1 Corinthians 3:16–17įlee from sexual immorality. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Bible Verses About The Human Bodyĭo you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. To appease the pagan gods, self-mutilation gone awry may result in a terrible death or, at the very least, unattractive scars. His people did not have access to the benefits of 21st-century society, such as hospitals, physicians, and antibiotics. Self-mutilation is harmful and can result in serious health issues. God did not desire His people to intentionally harm themselves. An old lyric portrays ritual masochism as follows: “She slashes face and chin she lacerates her forearms she plows a garden into her chest like a valley, she lacerates the back.” This religion of the Canaanites featured several ceremonies, including self-mutilation. Baal worship dates back to at least before the Exodus, making it contemporaneous with the time when Moses received the law. Instead of tattooing, what has been considered a sin is self-mutilation. There is no guilt in getting modern-day tattoos since there is no biblical prohibition against them. Furthermore, the New Testament never mentions tattoos or any other forms of bodily alteration. Since only the Old Testament bears the sole conceivable reference to tattoos, some Christians think that the prohibition is no longer applicable to Christians today. This is implied by Leviticus 19:28, which states, “You will not make cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print marks on you.” Taking everything into account, it’s clear that God was prohibiting the worship of other gods as well as scarification, rather than the modern understanding of tattoos. Biblical scriptures and archaeological evidence show that the Canaanites regularly cut themselves for ritualistic purposes, as stated in 1 Kings 18:28, most often to express grief over the dead and show reverence for their gods. The evidence suggests that in Canaan, more drastic scarification procedures were utilized, such as branding, cutting, or gagging the skin, rather than ink markings. There is evidence to show that women’s tattoos on the breasts, legs, and abdomen were intended as talismans to safeguard childbirth. According to modern archaeological evidence, only Egyptian women were ever tattooed in Egypt. This is why “ye shall not… print marks upon you” appears more literally in the King James Version (KJV), which dates back to the 1600s.Īfter being freed from slavery, Israel found itself in the middle of the desert, halfway between Egypt and Canaan. In addition, the term “tattoo” was not part of the English language until the latter half of the 1700s. The term for marks, which is also used alone in this sentence, has an unknown etymology, so we do not honestly know what it signifies. Leviticus 19:28’s literal translation is: “And a cutting for the dead you will not make in your flesh, and writing marks you will not make on you I am the Lord.” “Writing” refers to symbols or words written or engraved and used solely here. For example, the NIV reads, “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or tattoo yourselves. Given that the word “tattoo” is included in this passage in a number of popular English versions, the case appears straightforward. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Others cite 1 Corinthians 3:16–17, where Apostle Paul writes: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. There are Christians who view all tattoos as sinful because of one verse in the Old Testament: Leviticus 19:28.

There is no clear biblical precedent for tattoo marks as we know them today. With the growing acceptance of tattoos, many Christians wonder if the Bible has anything to say about tattoos.

Scripture tattoos