Ordination of Women in the ANCA

I am catching up on the June meeting of the Anglican Church in North America. If I had not made a decision to leave my former church, I would have been a member. Here are some articles on women in this new church affiliation.

Virtue Online
Episcopal Café
Post Gazette

I know my pastor was against the ordination of women. It seemed too depressing - young women who didn't know what was going on, and who were in the leadership training group, woke up slowly to the fact that they were not ever going to be treated as those who could function as equals. I don't think any of them felt that they benefitted from this restriction.

I have just read Graham Cole's paper Women teaching men the Bible: what's the problem? (HT Sam C.) I found that it contained several arguments that I had not heard before. While this paper may not be exhaustive, it certainly makes a significant contribution to the egalitarian position.

I found his argument #2 interesting. He writes,

Second, I am not persuaded that a woman preaching to a mixed congregation somehow overturns our view of the essential Trinity and with it good church order.2 On the matter of the Trinity, the key text used by some is 1 Corinthians 11:3, where Paul writes: “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” (ESV). The argument runs that this text is a window into the essential Trinity and that congregational life, family life and married life ought to reflect this order.3 For example, Carrie Sandom argues: “It is this pattern of relationships that is to be modeled in family life and in church life as God arranges His creation to reflect the ordering of relationships within the Godhead (1Corinthians 11:3).”4

What is so seldom observed on this view is that Paul does not write that the head of the Son is the Father, but that the head of Christ is God. The context is messianic not the Trinity ad intra. In fact, 1 Corinthians 11:3 is one of three “subordinationist” texts in 1 Corinthians which are best seen together as referring to the economy of salvation or the Trinity ad extra, presupposing the incarnation and messianic vocation of Jesus (cf. 1 Cor. 3:21-23; 11:3; 15:24-28). Therefore, when the argument is run, that for women to preach to men is to fly in the face of the very nature of God as the essential Trinity, a category mistake has been made. A messianic reference has been mistaken for a Trinitarian one. Technically put, the text is not about the essential Trinity (“modes of subsistence”) but about the Trinity operating economically (“modes of operation”) as the great Presbyterian theologian, B. B. Warfield rightly argued and others more recently have too (e.g. Millard J. Erickson).5

Wade Burleson on women's ordination

The New Baptist Covenant held a conference this past week in which the topic of women's ordination arose. Check the sessions to see that Jimmy Carter spoke here and Wade Burleson spoke here.

Wade Burleson's sermon transcript can be seen on his blog. I was very encouraged by listening to both addresses.

Who is pomo?

There is a conversation going on here about post modernism and the TNIV. What does this expression mean? Here is the wikipedia entry, which finishes with this paragraph,

The American Heritage Dictionary describes the meaning of the same term as "Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes: “It [a roadhouse] is so architecturally interesting … with its postmodern wooden booths and sculptural clock”.^[3]

What is the link between the TNIV and postmodernism? It seems to me that the ESV could be considered post modern in its insistence that "man" means men only, and then using this word in several key verses which used to be thought of as referring to all people. The ESV translators are really just going by feel when they decide when to use "men" and when to use "people." They are reintroducing a classic term, "men," but without the classic meaning.

Back to blogging

I am back. I have to say that I enjoyed a break from blogging. I think now, instead of not blogging, I will try to adopt a briefer style, and ask more questions, rather than arguing a point of some kind.

But first, I want to mention one thing about my holiday. Before returning home, my friend and I stopped in London and met Peter Kirk and his lovely fiancée, Lorenza, in the new British Library. In the John Ridblat Gallery, Peter was just going to show me the two volumes of the Codex Sinaiticus, when I turned and noticed that the Lindisfarne Gospels was in a glass case, about one foot behind me. It is a good thing that they don't show people the door for making too much noise!

Even though we could only view one page at a time, it was incredible to see the real thing, the illuminated initial page for the book of Matthew and the facing carpet page.

In the interests of keeping this short, I won't mention the Magna Carta, the Golden Haggadah, Shakespeare and the Beatles. I also spent some time in the secondhand bookstores and found some books by Baroness Orczy.

Carter and the interpretation of scriptures

Here is the last part of Carter's essay on religion and discrimination against women,

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive area to challenge.

But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights. We have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

Although not having training in religion or theology, I understand that the carefully selected verses found in the holy scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar Biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

At the same time, I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted holy scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

I know, too, that Billy Graham, one of the most widely respected and revered Christians during my lifetime, did not understand why women were prevented from being priests and preachers. He said: "Women preach all over the world. It doesn't bother me from my study of the scriptures."

