Isaiah 44:5 reads:Īnother will be called by the name of Jacob, This did not have to be explicitly articled to them no one need ask prison inmates why they shed their orange jumpsuits when they are no longer incarcerated.”Ĭhavalas also notes that there might be a positive reference to tattoos in the Bible. No longer considered slaves, the Israelites now were prohibited to mark their bodies with permanent signs of servitude to former masters. After all, they had just spent the last four centuries as slaves in Egypt, where tattooing was also used as a sign of slavery. “Tattooing, an insignia of ownership, was perhaps condemned in Leviticus because it reminded them of their past. Thus, tattooing was seen as a sign of ownership.Ĭhavalas thinks that this might be behind the taboo on tattoos in the Bible: If then the slave were to run away, he could be easily returned to his master. Often the name of a slave’s owner would be tattooed or branded on his hand or forehead. In the ancient Near East, tattoos were used to mark slaves. This is not to give the impression that tattooing never appears in ancient Near Eastern texts it does-just not as a mourning practice. In our free eBook The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide, prominent Biblical scholars Leonard Greenspoon and Harvey Minkoff expertly guide you through 21 different Bible translations (or versions) and address their content, text, style and religious orientation. The religion section of most bookstores includes an amazing array of Bibles. As far as we can tell, tattooing was not an ancient mourning practice in these cultures. However, we find no evidence of this in ancient texts from the Levant, Mesopotamia or Egypt. Some have thought that because of the proximity of the taboo on tattoos to the prohibition of other pagan mourning practices in Leviticus, tattooing must have been a pagan mourning practice. Leviticus 19 denounces idolatry and several pagan mourning practices. Not only does he analyze traditional explanations for this prohibition, but he also investigates what tattoos signified to ancient Near Eastern peoples, including the ancient Israelites, which suggests the real reason why tattoos were taboo. Chavalas, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, examines the taboo on tattoos in the Bible. In his Biblical Views column “Unholy Ink: What Does the Bible Say about Tattoos?” Mark W. This begs the question: Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos? Leviticus 19:28 says, “You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Although this passage clearly prohibits tattoos, it does not give an explicit reason why. Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos? Photo: “Open Torah and Pointer” by Lawrie Cate is licensed under CC-by-SA-2.0. What is said about tattoos in the Bible? Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible, prohibits them without giving an explicit reason.
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