The ethics of obscene speech in early Christianity and its environment / by Jeremy F. Hultin.

• Superior document: Supplements to Novum Testamentum, v. 128
• Author: Hultin, Jeremy F.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Series: Supplements to Novum Testamentum ; v. 128.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (292 pages)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book aims to contextualize early Christian rhetoric about foul language by asking such questions as: Where was foul language encountered? What were the conventional arguments for avoiding (or for using) obscene words? How would the avoidance of such speech have been interpreted by others? A careful examination of the ancient uses of and discourse about foul language illuminates the moral logic implicit in various Jewish and Christian texts (e.g. Sirach, Colossians, Ephesians, the Didache, and the writings of Clement of Alexandria). Although the Christians of the first two centuries were consistently opposed to foul language, they had a variety of reasons for their moral stance, and they held different views about what role speech should play in forming their identity as a \'holy people.\'

Table of Contents

A survey of foul language in the ancient world -- What is foul language? -- Plato and Aristotle on foul language -- Plato and the dangers of mimesis -- Aristotle and the bounds of humor -- Abuse -- Laws against slander -- Religious rites -- Excursus : the language of some love charms -- Comedy -- New forms of comic drama -- Literary obscenities -- Epigram -- Tales of sexual adventures and sex manuals -- Ovid's culpa -- Speech, character, and self-definition -- Speech as it relates to character -- Speech as it defined specific groups -- Cynics and shameless speech -- Stoics -- The linguistic roots of the stoic ethics of foul language -- Excursus : Bryson the Megarian -- Changes in stoic (and cynic) views of obscene speech -- Jewish scripture and earliest Christianity -- Prophetic scatology -- Wisdom literature and Ben Sirach -- Jesus -- James -- Didache 3:3 and the two ways -- Paul -- Galatians 5:12 -- Philippians 3:8: [Greek text] -- Colossians and Ephesians -- Colossians 3:8 -- Colossians 4:6 : "season your speech with salt" -- Ephesians -- Exegesis of Ephesians 5:3-14 -- "Let them not even be named among you" (Eph 5:3) -- "Shameful even to mention" (Eph 5:12) -- Speech rules in 1QS -- Profaning a sanctum -- Not fitting for holy ones -- Speech and Christian identities -- Clement of Alexandria on foul language -- The divine paedagogue and Christian manners -- On foul language -- Excursus : Clement and the Didache -- A "deeper logos" about foul language -- Comparing Clement.