Gender in Bible translation

Last updated

Gender in Bible translation concerns various issues, such as the gender of God and generic antecedents in reference to people. Bruce Metzger states that the English language is so biased towards the male gender that it restricts and obscures the meaning of the original language, which was more gender-inclusive than a literal translation would convey. [1] Wayne Grudem disagrees, believing that a translation should try to match the words of the original language rather than introduce the translator's opinion as to whether the original words meant to include both sexes or not, and that trying to be gender-neutral results in vague and contorted writing style. [2] Michael Marlowe argues from a third standpoint, that the cultures in the Bible were patriarchal. [3] The topic has theological and political undercurrents. Paul Mankowski says that inclusive-language translators are bowing to feminist political taboos rather than trying to translate accurately, while Marmy Clason says that their opponents are motivated by hostility to feminism rather than fidelity to the original meaning. [4]

Contents

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) was one of the first major translations to adopt gender-neutral language. [1] The King James Version translated at least one passage using a technique that many now reject in other translations, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matt. 5:9). The Greek word υἱοὶ that appears in the original is usually translated as "sons", but in this passage the translators chose to use the term "children" that included both genders. [5] Opponents of gender neutral language believe that readers who are not familiar with the original languages can be influenced by a compromised meaning they believe is feminist. [6]

Translation of the names of God

There are a number of ways to translate the names of God into English from Hebrew. Hebrew uses only four consonants for the name—Yod-Heh-Waw-Heh (יהוה, YHWH)—hence it is called the Tetragrammaton. [7] Some modern English bibles render this as LORD—L capital, and ord in small capital case. Others use Yahweh , and the old King James Version used Jehovah . In English, outside Bible translations, the tetragrammaton is often written as YHWH or YHVH. [8]

The original meaning of this form is connected with the "I AM" of Exodus 3:14 (and it probably contains a Hebrew masculine verb prefix—the Y or yod). [9] Sometimes this word is rendered into English by using Hebrew Adonai , instead of attempting to directly translate YHWH, following an ancient Jewish custom of respect. [10]

The Hebrew word Adonai literally means my lord (with pseudo-plural), and is usually translated as Lord. [11]

Third person pronouns for God

Many prayers use one or more of the names for God many times within the same paragraph. The first time it appears a proper name is used, while further instances use a third person pronoun (he, she or it). English speakers usually use masculine or feminine third person pronouns to refer to people and animals, and the third person pronoun—"it"—to refer to (inanimate) objects. Traditionally, in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writing, the third-person pronoun "He" has been used to refer to God in English translations. [12] [13] In non-religious contexts, English speakers have generally used the word "he" as a substitute for a gender-neutral third person pronoun. [14]

The idea of God being an "It" rather than a "he" or "she" does have some support in Jewish, Christian and Islamic rationalist medieval thought, much of which was based on Neo-Aristotelian philosophy. Some medieval philosophers of all three of these religions took great pains to make clear that God was in no way like a person, and that all apparently physical descriptions of God were only poetic metaphors. [15]

In the Chinese language, translators of the Christian Bible have created a new Chinese character to act as a divine pronoun: 祂 (Pinyin: tā). Tā, in essence, is the universal third person pronoun for all objects and persons. However, personhood (as well as gender) can be distinguished in writing. The normal pronoun for he, 他, is also used in generic cases. The radical 亻 (rén) marks personhood (distinct from non-human referents), not simply gender alone. The radical in 祂, 礻 (shì), marks the "elevated personhood" of divinity, without implying anything about the gender of the divinity referred to. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Names of God in Judaism</span> Names given to God in Judaism

Judaism considers some names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: יהוה, אֲדֹנָי, אֵל, אֱלֹהִים, שַׁדַּי, and צְבָאֽוֹת ; some also include I Am that I Am. Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God, and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. Some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews have adopted the chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt-Vav instead of Yōd-Hē for the number fifteen or Ṭēt-Zayin instead of Yōd-Vav for the Hebrew number sixteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Today's New International Version</span> Updated translation of the Bible

Today's New International Version (TNIV) is an English translation of the Bible which was developed by the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT). The CBT also developed the New International Version (NIV) in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NIV. It is explicitly Protestant like its predecessor; the deuterocanonical books are not part of this translation. The TNIV New Testament was published in March 2002. The complete Bible was published in February 2005. The rights to the text are owned by Biblica. Zondervan published the TNIV in North America. Hodder & Stoughton published the TNIV in the UK and European Union.

