“IDLE WORDS”

Hugo McCord

A Christian lady in a wheel-chair, with both legs amputated, writes: “Would you explain ‘idle words’ in Matthew 12:36.” Jesus said,

But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36, KJV).

Jesus’ word translated as “idle” (argon) the lexicons say means “worthless” and “useless.” Every word that we speak, according to Jesus, must therefore be worthwhile and useful. Paul wrote that “foolish talking” should be replaced with the “giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:4):

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks (Ephesians 5:3-4, KJV).

To refrain from filthiness and foolish talking and jesting because they “are not convenient” does not make good sense. Anything “convenient” is “favorable to one’s comfort; easy to do, use or get to; causing little trouble; handy” (Webster). But in 1611, when the King James Version was written, the word “convenient” meant that which is “fit, suitable, appropriate.” Now that meaning is “obsolete” (Webster). So Paul was saying that filthiness and foolish talking and jesting are to be condemned because they do not “fit,” are not “suitable,” and are not “appropiate” (aneko).

Filthiness and foolish talking certainly do not “fit,” are not “suitable,” and are not “appropriate,” but what about “jesting”? Does jesting consist of “idle words”? Jesting is “to be playful in speech and actions; to joke” (Webster).

As the word “convenient” had a different meaning 300 years ago, so did “jesting.” Paul’s inspired word eutrapelia, translated in the KJV as “jesting,” had two meanings 300 years ago: (1) “pleasantry, humor, facetiousness” and (2) “in a bad sense, scurrility, ribaldry, low jesting” (Thayer). Facetiousness is “lightly joking” (Webster). Scurrility is “indecent language; vulgar” (Webster). Ribaldry is “coarse joking or mocking; offensive, irreverent, or vulgar in language” (Webster).

Eutrapelia is either “wit, liveliness, politeness” or “coarse jesting, ribaldry” (GREEK DICTIONARY). Eutrapelia was used “mostly in a good sense: ‘witticisms,’ ‘facetiousness,’ “ but “in our literature only in a bad sense, coarse jesting” (Bauer-Gingrich-Danker).

Certainly Paul used the word “in a bad sense, coarse jesting.” This means that the King James translators made a mistake in saying that Paul condemned “jesting,” a word that now only means “being playful, joking.” Thus Paul’s use of the word did not condemn “pleasantry, humor” (Thayer), nor “wit, liveliness, politeness” (GREEK DICTIONARY), but his use of the word was to condemn coarse jesting.

Words of pleasantry, humor, wit, liveliness, and politeness are not idle, useless, worthless. Solomon wrote:

A joyful heart puts a smile on the face, but pain in the heart crushes the spirit (Proverbs 15:13).

A cheerful heart is good medicine, while a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22).

Clean jesting, causing a laugh, is not idle. Jesting is “to be playful in speech and actions; to joke” (Webster). A joke is

1. anything said or done to arouse laughter; funny anecdote; witty, amusing remark; amusing trick played on someone.

2. something not meant to be taken seriously; thing done or said in fun (Webster).

It follows therefore that no word is idle if there is a good, wholesome purpose back of it, whether serious or in fun.

10-21-99