TTWW-17 Just what is an "idle" word? A study of the word Jesus used

Dirty vs. clean is an easy choice; choosing between a good translation and a better one can be difficult.

Jesus said, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.”  I remember wondering when I was a young boy whether there is a limited number of words allotted to each person, a quota that we use up in our lifetime. In that case, we should be more careful about how we use up our supply, like living on a fixed income, so we have to choose very wisely how we spend our allowance. Maybe you don’t read the Bible, or you only read a verse here and there that appears on a calendar or a greeting card. You think, “This Bible study episode doesn’t have anything to do with me.” But the Bible has everything to do with everyone, whether they care or not, and some verses are of particular individual application. Be sure to include yourself in what Jesus said. The Day of Judgment applies to you, too. The words of Jesus are not idle talk.

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Recently, as I was power-washing the back deck, it was time to break for lunch. Would I know where to resume work in the afternoon? That can be a problem if you’re putting the second coat of white paint over the first coat you just put on a white wall. I mused over my work, which left no doubt about which deck boards I had washed and which ones I had not. I didn’t need a Dirty/Clean magnet like those some people put on their dishwasher, in case of doubt.  It occurred to me that there are some times in life where there is a distinct line between right and wrong. Then there are other times when it’s not easy to draw neat lines. I thought of a word in the Bible that I never had a clear understanding of how to apply it, and the problem is, it’s such a simple word. In Matthew 12.36, Jesus said, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” That’s a simple statement but at the same time a very serious one. I know how prone I am to say something without thinking. How easy it is to make a comment that I regret the moment I launch the verbal arrow into the air! “Every idle word”, Jesus said...but I’m not even sure I know what constitutes an idle word.

It's not profanity

I know it’s not swearing and cussing. I never heard my godly parents utter a single word that I would consider to be even a mild profanity. I am repulsed by the current generation of artists of stage and screen, songwriters, celebrities, and politicians who find it impossible to complete a frase without using at least one word that’s bleeped out on TV (as if we don’t know what was said anyway). Putting a string of asterisks after the first letter of a word is a feeble attempt to filter out the depraved moral nature authors reveal in their text messages and TikTok posts. The more that elected officials feel obligated to use profanity to assert their authority, the less I respect I have for their authority. And by the way, credibility is not rated in decibels. A statement is not made truer by our saying it louder. The force of an argument is not a function of volume.

The Bible has a lot to say about what comes out of our mouth. James 3 describes the power of the tongue as being like that of a small match that can set thousands of acres of forest on fire and destroy thousands of homes. The tongue can be destructive, and it cannot be tamed. “It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. We praise our Lord and Father with it, and we curse men who are made in God’s likeness with it. Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth.” James 3.8-9.

 “Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable” says Ephesians 5.4; “You shall not bear false witness” is one of the 10 commandments. Today we call that slander and libel. Boasting, gossiping, and backbiting are more evidence that the tongue is a very versatile instrument for doing wrong. While we may not be able to always control our speech, we have a clear idea of what is acceptable and what is not. But an “idle word” is one type of speech I could never clearly define.

“I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will have to account for every careless word they speak.”  Mt. 15.36 “every careless word” is a common translation, but “idle word” is the literal translation used in the KJV, which says “every idle word men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” If I see you sitting around and not doing anything, I would say you are “idle”. That is the basic meaning of the Greek word in the text. It simply means “doing nothing”, “not working.” In practice, that simple description of fact can take on the nature of a moral judgment. Words like “careless”, “useless”, and “empty” come to mind, and some translations use those terms.  

 When is a word “useless”? Does “careless” mean a slip of the tongue, when I blurt out something before thinking about it? It’s not just the occasional individual word, is it? Although the text says “every word” singular, common sense understands the singular represents the set of “words” spoken, like when we say Mr. Jones is a man of his word. Is “empty” talk the same as idle chatter? Is that what is meant by “talking foolishness”? I always wondered what bucket to put “idle words” in. Are they words that don’t do anything? Does there have to be a point to everything I say? Must my every word actually DO something?

It must be important, because in the next verse, Jesus says, “by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” EVERY idle word? Whatever the idle word is, it’s grounds for condemnation.