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

Watch the Youtube segment here.

Ruha d-Qudša

James McGrath has just mentioned his interest in the Mandaeans. This is perhaps as good a time as any for me to bring up the gender of the holy spirit in Aramaic. The holy spirit for the Mandaeans was a female deity of ambiguous moral nature. Jorunn Jacobsen writes,

Mandaeism presents Ruha (Spirit) largely as a leader of the forces of darkness opposing those of the Lightworld. Traditionally, most scholars have labeled her as evil, and it is true that she possesses abundant negative traits. One of her epithets is Ruha d-Qudša (Holy Spirit), a devalued Christian Holy Spirit, it seems. A mistress of the detested Jewish god Adonai, Ruha is also the mother of the malignant zodiac spirits and of the planets.

Still, there are good reasons to see Ruha as a fallen wisdom figure, resembling Sophia (Wisdom) in other Gnostic traditions. Mandaean materials testifying to such a view of Ruha include passages in which she speaks and behaves in ways one would not expect of a force hostile to the Lightworld. She displays dramatic mood swings, suffers, and utters revelatory speeches uncharacteristic of a figure of darkness. Instead of seeing these passages as atypical occurrences thwarting a scholarly, imposed negative pattern, I think it is useful to take them as clues to Ruha's own ambivalence and to her ambiguous personality. This chapter, therefore, offers a sustained examination of the stories in which Ruha appears as ambiguous or in a downright positive light. Four sets of mythological traditions, taken from a variety of texts, will serve to illustrate my point.

Both Greek and Aramaic gnostic groups had a feminine divine character, either Sophia or Ruha. In fact, the Holy Spirit did not become unambiguously masculine in English Bible translations until the 19th century.

Colorado Springs gender guidelines

Here is a fun piece of history.

On June 2, 1997, when the initial Colorado Springs Guidelines were agreed on, Guideline B 1 originally read,

"Brother" (adelphos) and "brothers" (adelphoi) should not be changed to "brother(s) and sister(s)."

In The TNIV and the GNB, 2004, p. 425 - 426, Poythress and Grudem write,

"Examination of further lexicological data (as indicated in chapter 12) showed that this guideline was too narrow."

So then the following refined guideline was approved on Sept. 9, 1997,

"Brother" adelphos should not be changed to "brother or sister"; however, the plural adelphoi can be translated "brothers and sisters" where the context makes clear that the author is referring to both men and women.

What was the 'further lexicological data'? In Poythress and Grudem's own words,

"in fact, the major Greek lexicons for over 100 years have said that adelphoi, which is the plural of the word adelphos, 'brother" sometimes means "brothers and sisters" (see BAGD, 1957 and 1979, Liddell-Scott-Jones, 1940 and even 1869).

This material was new evidence to those of us who wrote the May 27 guidlines - we weren't previously aware of this pattern of Greek usage outside the Bible. Once we saw these examples and others like them, we felt we had to make some change in the guidelines."

Do Grudem and Poythress actually say that these lexicons contained "new evidence?" Is it true that those who wrote the gender guidelines had never looked up these 'gender terms' in Liddell - Scott or BAGD?

Lawrence Hill

I have just finished reading The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. He is a very accomplished writer and easy to read at the same time.

Lawrence Hill's novel is inspired by a fascinating but little known historical document called the Book of Negroes, copies of which can be found in the USA at the New York Public Library, the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia) and the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. In Canada, copies of the same historical document can be found in the Nova Scotia Public Archives and in the National Archives of Canada. Lawrence Hill wrote a feature article called "Freedom Bound" about the historical document The Book of Negroes in the February/March 2007 edition of The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine.

I look forward to reading some of his other books, which I hear are very funny and touching. There is an hilarious excerpt here on being black and white in Toronto and going to an Italian barber! I hope to read this one soon.

The Book of Negroes sticks close to historical fact and comes with an excellent bibiography. His books are highly informative and have a warm human tone to them. Considering the subject matter this may seem hard to achieve, but I think Hill has found just the right balance.

Wisdom of Solomon 7:12 - 14

12 εὐφράνθην δὲ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἡγεῖται σοφία,
ἠγνόουν δὲ αὐτὴν γενέτιν εἶναι τούτων.