Jah or Yah is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revised Standard Version</span> English translation of the Bible

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation itself is a revision of the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901, and was intended to be a readable and literally accurate modern English translation which aimed to "preserve all that is best in the English Bible as it has been known and used through the centuries" and "to put the message of the Bible in simple, enduring words that are worthy to stand in the great Tyndale-King James tradition."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Standard Version</span> English translation of the Bible

The English Standard Version (ESV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Names of God</span> Forms of address or reference to the deity of a religion

There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word god is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or specifically to the Supreme Being, as denoted in English by the capitalized and uncapitalized terms God and god. Ancient cognate equivalents for the biblical Hebrew Elohim, one of the most common names of God in the Bible, include proto-Semitic El, biblical Aramaic Elah, and Arabic ilah. The personal or proper name for God in many of these languages may either be distinguished from such attributes, or homonymic. For example, in Judaism the tetragrammaton is sometimes related to the ancient Hebrew ehyeh. It is connected to the passage in Exodus 3:14 in which God gives his name as אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, where the verb, translated most basically as "I am that I am" or "I shall be what I shall be", "I shall be what I am" In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH, the personal name of God, is revealed directly to Moses. Correlation between various theories and interpretation of the name of "the one God", used to signify a monotheistic or ultimate Supreme Being from which all other divine attributes derive, has been a subject of ecumenical discourse between Eastern and Western scholars for over two centuries. In Christian theology the word is considered a personal and a proper name of God. On the other hand, the names of God in a different tradition are sometimes referred to by symbols. The question whether divine names used by different religions are equivalent has been raised and analyzed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Grudem</span> American theologian and author

Wayne A. Grudem is a New Testament scholar turned theologian, seminary professor, and author. Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, Phoenix, Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood</span> Evangelical Christian organization

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) is an evangelical Christian organization promoting a complementarian view of gender issues. According to its website, the "mission of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is to set forth the teachings of the Bible about the complementary differences between men and women, created equally in the image of God, because these teachings are essential for obedience to Scripture and for the health of the family and the church." CBMW's current president is Dr. Denny Burk, a professor of biblical studies at Boyce College and director for The Center for Gospel and Culture at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Its 2017 "Nashville Statement" was criticized by egalitarian Christians and LGBT campaigners, as well as by several conservative religious figures.

The gender of God can be viewed as a literal or as an allegorical aspect of a deity.

Green's Literal Translation or the Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (LITV) is a translation of the Bible by Jay P. Green, Sr., first published in 1985. The LITV takes a literal, formal equivalence approach to translation. The Masoretic Text is used as the Hebrew basis for the Old Testament, and the Textus Receptus is used as the Greek basis for the New Testament. This translation is available in book form and is freely available online for use with the e-Sword software program. Some also refer to it as the "KJ3" or "KJV3".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jehovah</span> Vocalization of the divine name YHWH

Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָה‎Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton יהוה is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God's name in Christianity.

The New Century Version (NCV) is a revision of the International Children's Bible (ICB).

Vern Sheridan Poythress is an American philosopher, theologian, New Testament scholar and mathematician, who is currently the New Testament chair of the ESV Oversight Committee. He is also the Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Biblical Interpretation, and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary and editor of Westminster Theological Journal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetragrammaton</span> Four-letter Hebrew name of the national god of Israel

The Tetragrammaton, or the Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה‎, the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left, are yodh, he, waw, and he. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass". While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization Jehovah continues to have wide usage.