Light from the OT

I was translating Psalm 120.2-3 which says, “LORD, deliver me from lying lips and a deceitful tongue. What will He give you, and what will He do to you, you deceitful tongue?” The repetition of “deceitful tongue” led me to check the lexicon for the meaning of the word translated “deceitful” (Heb: r^emiyah). In Psalm 78.57 it’s translated as “faulty”, “They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow.” That is the original sense of the word, which is used to describe a bow that is warped. We even use that idea in English when we talk about someone being a “straight shooter”, defined by Merriam-Webster as “a person who is honest, direct, and straightforward in their communication. It describes someone who speaks their mind without any hidden agenda or ulterior motive. This idiom emphasizes integrity and clarity, making it a positive trait in both personal and professional contexts.” In the 13 times the word r^emiyah appears in the OT it is translated as deceit or deceitful, treacherous, or guile, except in 4 verses in Proverbs, where it contrasts with diligence in work and it is translated “idle”. (Prov. 10.4; 12.24, 27; 19.15)

Had the word changed in meaning by the time the Proverbs were written?  Whenever the word was applied to what a man says, the word meant deceit and treachery; the few times it was applied to what a man does and contrasted with “diligence”, it expressed the idea of idleness, negligence or laziness. Words can change in meaning over time. In English consider the word “let” in 2 Thessalonians 2.7 of the KJV: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” Somewhere along the way since the 1600s, “let” stopped meaning “to restrain” or “to hold back” and all translations since then say something like, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way”. (HCSB) Apparently, whenever the Proverbs were compiled, people used r^emiyah “deceit” to express “idleness” as a contrast to diligence.

The Hebrew of Jesus’ time

When Jesus said in Matthew 12.36, But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment, He spoke in Aramaic, the common language of the day. During the long exile, people left off speaking their native Hebrew and adopted the Aramaic of Babylon. They are different, but similar languages, something like the differences between Portuguese and Spanish, perhaps, or Russian and Ukrainian. The Scriptures in the synagogue continued to be read and recited in Hebrew, but we don’t know the exact words Jesus spoke to His disciples. Furthermore, the gospels were written in Greek, a language understood, read, and spoken throughout all the civilized world of that time. The Romans took over the remains of Alexander the Great’s empire, where Greek became the lingua franca across continents. At the same time, codices, book-format copies on papyrus, replaced the bulky parchment-roll copies used for documents. While not achieving effects on the scale the invention of the printing press in the 1500s had on the spread of written materials during the Reformation, the papyrus manuscripts made God’s Word accessible everywhere in the empire.

The NT context

When Jesus spoke of “every idle word”, whatever Aramaic word He used would surely have been a cognate of the Hebrew word in the OT translated “idle” in work contexts, but which is always translated as “deceitful” or “treacherous” in contexts of speech. Does the context surrounding Jesus’s words help us understand the sense of what He has said? Does “idle” have the sense of “lazy” (Greek, argon “doing nothing”, “not working”) or could it be “deceitful”, which is the underlying meaning of the Hebrew cognate?

Jesus’s dire warning comes at the close of an incident that begins in verse 22 of Matthew 12. When Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak, the Pharisees immediately announced, “This Jesus fellow drives out demons, by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.” Verse 24.

Jesus, knowing their thoughts, starts speaking in verse 25 and only ends His reply in verse 37. He began by pointing out the foolishness of the argument of the Pharisees, since even Beelzebub would not have his own demons driven out by Jesus...”a house divided against itself cannot stand”. Then Jesus goes on,

Because of this, I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come.

33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 34Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. 35A good man produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. 36 I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Jesus says there is a sin that is unforgiveable, and it’s a word spoken against the Holy Spirit. The words that men speak are like the fruit on a tree and reveal whether the tree is good or rotten. (lit.) What comes out of the mouth is from the overflow of the heart. Good men produce good things; evil men produce evil things.  Now comes the verse we’re talking about: I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

From this context, the “idle” word is not simply “careless” or “unthinking”, not a verbal blunder we are all prone to commit at times. We know about profanity, gossip and idle chatter, and we ask the Holy Spirit to help us control our tongue. Slander and libel are obviously wrong, but Jesus said even blasphemy against Him can be forgiven. When it is directed against the Holy Spirit, however, when the “idle” word is more than lazy or useless and carries the Hebrew connotation of the OT, it reveals the “treacherous” and “deceitful” nature of the speaker, “by your words you will be condemned.” A number of prominent politicians and celebrities come to mind as I say this.

But don’t think you are “off the hook” because your speech is never “treacherous” or “deceitful”. OK, your speech may be merely “careless”, “frivolous”, perhaps “unthinking” and “useless” at times, but I remind you of Colossians 4.6 “Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.” Let us judge our speech by that standard. Is our speech always gracious?

That would resolve the issue of “idle” talk, no matter how we define it.