I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom goes before them
but I did not know that she was their originator

13 ἀδόλως τε ἔμαθον
ἀφθόνως τε μεταδίδωμι,
τὸν πλοῦτον αὐτῆς οὐκ ἀποκρύπτομαι·

I learned without guile
and I communicate without grudging
I do not hide her wealth

14 ἀνεκλιπὴς γὰρ θησαυρός ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις,
ὃν οἱ χρησάμενοι πρὸς Θεὸν ἐστείλαντο φιλίαν
διὰ τὰς ἐκ παιδείας δωρεὰς συσταθέντες.

for it is an unfailing treasure for human beings
those who use it obtain friendship with God,
commended for the gifts that come from learning.

I haven't changed much from the NETS translation of these verses. However, there are a couple of interesting features.

First, the word γένετις doesn't translate very well. It means "begetter" or "progenitor" in the feminine, possibly the "originator" of a family. It closely resembles the word γένεσις - origin or source, or beginning.

The verb ἡγέομαι (edited) means "lead" but, I think in this context refers to bringing something with oneself, or possibly preceding. Wisdom precedes, that is, goes before, all these good things, (see KJV for this) and it turns out that she is also their originator. From these lines ideas later arose that Wisdom was the divine mother, and for some the "consort of God." For others she was the manifestation of God.

It is particularly interesting to note that it is a male author, so it appears, who develops the notion of wisdom as the female progenitor, the imagery of a divine and powerful feminine ideal. She is spoken of in chapter 8 as a bride and counselor, "a comfort in cares and sorrow."

Women in Christianity have a masculine God, and historically for many nuns, a heavenly bridegroom. But men have a God in their own image, a masculine God for their masculine self. When Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, if he spoke in Aramaic, he spoke of a feminine entity. The comforter he referred to was a divine feminine entity, and surely a much needed comfort in care and sorrow.

I believe that on the one hand, Jesus is wisdom, the manifestation of God. But, on the other hand, the Spirit is wisdom, the companion (spouse) of God. In writing this, I am not talking about theological truths, but about literary allusions. I am referring to linguistic cues which get picked up in later writings.

Here is a related article by R. R. Ruether. I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

King James
NETS
Greek
Liddel Scott Lexicon

Jimmy Carter on Women

Losing my religion for equality

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met. Continued...

I referred to Carter's views on women here also.

C-Factor

I acknowledge a C-factor or 47 %, which will surprise some of you. My inner conservative is not yet dead. The fine print indicates my extraordinary ambivalence.

You are somewhat of a Calvinist. Some of your points of view make you look like a Calvinist. However, you live your life in a lighter way than Calvinists do, which allows you to enjoy it more.

ID	Category	Score	Comment
52	Work	86%	You sure have a Calvinistic working ethos. You never work hard enough; work for you is your bounden duty. You are the type of employee any company desires, but the balance between your work and private life may get disturbed.
55	Strictness	20%	You know how to enjoy life. You don't always spend your time in a useful way. Mind the balance!
57	Sobriety	17%	You were not born to be a Calvinist. Catholicism suits you better � slightly hedonistic, loose and emotional.
56	Relationships	0%	In your relationships you are not very reserved. One might say: uncalvinistic. You let yourself go too easily to be a Calvinist.
53	Beliefs	60%	You are an unconcerned believer, who doesn't worry too much.

"Not of blood"

While reading this post at Church-Discipline, I realized that I had not previously understood the meaning of "blood" in John 1:13,

But to all who received him,
who believed in his name,
he gave power to become children of God, ¹³
who were born,
not of blood
or of the will of the flesh
or of the will of man,
but of God.

CD-host writes,

If I were translating I personally would mix dynamic and formal here. I wouldn't want to lose John's clausal structure but I think the "bloods"to "blood" translation is far too literal, and men rather than husband is just plain wrong. The reference to bloods here is critical, but it relies on the Greek idiom that the fetus grows on blood which is not an American English idiom. You could translate it keeping blood with a technical term, something like "not from fetoplacental circulation" but that shifts the tone too much. The key is to retain the spirit vs. flesh theme from John while changing idioms i.e. being dynamic to be made more explicit. Anne Nyland's The Source Bible does a great job for this verse,

"children not born from a woman
nor from the purposes of the natural realm
nor from the purposes of a man,
but born from God."

What's happening here? Here is the Greek,

οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων
οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκὸς
οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς
ἀλλ' ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.

If Nyland is right then, ἐξ αἱμάτων refers to the womb of the mother. I mught try

children not born from the womb of a mother
nor from the will of the natural body
nor from the will of a father,
but born from God.

