Lingamish

A guide to Biblical kissing

March 14th, 2007 · 22 Comments

Kissing is by no means a universal human behavior.  Some ethnic groups kiss and some don’t.  Take greetings for an example. A lot of the European cultures use some sort of kiss to greet someone. But in African culture kissing is a totally strange activity. This can cause some uncertainty when meeting someone I don’t know. For example, here in Mozambique I will greet a woman in the village by clapping cupped hands lightly together at chest height. But if it’s a woman in the city I might shake her right hand lightly.  If she is some sort of government official I probably will just bow slightly.  I’ll shake hands with an American woman, but a European or Brazilian expects beixinhos which involve embracing cheek-to-cheek while kissing into the air beside the ear.  If I tried to give a village woman a beixinho, she would react with alarm. If I clapped my hands at a Portuguese woman she would probably burst out laughing. So you see it’s not always obvious how to greet someone. Not coming from a kissy culture myself I tend to go for a simple handshake. Thankfully none of these cultures involve men kissing men so at least that’s one greeting that is easy to figure out.

In most of Africa, kissing is an imported activity.  Kisses are not used for greetings nor is it an intimate activity between lovers. In ciNyungwe there is no word for kiss at all.  So the word we use in our Bible translation is -mpsompsona which means suck or breastfeed.  So Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in Luke 22:47-48 comes out sounding something like: “Then Judas went to suck on Jesus.  And Jesus said, ‘Judas do you betray the Son of Man by sucking on him?’” If that sounds strange to you, imagine how weird it sounds to someone completely unfamiliar with Biblical culture! In such situations translators have a couple strategies:

  1. Be more general: “Judas greeted Jesus.”
  2. Explain: “Judas greeted Jesus by kissing him”
  3. Translate as directly as possible and use a footnote.

Thanks to Brazilian soap operas, Mozambicans are learning about the practice of kissing as a form of intimacy between lovers.  But a man kissing another man as a form of greeting is still pretty foreign to them.

Who kisses whom in the Bible and why

Here’s a quick overview of kissing in the Bible:

As a form of greeting

Jacob kisses his father Isaac (Gen. 27:27). Esau greets his brother Jacob with a kiss (Gen. 33:4).  Laban kisses his grandchildren (Gen. 31:55). Naomi kisses her daughters-in-law (Ruth 1:9). The Ephesian believers kiss Paul (Acts 20:37).  Four times Paul instructs churches to “greet one another with a holy kiss (Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thes. 5:26).  Peter instructs believers to “greet one another with a kiss of love” (1 Pet. 5:14).

Paying homage to a god or king

Samuel kisses Saul upon announcing that he will be king (1 Sam. 10:1). God tells Elijah about seven thousand Israelites ”whose mouths have not kissed” Baal (1 Kings 19:18). Kings and rulers of the earth are ordered to “kiss the Son, lest he be angry” (Ps. 2:12). Hosea 13:2 talks about those who “kiss the calf-idols.”

An intimate activity between lovers

An adulterous woman kisses a young man who lacks judgment (Pro. 7:13). The Beloved in the Song of Solomon says of her lover, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” (Song 1:2).

A few mystery kisses

After having looked at these three major types of Biblical kisses.  Can you properly identify each of the following kisses?

  • Psalm 85:10: “Righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
  • Proverb 24:26: “An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.”
  • Proverb 27:6: “An enemy multiplies kisses.”
  • 2 Sam. 20:9: “Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.”
  • Luke 7:38: “As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”

A kiss is still a kiss

In Herman Hupfeld’s 1942 song As Time Goes By, Louis Armstrong sings:

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.

 But as we’ve seen in this brief guide to Biblical kissing, a kiss isn’t necessarily a kiss in every culture. Who do you kiss? And what’s the kissing culture like where you live?

Tags: Bible Puzzler · Nyungwe · Bible Translation · Mozambique · Africa · Bible · Christianity

22 responses so far ↓

  • Rey // Mar 14th 2007 at 3:42 pm

    Man, what a huge cultural collision! But I can’t imagine that whole sucking imagery making much sense–how do they react to it?

  • lingamish // Mar 14th 2007 at 5:20 pm

    It doesn’t make much sense in English either if you think about it. A reader is right to wonder, “Why did he kiss him?” It was the standard friendly greeting of its day. In essence what Jesus is saying is, “Judas, how can you act like you are giving me a warm greeting when you are actually betraying me to my enemies?”

  • tim bulkeley // Mar 14th 2007 at 7:48 pm

    “Kiss” only works at all in English in this passage because we have at least the notions of (a) kissing as greeting, and perhaps (b) kissing - though usually of rings or feet etc. as a mark of extreme respect - as well as (c) kissing as intimacy.

