Are Gender-Neutral Bible Translations Okay? Are Gender-Neutral Bible Translations Okay? Bible & Culture: Get Answers. Some translations today promote themselves as gender-neutral, arguing that they are faithful to the original intent of the authors and avoid unnecessary offense. How can a Christian layman know if such a claim is true,.
Last month, a professor and former dean of theology who changed gender identities argued that the Bible defends those who renounce their birth gender, while a leading biblical expert on homosexuality said it condemns them as an 'abomination.'
'I was dying last year because I couldn't live that way anymore. .. I tried to be the best Christian woman I could be and today I get to be the best Christian I can be and the best person I can be,' Heather Ann Clements, former head of the theology department at Azusa Pacific University (APU) in Los Angeles, Calif., said in a sermon proposing a biblical defense of transgender identity. During that sermon, he came out as a transgender man, Heath Adam Ackley. Embracing his identity as a man, he claimed it empowered him to love God and others more.
'The writers of Scripture viewed any attempts at overriding one's birth-sex as abhorrent, a sacrilege against the structures of maleness or femaleness created by God, and ultimately a rebellion against the Creator who made our bodies,' retorted Robert A. J. Gagnon, an associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who is considered the foremost expert on the Bible and homosexuality. Gagnon addressed Ackley's arguments head on.
Biblical arguments for transgender identity
'Thirteen years I've been a member of this congregation and I've never preached – and I'm an ordained minister,' Ackley said, introducing the sermon. 'I was too scared, I couldn't do it, I was all blocked up. Scales were on my eyes and my mouth was plugged up and I was living in chains.'
Throughout the sermon, and in an email statement to The Christian Post, Ackley laid out his argument that the Bible welcomes transgender people. He referred to three passages – one in Genesis, one in Matthew, and one in Galatians.
'Binary gender (division into male and female) isn't clearly defined with words such as 'man' or 'woman' until the twenty-second verse of the second chapter of Genesis,' the transgender man wrote CP. Before that division, Genesis 2 refers to the first human as 'ha'adam,' the creature made of earth. For this reason, Ackley took on the name 'Adam' to identify himself as a human before and beyond considerations of gender.
Ackley then turned to the Gospel of Matthew, where in chapter 19 Jesus refers to 'natural-born eunuchs.' This 'is my own experience of gender as one who internally experiences male gender identity though I did not appear so at birth for visually obvious reasons,' he explained.
'At this time, I sense God calling me to service to the Church in a teaching and preaching role and feel privileged to experience a life of prayer and study that is undistracted by the demands of married life,' Ackley wrote. He did not say whether he would remain celibate for the rest of his life, but expressed his calling to ministry as overriding any sexual desires.
Ackley also cited Galatians 3:28, 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' In his sermon, he argued that men and women are incomplete after God separated the first man into two genders, and that in Christ both become complete by transcending gender itself.
Biblical arguments against transgender identity
Robert Gagnon, a scholar who has studied the related issue of the Bible's stance on homosexuality for 15 years, addressed each of Ackley's verses, but began by citing a different verse in 1 Corinthians. He pointed to 1 Corinthians 6:9, where the Apostle Paul includes a group called 'malakoi' or 'soft men' in a list of those 'who will not inherit the kingdom of God.'
The professor listed various groups in the ancient Biblical setting who attempted to transform their masculinity into femininity: assinnus, kurgarrûs, or kulu'us; the galli. Deuteronomy 23:18 labels a similar group 'an abomination,' Gagnon argued, listing other passages which mention these effeminate men (Deut 23:17-18; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7; cf. Job 36:14).
Addressing Matthew 19:12, the verse about natural-born eunuchs, the Pittsburgh professor argued that 'neither the born-eunuchs nor made-eunuchs have made themselves eunuchs.' The only group that voluntarily chooses to be eunuchs 'does so only in a metaphorical sense, for they do not mar their body or seek to change their sex in any way.' Instead, they merely refrain from sexual relations, which are only licit in a marriage between one man and one woman.
Similarly, 'Paul's remark in Gal 3:28 that 'there is no male and female' was applied to the status of women before God, not as a basis for eliminating sexual differentiation or legitimizing attempts to change one's sex,' Gagnon wrote. He acknowledged that Jesus taught that there will be no marriage in the kingdom of God, but until that time, sexual activity must only happen in marriage.
Gagnon admitted that, for some people who embrace a gender identity at odds with their birth sex, some parts of the brain may function like the opposite sex. Nevertheless, chromosomes, genitalia, other external features, and hormones all fit one's birth sex, showing God's design.