The Colorado Springs Guidelines is a 1997 document to address gender issues in Bible translation. It was written by theologically conservative Christians in response to "gender-neutral" Bible translations, in particular the New International Version Inclusive Language Edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender of God in Christianity</span>

God in Christianity is represented by the Trinity of three hypostases or "persons" described as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While "Father" and "Son" implicitly invoke masculine sex, the gender of the Holy Spirit from earliest times was also represented as including feminine aspects. Today, there is a push among some Christians for use of different pronouns to describe God than have been traditionally held.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Name Bible</span> Bible translations that use Hebraic forms of Gods personal name (YHWH)

Sacred Name Bibles are Bible translations that consistently use Hebraic forms of the God of Israel's personal name, instead of its English language translation, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have LORD.

In Christian theology, the gender of the Holy Spirit has been the subject of some debate in recent times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literal Standard Version</span> Modern English translation of the Bible

The Literal Standard Version (LSV) is a Modern English translation of the Bible with a number of distinctive features. It describes itself as the most literal translation of the Bible into the modern English language. The first edition was published on February 2, 2020.

The Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) is an English translation of the Bible that was released in 2021. It is an update to the New American Standard Bible Updated Edition, with permission from the Lockman Foundation, as an alternative to the 2020 Revision of the NASB. The LSB was produced and edited by a team of faculty from The Master's Seminary and is published by Three Sixteen Publishing, Inc., in partnership with the Lockman Foundation and with funding from the John MacArthur Charitable Trust.

References

  1. 1 2 Bruce Metzger. "Preface to the NRSV". Archived from the original on 2010-02-06. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  2. ↑ Grudem, Wayne (1997). "What's Wrong with Gender-Neutral Bible Translations?". CBMW. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  3. ↑ Marlowe, Michael D. (2005). "The Gender-Neutral Language Controversy". Bible Research. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ Mankowski, Paul (2007). "Jesus, Son of Humankind? The Necessary Failure of Inclusive-Language Translations". Orthodoxytoday.org. Retrieved December 12, 2020.Clason, Marmy A. (2006). "Feminism, Generic 'he', and the TNIV Bible Translation Debate". Critical Discourse Studies. 3 (1): 23–35. doi:10.1080/17405900600589333. S2CID   145563736 . Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  5. ↑ Strauss, Mark; Wegener, David (2009). "The Inclusive Language Debate". Christian Research Institute. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  6. ↑ Poythress, Vern and Wayne Grudem (2000). The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy: Muting the Masculinity of God's Words. Broadman and Holman Publishers. p. 149. ISBN   0-8054-2441-5.
  7. ↑ The word "tetragrammaton" originates from tetra "four" + γράμμα gramma (gen. grammatos) "letter" "Online Etymology Dictionary". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 23 December 2007.
  8. ↑ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia(E-J) by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Mar 1982) ISBN   0802837824 pages 504–507
  9. ↑ Lewis, Theodore J. (2020). The Origin and Character of God. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-007254-4 . Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  10. ↑ Byrne, Máire (2011), The Names of God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: A Basis for Interfaith Dialogue, A&C Black, p. 24
  11. ↑ Joshua Bloch, The Authorship of the Peshitta Archived 16 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1919
  12. ↑ Pagels, Elaine H. 1976. "What Became of God the Mother? Conflicting Images of God in Early Christianity." Signs 2(2):293–303. Archived 4 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine .
  13. ↑ "If Allah Has No Gender, Why Not Refer To God As 'She?'". NPR. 6 June 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  14. ↑ Launius, Christie; Hassel, Holly (30 March 2022). Threshold Concepts in Women's and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing. Taylor & Francis. p. 163. ISBN   9781000554854 . Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  15. ↑ Andrews, Edward D. (6 February 2023). How We Got The Bible. Amazon Digital Services LLC. p. 247. ISBN   9798376330357 . Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  16. ↑ Peng, Ann Cui'an (2021). The Translation of the Bible Into Chinese: The Origin and Unique Authority of the Union Version. Pickwick Publications. p. 81. ISBN   9781532675669 . Retrieved 27 September 2023.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.