The Bible about tattoos - is there a ban, reasons for negative attitudes towards tattoos
Formally the church is separated from the state. However, the residents of our country physically exist in a common space. In it perfectly coexist representatives of different religions. However, in the modern world there are not only followers of sacred books and scriptures.
There are people whose interests in life are not perceived unequivocally for or against by everyone. These are devotees of body art. The application of tattoos to the body today in society is evaluated more loyally than a couple of decades ago. By society, but not by all Christians who are adherents of biblical teachings.
Tattoos and the Bible: Are There Prohibitions?
To understand this issue will help an objective, unbiased opinion. Recall that the Bible was written less than two thousand years ago. This book is heterogeneous in content, rather contradictory. It consists of two halves, describing the life of a particular group of people, a small nation. The division between the Old Testament and the New Testament occurred with the appearance of the main biblical character, Jesus Christ.
At the time the Bible was written, the world was divided into adherents of polytheism and monotheism. The former, as they are sometimes called pagans, tattooed themselves for several reasons:
- As an indicator of status in the clan hierarchy.
- To denote affiliation with a particular religious system.
- As a mandatory element in a sacred ceremony, initiation.
The desire to have an external distinction from the pagans and was the reason for the rejection of tattoos among the first Christians. They themselves had no outward attributes of involvement with biblical doctrine. The original symbol of Christianity was the fish. The cross that we are accustomed to was gradually introduced only in the fifth century A.D. Such a detailed description of historical events is due to the complexity of interpretation of the Bible. There is only one prohibition against drawings, tattoos, cuts on the body in the book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 28.
The difficulty in interpreting this prohibition is that Leviticus is part of the Old Testament. It deals with the customs and manners of the Jewish people. Leviticus is also part of the Pentateuch of the Jewish Torah. And modern Christianity is based more on the tenets of the New Testament.
The church's negative opinion of tattoos is not based on a specific biblical text. Rather the reason is a narrow interpretation of the concept of man as a creation of God. The Creator made human beings perfect, in his own image and likeness. At least that is what the Bible says.
Man's desire to make himself beautiful is a sin, not in action, but in essence. In this case the sin is to make a change in God's perfect body. The Creator knows best what that ideal is. Today's tattoo wearer is subject to non-conformism, fashion, a temporary fad.
About domes on the body.
In our world, tattoo wearers get them for a variety of reasons:
- To mark their belonging to a fashion trend, a worldview.
- To express their inner self, their psychological portrait.
- To maintain an image, a lifestyle.
Everyone has a different case and it is unlikely that these people are radical Christians. Modern church even allows having a tattoo, but if it was done before the person got converted to Christianity. There are groups of Christians around the world who consciously wear small tattoos depicting a cross.
Most of them are on the wrist. It is tattooed by Arab Christians in Muslim areas. There is a group of people in Russian history for whom tattoos with bells and churches have a non-religious message.
In the world of crime such an image is a marker, an indicator of the amount of time spent in prison. A bell usually indicates that its wearer has served his time from bell to bell. Clearly, there are no bans on criminal tattoos in the Bible.
About Christian Tattoos
The human body is a temple of God, a vessel of the immortal soul. You can't intentionally desecrate, break real temple structures. This is also punishable by the criminal code. Desecration of the body is treated similarly in the Christian world. At least in the clergy. And many parishioners have a negative view of tattoos, often citing the "Revelation of John the Evangelist" from the New Testament. This Christian ascetic, the harbinger of the apocalypse, spoke of the prohibition of putting the signs and numbers of the beast on the body.
Man is a combination of body and spirit, material and spiritual. They are one, existing by themselves and together at the same time. This is an analogy of the Christian Trinity, the Triipostasis. This is why applying a change to the body in the form of a tattoo entails a transformation of one's spiritual outlook.
Not so dramatically and overnight, but it is the beginning of the road to the destruction of the soul. This is the Christian view of the problem. Modern man is less vulnerable and dependent on any ideology. That is why tattoos are so widespread. Among the drawings are religious, including quotes from the Bible.
Who's to blame, or finding a compromise
The world is changing. In it today, the words tolerance, globalization are being used more and more often. Languages and cultures are blending. In Christianity there is such a concept as ecumenism. It is a current that forms the basis of the dream of uniting all Christian churches and denominations. Perhaps the change in the structure of the church will also affect its attitude towards tattoos.
But there is a common-sense message in the actions of Bible believers. Applying tattoos solely for their artistic meaning does not pose a pernicious danger to a person. And various satanic signs, hidden symbols, pentagrams can really be dangerous for their owners.
No one knows exactly why this opinion exists and whether it is true. The Biblical word is unequivocal - it forbids tattoos. But the whole world is not the Bible. For the true Christian, the topic of tattoos is completely understandable and closed. The rest of us are left to deal with this spiritual and bodily issue on our own. The compromise that exists today is the best way to treat each other peacefully.
