What Does The Bible Say About Tattoos?
Many people, even professed Christians see nothing wrong with tattoos. They go with the flow. So many others are doing it so they get a tattoo. Some even get a tattoo that has a spiritual message! How does God look at tattoos? Christians ought to live by the Bible. What does the Bible say? Some may say that the word “tattoo” cannot be found in the Bible. However, the Bible was not originally written in English. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and there is one knock-out-punch text there on tattoos.
Leviticus 19:28 says “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.”
The word “cuttings” used there is “seret” in Hebrew which means “incision.” More importantly the word “marks” used there is “qa‘aqa” in Hebrew and according to Strong’s Concordance it means “ incision, imprintment, tattoo, mark.” So “tattoo” is in the Bible after all and God tells us from very early in the Bible that we must not take tattoos.
For no one to have an excuse and say that they are not into Hebrew (which is a poor excuse to have when you are presented with the Hebrew) let us look at what the New Internation Version (NIV) says in the same text Lev. 19:28. It says:
“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.”
You will see the same word “tattoo” used in the following Bible translations: Contemporary English Version (CEV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), English Standard Version (ESV), English Standard Version Anglicised, Wycliffe Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Century Version, Darby Translation and the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition. Do not take my word for it. Check out all those versions at www.biblegateway.com.
Some, intent on holding on to the tattooing practice, say that the context is that it should not be done for the dead. Nothing could be further from the truth! The text does not say “Do not cut your bodies or put tattoo marks for the dead.” It says “Do not cut your bodies for the dead OR put tattoo marks on yourselves.” If it was all about the dead it would have been phrased differently. The words “the dead” would have come either at the start of the sentence or the end, not in the middle and separated by “OR.” The “OR”, placed where it is shows that the two phrases are separate.
Lev. 19:28 is sufficient to convince any Christian who wants to follow God’s way that tattooing is forbidden. That is without even counting all the health issues that tattooing makes you fall prey to. 1 Cor. 6:19 says “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
1 Cor. 3:17 adds “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
Do not let tattooing (like another similar-sounding word I know) make a “mess” of you.
You may be interested in reading these articles;
The Divine Inspiration of The Bible (Resources)
The Red Letter Bible
The Kindle Generation in The Bible
Mozilla Firefox, Samson and The Bible
Leviticus 19:28 says “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.”
The word “cuttings” used there is “seret” in Hebrew which means “incision.” More importantly the word “marks” used there is “qa‘aqa” in Hebrew and according to Strong’s Concordance it means “ incision, imprintment, tattoo, mark.” So “tattoo” is in the Bible after all and God tells us from very early in the Bible that we must not take tattoos.
For no one to have an excuse and say that they are not into Hebrew (which is a poor excuse to have when you are presented with the Hebrew) let us look at what the New Internation Version (NIV) says in the same text Lev. 19:28. It says:
“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.”
You will see the same word “tattoo” used in the following Bible translations: Contemporary English Version (CEV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), English Standard Version (ESV), English Standard Version Anglicised, Wycliffe Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Century Version, Darby Translation and the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition. Do not take my word for it. Check out all those versions at www.biblegateway.com.
Some, intent on holding on to the tattooing practice, say that the context is that it should not be done for the dead. Nothing could be further from the truth! The text does not say “Do not cut your bodies or put tattoo marks for the dead.” It says “Do not cut your bodies for the dead OR put tattoo marks on yourselves.” If it was all about the dead it would have been phrased differently. The words “the dead” would have come either at the start of the sentence or the end, not in the middle and separated by “OR.” The “OR”, placed where it is shows that the two phrases are separate.
Lev. 19:28 is sufficient to convince any Christian who wants to follow God’s way that tattooing is forbidden. That is without even counting all the health issues that tattooing makes you fall prey to. 1 Cor. 6:19 says “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
1 Cor. 3:17 adds “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
Do not let tattooing (like another similar-sounding word I know) make a “mess” of you.
You may be interested in reading these articles;
The Divine Inspiration of The Bible (Resources)
The Red Letter Bible
The Kindle Generation in The Bible
Mozilla Firefox, Samson and The Bible