King James Version preserves this, like it's supposed to be kind of a euphemism, but- Right ... kind of not, because piss was kind of in that gray area when I was growing up and a young adult.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan In fact, I can still recall my science teacher yelling at a student because the student had an assignment to write some kind of poem about some biological process or something, and he ended it by saying, "You should do that or you'll be pissed." And the science teacher just went off on him about using the word pissed.

Dan Beecher Oh, how funny.

Dan McClellan And I was like, "Relax, man."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan "Just used the word pissed."

Dan Beecher That's one of the lesser ones. Don't worry about it.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Calm down.

Dan McClellan But that's obviously supposed to, and this is one of the things that profanity does, particularly vulgarities. It conjures up mental imagery of things that are generally considered not fit for proper Israelite society.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And so pisseth against the wall makes you think of a man urinating and- Yeah ... not necessarily very explicitly, but there is a little bit of evocation of that imagery. And so it would be the equivalent of him saying, "I will cut off from Jeroboam every swinging dick- Right ... and both bond and free in Israel." It's just a little bit of rhetorical punctuation there to kind of keep them on their toes and be like, "What did he say? Did he just..."