I’ll admit. I had an agenda when I composed my last post. And the agenda is this: The Greek pateres is one of the words that has more than one correct translation into English. Among the reasonable possibilities are “fathers,” “parents,” and “ancestors.” For example, in Ephesians 6:4 (and Colossians 3:21) it is clearly male…
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It’s hardly surprising that ancient words don’t match up perfectly with modern English ones. To pick one example out of thousands, the Hebrew kol is variously “sound” or “voice” (and the Greek translation fone is even broader, including “word” and somtimes “language”). In Genesis 27:22, Isaac hears Jacob’s kol; and in Psalm 47:5, we read…
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Comments like, “Even if you remove the male pronouns, is the Bible not still a patriarchal text?” (from a comment on Rumblings) and observations such as those from Mark Stevens that the T-NIV has been “unfarily criticized” for its gender neutrality make it clear to me that people are using “gender inclusivity” and “gender neutrality”…
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With Zondervan’s announcement that the (T)NIV will be updated, the debate about gender, language, and translation is sure to rage anew. According to a report in USA Today (thanks to BBB for noticing), Douglas Moo, chair of the NIV Committee on Bible Translation, promises that the committee will, “review every single gender-related decision” they have…
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