Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient" means crude jokes that are simply badly timed or inconvenient
"Convenient" meant fitting or proper, a moral judgment, not a scheduling one.
Ephesians 5:4, in every translation this tool compares.
Ephesians 5:4 warns against "filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient." Paul isn't saying crude jokes happen at a bad time; he's saying they're not fitting or appropriate for someone who follows Christ. "Convenient" comes from Latin "convenire," to come together or agree, and in 1611 English still carried that broad sense of "suitable" or "proper."
The modern, narrower sense (handy, easy, well-timed) developed later and now dominates the word, so a reader can miss that this is a statement about moral fittingness, not logistics.
