Today I had an interesting experience. I was with a friend who has several facial piercings at Disneyland. While we were relaxing on a bench, a woman sat at the bench next to ours and started asking questions about his piercings. At one point during the conversation, she said, "God commands us not to alter our bodies, you know." I have been pondering that statement ever since, and I decided that I'd be interested to know if this were really true, based on biblical evidence.
Does God really command us not to alter our bodies? An essay from a Christian perspective.
Many Christians today believe that the Lord commands his faithful not to alter their bodies in any way. This belief has become more prevalent as the popularity of body piercing has increased. But is this belief based on biblical commandments, or is it misinformation based on people's fear of things they are not familiar with? Let us examine the biblical evidence.
The book of Leviticus in the Old Testament contains all of the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, given by the Lord to his chosen people. Contained in this book are many prohibitions and instructions, related to such diverse topics as animal sacrifice, marriage, sexual relations, food, and many other subjects. Nowhere in the book of Leviticus is there a prohibition against ear or body piercing. Nor is there any prohibition against any type of piercing anywhere in the Bible, in either the Old or New Testaments.
However, there is a prohibition against tattooing in Leviticus 19:28. It states:
"Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD."
In some interpretations, the phrase "Do not cut your bodies for the dead" could possibly refer to piercing of the flesh of the body. This is a murky interpretation at best, and I contend that because it is not specific to piercing, it should not be inferred that the prohibition applies to piercing.
This position can be validated because while other prohibitions that exist in Christianity today cannot be validated using only biblical evidence because the practice being prohibited did not exist in biblical times, ear piercing did exist in biblical times and was referred to in the Old Testament. Ear piercing is specifically referred to in Exodus 21:6 - "He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl."
Other prohibitions in modern Christianity, such as the prohibition against artificial birth control (i.e., the birth control pill or IUD), cannot be validated using only biblical references because artificial birth control did not exist in biblical times. (Artificial chemical birth control was practiced in some ancient cultures, most notably by the Greeks, prior to the writing of the New Testament but long after the Old Testament was written.) Therefore, because the practice of ear piercing did exist in biblical times, if there were to be a prohibition against ear piercing which could then be more broadly applied to body piercing, it can be argued that the Old Testament would have referred to ear piercing specifically.
In addition, Leviticus contains prohibitions against many other very specific acts, such as wearing clothing woven out of two different fabrics (Lev. 19:19), but none specific to ear piercing. This supports the contention that there is no biblical prohibition of piercing.
Leviticus does contain a prohibition of tattooing, however.
What does this mean to the modern Christian?
In Hebrews 8:13, it says that "By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear."
In Hebrews 9:15, it says that "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."
Most Christian denominations believe that these and other passages indicate that when Jesus died on the cross, he died to create a new and everlasting covenant with all people, not only the chosen people. This new covenant rendered the old covenant obsolete. If a Jew were to become a Christian, he would no longer have to abide by the laws of the old covenant. The Gentiles, who were never required to abide by the laws of the old covenant, would only be required to adhere to the rules of the new covenant.
What does this evidence tell us?
The old covenant was between the Lord and the Jews. The 613 laws were only to be followed by the Jews. The new covenant between the Lord and all people, with Jesus as His mediator, supersedes the old covenant for all that choose to accept Jesus and become Christians. Therefore, the prohibitions against tattooing do not apply to Christians or Jews that convert to Christianity, since said prohibitions are a part of the old covenant. The 613 mitzvot only apply to Jews.
What does this mean for non-Christian Gentiles who wish to worship God but do not believe in Christ?
To be a righteous Gentile according to Jewish tradition, one must follow the seven commandments for Gentiles. These commandments are known as the Seven Laws of Noah, and are all derived from specific passages in the Torah (the Jewish Bible, or Old Testament as Christians refer to it). They are as follows:
Prohibition of idolatry;
Prohibition of blasphemy;
Prohibition of murder;
Prohibition of theft;
Prohibition of illicit (sexual) relations;
Prohibition of eating live meat;
Prohibition of failing to establish courts of justice.
These seven laws, even when expanded to encompass all of the details and nuances related to them, do not contain any prohibitions against altering the body in any way, whether by piercing, tattooing, or any other manner.
If a Christian believes that it is wrong to modify one's body, does he or she have a right to judge a person who modifies their body?
According to the Christian Bible, there is only one judge. God alone has the right to judge people. This is supported in many verses in the New Testament.
Matthew 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."
Luke 6:37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
Romans 14:10 "You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat."
Galatians 2:6 "As for those who seemed to be important--whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance--those men added nothing to my message."
Samuel 16:7 "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
These verses all have a common theme. Christians are instructed not to judge others. God is the only true judge. He looks at what is within our hearts, not at our physical or external appearance. Christians are to love their fellow man, not judge him.
Nowhere in the Christian Bible is there a specific prohibition against body modification. The laws under the old covenant which are detailed in the book of Leviticus do not apply to the followers of Christ, because with His death He established a new covenant that rendered the old covenant and all the laws associated with it obsolete. Further, even if a Christian disagrees with this assessment, it is not his place to judge others if they choose to modify their bodies.
Therefore, from a Christian perspective, the answer to the question "Does God really command us not to alter our bodies?" is, unequivocally, NO.
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