This reminds me of a passage in Wisdom of Solomon 7:1-2,

καὶ ἐν κοιλίᾳ μητρὸς
ἐγλύφην σὰρξ
2 δεκαμηνιαίῳ χρόνῳ
παγεὶς ἐν αἵματι
ἐκ σπέρματος ἀνδρὸς
καὶ ἡδονῆς ὕπνῳ συνελθούσης.

and in a mother's belly
carved into flesh
For the time of ten months
fit together in blood
out of the seed of a man
and the pleasure
which comes together with sleep

I always wondered what it meant to be born "of blood." And yet, this should be perfectly obvious to me as a woman. I wonder now how I missed that meaning in John 1:13.

Universalism

Some discussions around the blogosphere have got me thinking. Is a universalist a Christian, and is a universalist just as motivated to help others as those who believe in limited atonement?

Two great women suggest that the answer might be in the affirmative. Florence Nightingale and and Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, were both universalists. These two amazing women started organizations of immense importance. In addition, Henri Dunant, founder of Red Cross International was also a universalist, as well as Albert Scweitzer.

Universalism is the theological doctrine that all people will eventually be saved, while evangelicalism stresses the importance of personal conversion as the means of salvation. Here are some scripture verses which support universalism,

• and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself John 12:32
• so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Hebrews 2:9
• who gave himself a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2:6
• and he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. 2 Cor. 5:15
• Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. Romans 5:18

My question is whether an evangelical can honestly point to evidence that universalism is a) not based on scripture and b) not able to motivate people to serve others sacrificially. I am asking if it is useful to lay down boundaries.What if we simply responded to people on the basis of their actions, whether they were doing good or harm to others?

The pope on birth rates

I blogged recently about birth rates, but I had not yet read the pope's opinion on this issue,

44. (second paragraph) Morally responsible openness to life represents a rich social and economic resource. Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people. On the other hand, formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies. The decline in births, falling at times beneath the so-called “replacement level”, also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the “brain pool” upon which nations can draw for their needs. Furthermore, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing social relations, and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity. These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person. In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society[112], and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.

The experience of France, Sweden and the US suggests that enabling mothers to remain in the workplace at least part-time is vital to encouraging women to have children. In Europe the northern countries overall have a higher birth rate than the southern and more Catholic countries. In commenting on this phenomenon, David Willits is cited in this article,

On the surface there are economic explanations for why this phenomenon has occurred in southern Europe. Italy, for example, pays the lowest starting wages of any country in the E.U., which causes young people to delay striking out on their own. And as the British politician David Willetts has noted, “Living at home with your parents is a very powerful contraception.” But the deeper problem may lie precisely in the family-friendly ethos of these countries. This part of the self-definition of southern European culture — the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” ideal — has a flip side. “In all of these countries,” Billari said, “it’s very difficult to combine work and family. And that is partly because, within couples, we have evidence that in these countries the gender relationships are very asymmetric.”

There, according to waves of recent evidence, is the rub — the result of a friction between tectonic plates in modern society that has been quietly at work for decades. The accepted demographic wisdom had been that as women enter the job market, a society’s fertility rate drops. That has been broadly true in the developed world, but more recently, and especially in Europe, the numbers don’t bear it out. In fact, something like the opposite has been the case. According to Hans-Peter Kohler of the University of Pennsylvania, analysis of recent studies showed that “high fertility was associated with high female labor-force participation . . . and the lowest fertility levels in Europe since the mid-1990s are often found in countries with the lowest female labor-force participation.” In other words, working mothers are having more babies than stay-at-home moms.

How can this be? A study released in February of this year by Letizia Mencarini, the demographer from the University of Turin, and three of her colleagues compared the situation of women in Italy and the Netherlands. They found that a greater percentage of Dutch women than Italian women are in the work force but that, at the same time, the fertility rate in the Netherlands is significantly higher (1.73 compared to 1.33). In both countries, people tend to have traditional views about gender roles, but Italian society is considerably more conservative in this regard, and this seems to be a decisive difference. The hypothesis the sociologists set out to test was borne out by the data: women who do more than 75 percent of the housework and child care are less likely to want to have another child than women whose husbands or partners share the load. Put differently, Dutch fathers change more diapers, pick up more kids after soccer practice and clean up the living room more often than Italian fathers; therefore, relative to the population, there are more Dutch babies than Italian babies being born. As Mencarini said, “It’s about how much the man participates in child care.”

