Philippians 3:8
Philippians 3:88More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
receives muted JW commentary. Paul's declaration that he counts all his religious achievements as "a lot of refuse" sits awkwardly with the Watchtower's emphasis on accumulated organisational service — pioneer hours, meeting attendance, decades of loyalty. Where the verse is engaged, "refuse" is softened to a generic willingness to prioritise Christ's call, without allowing Paul's blanket renunciation of works-based credentials to land on the JW framework.
Paul's word skybala carries vulgar force — "dung," "excrement," "garbage." It is the vocabulary of contempt, deliberately shocking. Paul calls his most prized religious achievements excrement compared to the "excelling value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Pair with v. 9 ("not because of my own righteousness from following the Law, but because of the righteousness that is through faith in Christ") for the climax: Paul renounces every work-based credential and exchanges it for received righteousness. If the apostle who could claim more credentials than any modern Witness called those credentials skybala, no amount of organisational service can substitute for the imputed righteousness of Christ. The treadmill stops here.
The NWT renders skybala as "a lot of refuse" rather than the more direct "rubbish" (NIV/ESV) or "dung" (KJV). The Greek word is shockingly vulgar — Paul deliberately chose a term that carries the force of "excrement" or "garbage" to emphasise his contempt for his prior religious credentials. Standard English translations vary in how strong they make the rendering, but most preserve some bite ("rubbish," "garbage," "dung"). The NWT's "a lot of refuse" defangs the rhetorical force into something closer to "miscellaneous trash," softening Paul's repudiation. The change is not doctrinally decisive, but it tilts the verse toward a milder re-prioritisation rather than the categorical renunciation Paul actually wrote.