Transsexuality instead reminded Gagnon of an ancient Christian heresy, Gnosticism, which condemned the material world in favor of the spiritual world. 'Attempts to erase one's birth sex have a quasi-gnostic feel: the dominant features of the body do not matter,' the Pittsburgh professor wrote. He even hinted that transsexuality may merely be a further expression of homosexuality, which also dishonors the natural sex given by God.
Student response
APU students disagreed on the biblical merits of transsexuality.
'I stand behind the administration's decision [to break with Professor Ackley] for under our by-laws it states, '…we seek to cultivate a community in which sexuality is embraced as God-given and good,' Maggie Kelledy, a senior psychology major and pre-law minor, wrote CP. She argued with Gagnon that transgender identity mocks God's creation as male and female.
While Kelledy did not study under Dr. Ackley, freshman Margaret van der Bie called Ackley the best professor she had ever had, and argued in his support. 'As a lesbian AND practicing Christian, I wholeheartedly not only agree and support his interpretation of scripture pertaining to ideas of gender identity and sexual orientation, I hold these ideas to be true in my own life,' van der Bie wrote CP.
Tyler Fischella, a political science major, refused to judge professor Ackley, and feared for the school's reputation in this debate. 'I do agree that everything that has transpired is not the most enchanting of moments for APU's history,' he wrote.
'The students here don't seem angry or judgmental of her,' wrote senior pre-law major Mary-Kate Kelledy. 'I think the students who recognize the biblical truth understand her to be a woman who lost her way and wasn't given the help she needed.'
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 (partly due to grammatical gender, especially in the Syriac church). Furthermore, the (feminine) concept of Holy Wisdom was identified with Christ the Logos and thus with God the Son from earliest times. Even the ostensibly masculine terms 'Father' and 'Son' were explicitly stated to be taken as metaphorical, and not as representing divine essence, by Gregory of Nazianzus (4th century).[1] The same position is still held in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church.[2][3][4]
- 2Denominational views
- 3Gender Inclusive language
Grammatical gender in the Bible[edit]
The first words of the Old Testament are B'reshit bara Elohim—'In the beginning God created.'[5] The verb bara (created) agrees with a masculinesingular subject.[citation needed]Elohim is used to refer to both genders and is plural; it has been used to refer to both Goddess (in 1 Kings 11:33), and God (1 Kings 11:31; https://sites.google.com/site/yahwehelohiym/yahweh/yahweh-the-elohim-of-israel). The masculine gender in Hebrew can be used for objects with no inherent gender, as well as objects with masculine natural gender, and so it is widely used, attributing the masculine gender to most things.[citation needed] However, the noun used for the Spirit of God in Genesis—'Ruach'—is distinctly feminine, as is the verb used to describe Her activity during creation—'rachaph'—translated as 'fluttereth'. This verb is used only one other place in the Bible (Deuteronomy 32:11) where it describes the action of a mother eagle towards her nest. The consistent use of feminine nouns and verbs to refer to the Spirit of God in the Torah, as well as the rest of the Jewish Scriptures, indicates that at least this aspect of Elohim was consistently perceived as Feminine.[6]Genesis 1:26-27 says that the elohim were male and female,[7] and humans were made in their image.[8]
Two of the most common phrases in the Tanakh are vayomer Elohim and vayomer YHWH—'and God said'. Again, the verb vayomer (he said) is masculine; it is never vatomer, the feminine of the same verb form. The personal name of God, YHWH, is presented in Exodus 3 as if the Y (Hebrew yod) is the masculine subjective prefix to the verb to be.[citation needed]
In Psalms 89:26 God is referred to as Father.'He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.'[9]
Some literary approaches to the Old Testament have argued that parallels between Biblical stories and earlier Sumerian, Akkadian and Canaanite creation myths show a matriarchal substratum that has been overlaid by a patriarchal approach.[10] 'In the Bible, the earth is the feminine complement of God: the two combined to form man, who articulates their relationship, for example, in sacrifice.'[11]
The New Testament also refers to the Holy Spirit in masculine terminology,[vague] most clearly in the Gospel of John 14-16.