Software and the intrusive pronoun

I have had this happen a few times. When discussing a passage like 1 Tim. 3 :1, (also 1 Tim. 5:8)

Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.

Πιστὸς ὁ λόγος: εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

someone will say that it is clearly referring to a man because it says "he." I have asked if they think "anyone" is masculine only, and immediately they assure me that they have, in fact, checked the Greek and yes τις is masculine.

Try it - go to Greekbible.com and choose 1 Tim. 3:1 and click on τις - there it is, masculine. However, in the lexicons, τις is masculine and feminine, it is of common gender.

I daresay that a lot more men refer to software than to lexicons. I wonder what the leading retail software says about τις. I can just see a bunch of guys sitting there saying that since they designed the software, they could chose to make τις mean whatever they wanted it to mean. I think this is pretty shabby.

First Female Black Rabbi

Alysa Stanton is the first black female rabbi. Here are some insights from the article on her ordination,

Twenty percent of the U.S. Jewish population, or about 1.2 million people, are diverse, meaning black, Asian, Latino or mixed race, according to the Institute for Jewish and Community Outreach in San Francisco.

"What's important here is not that this is the first black woman rabbi but rather that it's a symbol of a great change in the American Jewish community, which is becoming much more diverse because of things like conversions, intermarriage and adoption," said Jonathan Sarna, an expert on U.S. Judaism at Brandeis University in Boston.

"That is a change that is really significant," Sarna said. "That a community that even 50 years ago was rather monolithic, so much so that people thought they could look at someone and see if he 'looked Jewish.'

"This is a reminder that the chosen people, so to speak, is not one race or another race but are in fact a range of races," he said. "While Jews remain united by a bond of peoplehood as well as religion, that bond is not characterized in racial terms."

HT Renita Weems

Outwitting History 2

Here is a review of Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky,

When Aaron Lansky's grandmother emigrated to America, she arrived with "a single cardboard valise packed with all her life's possessions" - including a photograph of the parents she would never see again. Her older brother met her at Ellis Island, took her to the Manhattan ferry and threw the case overboard. "You're in America now," he told her. "It's time to leave the Old Country behind."

Jews like the older Lanskys, keen to reinvent themselves as Americans, felt it essential to jettison much of their heritage, and specifically to abandon Yiddish and embrace English. It fell to Aaron, "American through and through", to (metaphorically) "go back to the harbour to reclaim what was lost". In 1980, at the age of 23, he boldly decided "to save the world's Yiddish books". Experts guessed there were about 70,000 volumes still in existence. By the end of this gripping account of a remarkable rescue operation, he and his colleagues at the National Yiddish Book Centre (NYBC) had assembled a collection of one and a half million. While this obviously included multiple copies of star Yiddish authors and translations of world classics, they also found a political dictionary believed to have been lost forever, Russian Revolutionary tracts, even a chronicle of Yiddish-speaking ostrich farmers in Africa.

On one level, Lansky's motives were purely practical. He was keen to study Jewish social history, where many of the primary sources are in Yiddish, and so (like lots of other students) needed to get hold of copies. At the same time, there were many Yiddish-speaking old-timers who had hundreds, sometimes thousands, of books that their children often couldn't read and certainly had no interest in. And libraries in areas where Jews no longer lived were throwing out their Yiddish holdings.

So Lansky's task was to link supply and demand. It sounds simple, but it often meant rushing out at a moment's notice into a rainy New York winter night, for example, to pick up a consignment of discarded books, only to find many "soaked beyond any hope of salvage, floating in a fetid, dye-stained pool at the bottom of a Dumpster". Others were so fragile they crumbled in readers' hands. But those worth saving were stored in a warehouse which had recently been used to teach wallpapering, where "the crowing roosters of a kitchen pattern alternated with the seashells of bathroom, the tumbling astronauts of a kid's bedroom..."

As news of the project got out, dozens of elderly Yiddish speakers, thrilled that some youngsters were interested in their long-forgotten world, would invite Lansky and his friends to give their books a safe home. They would prepare meals so gargantuan that one of the collection team had to be appointed Designated Eater. Many offered to serve as volunteers and one even suggested that the best way of obtaining books was to hang around intensive care units and put pressure on all the expiring Jews.

Most of this older generation was also keen to talk, at great length, about their early immigrant years. Although some were still obsessed with ancient ideological quarrels, many were passionate "homegrown intellectuals" who represented to Lansky "everything that was good about the old Yiddish world: humour, generosity, intelligence, kindness, social consciousness, and an almost preternatural sense of Yiddishkeit [Jewishness]".

