# Euphemistic Translation Can Erase a Text's Rhetorical Force ## Claim Euphemistic translation can preserve referential meaning while erasing the shock, offense, or intimacy that performs the text's argument. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Evidence **Source:** [[3. Resources/Readwise/Podcasts/When the Bible gets vulgar]] — Dan McClellan argues that conventional English renderings soften the crude register of *skybala* in Philippians 3:8 and the graphic sexual imagery of Ezekiel 23, reducing the visceral response the authors sought. Philippians 3:8's Greek *skybala* is glossed by the standard New Testament lexicon (BDAG) as "refuse, garbage," and rendered "rubbish" in the NRSVUE — but BDAG's own entry already cites a scholar arguing the accurate register is "it's all crap," and a 2014 peer-reviewed article (Punch, *The Bible Translator*) argues Paul used the term as a deliberate, calculated jolt aimed at provoking a reaction, not as incidental word choice. The gap between "rubbish" and "it's all shit" (McClellan's proposed rendering) is the gap between a comfortable read and the one Paul's original audience actually experienced. The exact English equivalent remains contestable, especially where the source leans heavily on one article. The durable claim is that register carries meaning and needs an explicit translation decision. ## Scope & conditions - Liturgical and age-appropriate contexts may justify softened wording when the translation labels the tradeoff. - Vulgarity shouldn't be intensified beyond the source register for rhetorical effect. - Lexical uncertainty requires preserving alternatives rather than claiming one shocking gloss is settled — a true hapax legomenon with contested etymology (like Ezekiel's *zirma*) is a judgment call under real uncertainty, not a clear translation error. ## Links - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Translation Prestige Can Outlive Translation Fitness]] — extends: fitness includes rhetorical register, not only lexical reference and textual basis. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Target Audience Determines Translation Methodology More Than Equivalence Theory Does]] — applies-in: audience decisions shape whether translators preserve or soften register. - [[Faith & Theology MOC]] — applies-in: Bible reading depends on hearing how a text speaks, not only what proposition it conveys. ## Tests / falsifiers - Compare a matched sample of readers' perceived tone/shock and comprehension of authorial intent between a euphemized and a more literal rendering of the same passage. - Check whether translation committees that skew more literal/academic (vs. liturgical/devotional) show measurably less register-softening on independently identified vulgar terms across a wider sample than Philippians 3:8 and Ezekiel 23:19–21 alone. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Podcasts/When the Bible gets vulgar]] — lexical and rhetorical analysis of Philippians 3:8 and Ezekiel 23.