Denominational views[edit]
Roman Catholic Church[edit]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) #239 states, in reference to the Father: 'God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God.'[3][4] The CCC discusses the traditional imagery and language of God as Father.[4] It notes, however, that God is not limited to this role alone—maternal imagery are also used in the Bible.[4] It also notes that human fatherhood only imperfectly reflects God's archetypal fatherhood.[4]God is referred to as masculine in Catholic teaching and practice.[12]
Though Church teaching, in line with its Doctors, holds that God has no literal sex because he has no body (a prerequisite of sex),[13][14] classical and scriptural understanding states that God should be referred to (in most contexts) as masculine by analogy. It justifies this by pointing to God's relationship with the world as begetter of the world and revelation.[15]
National Council of Churches[edit]
The Inclusive Language Lectionary published by the American National Council of Churches, to which many Protestant churches belong, states in its introduction 'The God worshiped by the biblical authors and worshiped in the Church today cannot be regarded as having gender, race, or color.'[16]
LDS Church[edit]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) differs from most churches in that they believe that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are separate and male as well as masculine.[17][18] The LDS Church also teaches that God the Father is married to a divine woman, referred to as 'Heavenly Mother'.[19] Humans are considered to be spirit children of these heavenly parents.[20]
Gender Inclusive language[edit]
Multiple groups consider gender-neutral language (e.g. referring to God as 'it') as inadequate in reflecting the nature of God, however, in recent history, several liberal and mainline Protestant denominations have adopted or encouraged its use when referring to God. These include the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America[21] and the Metropolitan Community Church.[citation needed] Still others object on aesthetic grounds that gender-inclusive constructions, such as invented gender or alternating gender, are clumsy.[citation needed]
United Church of Christ[edit]
The New Century Hymnal, the hymnal of the United Church of Christ (UCC), uses inclusive language; one of its concerns while being authored was reducing the solely-masculine use of language for God, and/or balancing masculine images with feminine and non-gendered images, while retaining masculine imagery for Jesus regarding his earthly life.
At least two UCC conferences (Massachusetts[22] and Ohio[23]) have adopted guidelines for using inclusive language, and the majority of clergy and laity in the UCC report using inclusive language when referring to God during worship.[24]
Metropolitan Community Church[edit]
The Metropolitan Community Church encourages inclusive language[25] and uses 'God—our Parent-Creator', 'Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God', and 'the Holy Spirit' in its Statement of Faith to refer to the three persons of the Trinity.[26]
References[edit]
- ^Dennis O'Neill, Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive Peoples (2010), p. 8.
- ^'In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective 'perfections' of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.' CCC 370.
- ^ abDavid Bordwell, 2002, Catechism of the Catholic Church,Continuum International Publishing ISBN978-0-86012-324-8 page 84
- ^ abcde'Deum humanam sexuum transcendere distinctionem. Ille nec vir est nec femina, Ille est Deus.' From 'Pater per Filium revelatus', Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae. (Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993): 1-2-1-1-2 ¶ 239. (Official English translationArchived March 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine)
- ^Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1990), p. 1.
- ^(Sexism is a Sin, by J.R. Hyland).
- ^Coogan, Michael (October 2010). '6. Fire in Divine Loins: God's Wives in Myth and Metaphor'. God and Sex. What the Bible Really Says (1st ed.). New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group. p. 175. ISBN978-0-446-54525-9. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
humans are modeled on elohim, specifically in their sexual differences.
- ^Coogan (2010:176)
- ^ASV 1901, Public Domain
- ^Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness pages 177-178.
- ^Francis Landy, The Song of Songs chapter of The Literary Guide to the Bible, page 314.
- ^Liturgiam AuthenticamArchived January 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^Aquinas, Thomas (1274). Summa Theologica. Part 1, Question 3, Article 1.
- ^of Hippo, Augustine (c. 397). Confessions. Book 7.
- ^Lang, David; Peter Kreeft (2002). Why Matter Matters: Philosophical and Scriptural Reflections on the Sacraments. Chapter Five: Why Male Priests?: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN978-1931709347.
- ^An inclusive-language lectionary: Readings for Year B (Revised ed.). National Council of Churches. 1987. p. 12. ISBN978-0-664-24059-2.
- ^'Lesson 1: The Godhead', Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3, LDS Church, 1995
- ^Cannon, Donald Q.; Dahl, Larry; Welch, John (January 1989), 'The Restoration of Major Doctrines through Joseph Smith: The Godhead, Mankind, and Creation', Ensign, LDS Church
- ^Hinckley, Gordon B. (November 1991), 'Daughters of God', Ensign, LDS Church
- ^First Presidency; Council of the Twelve Apostles (September 23, 1995), 'The Family: A Proclamation to the World', LDS Church, retrieved 2013-12-11. See also: The Family: A Proclamation to the World
- ^ELCA Publishing StandardsArchived 2008-10-16 at the Wayback Machine (2003), Section on 'Terms for God: Inclusive language'
- ^'Inclusive Language Guidelines'. Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
- ^'Inclusive Language Guidelines'. Ohio Conference - United Church of Chris. Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
- ^Worshipping into God's Future: Summary and Strategies 2005, United Church of Christ.
- ^Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Pulling. 'Study Guide To Inclusive Language'. UFMCC. Retrieved 2008-07-09.[permanent dead link]
- ^'Metropolitan Community Church Statement of Faith'. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2008-07-09.