Mark 7:19 Fun

The world's oldest recorded toilet joke!

I suppose there may be something older written on a wall somewhat, but this one is in the New Testament and has a moral point, kind of. You can see the analysis of the Greek in this verse here at ChristsWords.com.

I don’t know what is funnier, the original joke or how Bible translators try to hide it. Jesus sets up this verse by saying that what goes into a person doesn't hurt them. Strangely enough, the KJV is the least prudish, but entirely misses the point, translating it as:

KJV: Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

More modern Bibles avoid translating the end of this verse entirely.

NIV: For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body. (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.

The part in bold tries to describe what Jesus’s say without saying it.

What was too graphic for the Bible to translate?

Listener Heard: Because it isn't made to go in there, into the heart. Instead—into the gut and into the toilet, it is evacuated, cleansing all these foods.

The joke, of course, is that by making it into poop we are cleaning the food.