Ephesians 5:4

Nor obscenity. [2] What is here meant by this word, St. John Chrysostom tells us at large in the moral exhortation after his 17th homily; to wit, jests with immodest suggestions or a double meaning, and raillery or buffoonery against the rules of good conversation, scarce made use of by any but by men of low condition and a mean genius, which is not to the purpose of a Christian, who must give an account to God of all his words. (Witham)

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Scurrilitas, quæ ad rem non pertinet, Greek: eutrapelia ta oukanekonta. St. John Chrysostom, Greek: log. ig. p. 848 and 849, describes the vice of Greek: eutrapelia in these words: Greek: entha aichrotes, ekei e eutrapelia....e eutrapelia malaken poiei psuchen, &c.... porro touto christianou, to komodein....ei kalon to pragma, ti tois mimois aphietai;...parasiton to pragma, mimon, orcheston, gunaikon, pornon, porro psuches eleutheras, porro eugenous....ei tis aichros, outos kai eutrapelos. Where there is filthiness, there is eutrapelia. It is this that makes the mind effeminate....Far be it from a Christian to play the comedian. If this were commendable, why is it left to buffoons? It is the business of flattering hangers-on, or trencher friends, of fools in a play, of debauched women, but far be it from persons of a higher rank, well born, and of good breeding. If any man be void of honour, void of shame, such a one is given to eutrapelia. A man will scarce find it worth his while to consult the Latin translation in Fronto-Ducæus, which in this and many other places is far from being exact. I know that Aristotle, (lib. iv. de moribus. chap. 14, p. 42. Ed. Aurel. Allobrog.) and St. Thomas Aquinas, the doctor of the schools, (lib. ii. Q. 60. a. 5. and 22.; Q. 168. a. 2.) takes eutrapelia in a different sense, when it is a facetious innocent way of jesting, containing rather instructive admonitions; and so, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, it may be reckoned among the moral virtues; but then, even as Aristotle tells us, it must be without all words of immodesty and buffoonery, which is against good manners: otherwise it degenerates into scurrility.