    The sucking thing seems grotesque to me. I can see no justification for it. in cultures with the sort of supporting notions English has, and in a very stilted literal translation you can get away with “kiss” and a footnote. Where those notions are lacking then at most you might in a translation footnote the greeting expression with a sentence or six explaining the ways people in that culture greeted.

    Are you revising or replacing an existing translation? If so what on earth HAVE they been making of “sucking” all these years?!

  • lingamish // Mar 14th 2007 at 7:58 pm

    This is a brand new translation–and an excellent one if I say so myself. ;) Think about it for a minute. How would you say “kiss” if you didn’t have a word for “kiss”?

  • lingamish // Mar 14th 2007 at 8:44 pm

    For the record, the current Nyungwe translation says something like, “Judas came near to Jesus to greet him with a mpsompsono.

  • Suzanne McCarthy // Mar 15th 2007 at 12:01 am

    I think the traditional way to deal with this problem is to say “suck face”. I have heard this before and frankly I think it gives a much more accurate impression.

    Otherwise, I would think it could become known as the sucky translation. Which is at least better than other means of ’suck’.

  • Suzanne McCarthy // Mar 15th 2007 at 12:05 am

    On the other hand maybe not. I hoe someone comes up with some real life help for you.

  • Suzanne McCarthy // Mar 15th 2007 at 12:06 am

    Can I delete this - I seem to be having an off day. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.

  • Suzanne McCarthy // Mar 15th 2007 at 12:10 am

    Okay, I am going to try and redeem myself. Here is where I heard the expression ’suck face.’

    The film was called On Golden Pond.

    This was a heartwarming film about an aging couple at their summer place — retired college professor and avid fisherman Norman Thayer, Jr. (Henry Fonda) had suffered a mild heart attack, which for the first time made his wife Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) realize their mortality. He recovered - and asked Ethel, using slang he had learned from 13 year-old Billy (Doug McKeon): ”Wanna dance or would you rather just suck face?” In a long shot, they leaned in to kiss, but the camera panned away

  • Rey // Mar 15th 2007 at 12:19 am

    Suzanne is killing me over here: I’m cracking up.

    Which, after reading what I just wrote is a pretty strange image.

    I guess I never thought about the kissing thing much because I come from a hispanic culture and we always kiss to say hello—it struck me as obvious and pretty darn foul when Judas kissed him and was betraying him.

  • lingamish // Mar 15th 2007 at 5:40 am

    Here I am publishing serious academic work and you guys are acting all juvenile! But I did actually provoke Suzanne to comment on my blog which is the first time in … months I think.

  • Suzanne McCarthy // Mar 15th 2007 at 7:10 am

    Yes, and I went away feeling very foolish too. But I’m laughing alright. Just think what a good deed you performed.

    There has just got to be a better way - to translate this I mean - not to kiss.

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  • Peter Kirk // Mar 15th 2007 at 9:20 pm

    I know that some blasphemous people have suggested a homosexual relationship between Judas and Jesus. Perhaps they got the idea from the two of them kissing. For in my British culture that is what two men kissing would suggest. That is what happens when people without cultural sensitivity (and that’s most people in western countries) read literal Bible translations.

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  • Carl Holmes // Mar 26th 2007 at 7:24 pm

    My very limited understanding of kissing is that culture has turned the command to “greet one another with a holy kiss” into a handshake. So to make it relevant to us today if would be Judas shook Jesus’s hand.

    With the influx of brazillian soap operas I am sure they are understanding a hand shake more.

  • lingamish // Mar 27th 2007 at 2:06 pm

    Good comments, Carl (Also on technorati). I think Judas’ kiss was more than the normal greeting. Possibly a kiss of respect for his rabbi. And I also wonder if the “holy kiss” of the 1st century was meant as a special greeting just among believers.

    At the airport on Saturday I saw a young man approach an older man and lay his cheek on the man’s hand and then kiss it. I’m not sure what their ethnic or religious group was. That could be something like Judas’ kiss.

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  • ms // Apr 3rd 2007 at 1:18 am

    Genesis also has Jacob kissing Rachel, the first kiss between genders.

    Genesis 29:11
    Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.

    And Joseph when he identifies himself to his brothers.

    Genesis 45:15
    And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them.

    Which brings up the question, how often is kissing combined with weeping? And does weeping upon meeting (i.e. Jacob meeting Joseph, Genesis 46:29 - ..As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around him and wept…) include kissing?

  • lingamish // Apr 3rd 2007 at 12:16 pm

    ms, that’s really fascinating. I never made the connection.

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