“I consider them rubbish”
Philippians 3:8
IdiomSettledPaul
More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8 BSB)
* Greek: skubala, a coarse word for dung or refuse thrown to dogs.
What it sounds like today
'Rubbish' is the polite translation.
The cultural key
The word is skybala: refuse at the strong end of the register, table scraps thrown to dogs at best, dung at worst; Greek ears heard something closer to a vulgarity than to 'rubbish.' The frame around it is bookkeeping: 'gain,' 'loss,' 'count' are accountancy verbs, and the assets being written down are the credentials Paul has just itemized, tribe of Benjamin, Pharisee, blameless under the law, the finest resume his world could print.
Recovered meaning
Paul reprices his entire pedigree in one ledger entry, filed under excrement. The shock word is doing theology: next to knowing Christ, the best assets he ever held do not even round to zero.
Parallels: Philippians 3:4–7; Galatians 6:14