More here.

Comedy is wrapped around each sweet and sad moment when the books are passed on. This is a book lovers treat. I'll write soon about what I thought was particularly important about this book.

Phoebe and the gender of deacon

I have noticed that when a discussion of Phoebe comes up, the Greek word diakonos comes in for some interesting analysis. Some report firmly that this word is masculine, arguing that her office was the same as the other "deacons;" and some report that it is feminine, and Phoebe was only a servant. Sometimes the argument is organized in the reverse. I am not sure how, but almost every permutation turns up.

However, one thing I can assure you of, and that is that in software, the Greek word diakonos is technically tagged as feminine in Romans 16:1.

Συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν Φοίβην τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν, οὖσαν [καὶ] διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς,

Try this one out. Here are the results

Case A
Number S
Gender F

διάκονος,n {dee-ak'-on-os}
1) one who executes the commands of another, esp. of a master, a servant, attendant, minister 1a) the servant of a king 1b) a deacon, one who, by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor and has charge of and distributes the money collected for their use 1c) a waiter, one who serves food and drink

However, the reason why the word διάκονον (sing. acc.) is labeled feminine is because οὖσαν also feminine, agrees with it. The word refers to Phoebe, and if there were an article, it would be the feminine article. The word is in every way identical to the masculine word διάκονος. It is the same word and has the same singular form, and the same form in all cases.

When a word behaves in this way, it is said to have a "common gender." It is both masculine and feminine at the same time.

I have been reading this article on Phoebe from SBL. HT Ecce Homo (It was nice to see so many articles on gender and translation.) I enjoyed reading this but I am not sure whether it adds to previous treatments of diakonos and prostatis. I saw Bruce Waltke today and I remember well the rousing discussion we had on whether an analysis of the related verb can elucidate the meaning of prostatis.

About prostatis, it does appear in other Greek literature as "protectress" or "presiding" so I am doubtful as to whether it is a hapax legomenon, in the true sense of the word. Perhaps someone could comment on that.

Also the masculline form of the word is common enough, prostates is used for the temple leader in the Septuagint, and for Christ, our defender in 1 Clement. The meaning falls somewhere in the range of ruler, leader, benefactor, succourer, and so on.

However, from the Wycliff translation on, it has been translated as "help" or "great help." There is some wordplay going on in the Greek that should be mentioned in this regard. Its a little too detailed for this post. In any case, I really like Rotherham's translation of Romans 16:1-2,

And I commend to you Phoebe our sister, - being a minister also of the assembly which is in Cenchreae;

In order that ye may give her welcome in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and stand by her in any matter wherein she may have need of you; for, she also, hath proved to be a defender of many, and of my own self.

Update: I remember now that I had once translated Romans 15:30 - 16:2 in order to demonstrate the wordplay. Here it is,

30 παρακαλῶ δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀδελφοί διὰ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ διὰ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ πνεύματος συναγωνίσασθαί μοι ἐν ταῖς προσευχαῖς ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ πρὸς τὸν θεόν

31 ἵνα ῥυσθῶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀπειθούντων ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ καὶ ἡ διακονία μου ἡ εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ εὐπρόσδεκτος τοῖς ἁγίοις γένηται

32 ἵνα ἐν χαρᾷ ἐλθὼν πρὸς ὑμᾶς διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ συναναπαύσωμαι ὑμῖν 33 ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν ἀμήν


16:1 συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν Φοίβην τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν οὖσαν καὶ διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς

2 ἵνα αὐτὴν προσδέξησθε ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως τῶν ἁγίων καὶ παραστῆτε αὐτῇ ἐν ᾧ ἂν ὑμῶν χρῄζῃ πράγματι καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ προστάτις πολλῶν ἐγενήθη καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ

30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to struggle together with me in prayers on my behalf to God.

31 that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my ministry which is for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

32 so that I may come to you with joy by God's will and together with you be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

16:1 I stand Phoebe with you, being a minister of the church at Cenchrea, 2 that you accept her in the Lord, in a manner worthy of the saints, and stand beside her in whatever matter she may have need of you; because she also has stood before many, even me.

I am sure this is boring, but I think the wordplay shows that Paul was thinking of Phoebe's ministry in a way that was analogous to his own - in some way.

Driscoll and Mothers working outside the home

Does this clip mean that women are not supposed to work outside of the home? Isn't Driscoll saying that 1 Tim. 5:8 applies exclusively to men?