enter anthropos, the woman

Have I sat by and watched the dehumanization of woman? I don't know, but so long and no more.

Anthropos is a Greek noun of common gender, a human creature, woman or man. That those who are male wish to alienate women from being classified as human, should come as no surprise to me. It is easier to dismiss the one who is less human. It is easier to excuse her absence, her presence elsewhere, so man can the paradigmatic human, the paradigmatic christian, the paradigmatic blogger, the paradigmatic reader of this blog.

(You know I mean the opposite of this - that the ideal reader of this blog is human - a woman. But a man, if he deems himself human also, may read this blog.)

Here is a story of six women. You tell me now if woman is "human."

Woman #1

There was in the Paeanian deme, a woman called Phya, three fingers short of six feet, four inches in height, and otherwise, too, well-formed. This woman they equipped in full armor and put in a chariot, giving her all the paraphernalia to make the most impressive spectacle, and so drove into the city; heralds ran before them, and when they came into town proclaimed as they were instructed:


“Athenians, give a hearty welcome to Pisistratus, whom Athena herself honors above all men and is bringing back to her own acropolis.”

So the heralds went about proclaiming this; and immediately the report spread in the demes that Athena was bringing Pisistratus back, and the townsfolk, believing that the woman was the goddess herself, worshipped this human creature(anthropos) and welcomed Pisistratus.

Herodotus, The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley) 1:60

Woman #2

Cratinus once had a dispute over a farm with the brother-in-law of Callimachus. A personal encounter ensued. Having concealed a female slave,(anthropos) they accused Cratinus of having crushed her head, and asserting that she had died as a result of the wound, they brought suit against him in the court of the Palladium on the charge of murder.

Isocrates, Speeches and Letters


Woman #3

Philoneos' mistress accompanied him to attend the sacrifice. On reaching Peiraeus, Philoneos of course carried out the ceremony. When the sacrifice was over, the woman (anthropos) considered how to administer the draught: should she give it before or after supper? Upon reflection, she decided that it would be better to give it afterwards, thereby carrying out the suggestion of this Clytemnestra here.


Antiphon, Speeches (ed. K. J. Maidment), Prosecution Of The Stepmother For Poisoning

Woman #4

While she was still living in the tenement-house, she had relations with a freedman whose name was Dion, whom she declared to be the father of these young men; and Dion did, in fact, bring them up as his own children.

Some time later Dion, having committed a misdemeanor and being afraid of the consequences, withdrew to Sicyon. The woman (anthropos) Alce was then installed by Euctemon to look after his tenement-house in the Cerameicus, near the postern gate, where wine is sold.

Isaeus, Speeches, On the Estate of Philoctemon

Woman #5

They said such things among themselves; and Pelias arrived, rushing headlong with his mule team and his polished chariot. He was instantly astonished, looking at the single sandal, plain to see on the stranger's right foot. But he hid his fear in his heart and said:


“What country, stranger, do you claim as your fatherland? And what woman, (anthropos) of mortals on earth, bore you from her aged womb? Do not befoul your story with most hateful lies, but tell me of your birth.”

Pindar, Odes, Pythian Odes

Woman #6

At first, I believe, they only tried to make her drink quietly and eat dessert; so Iatrocles told me the following day. But as the carouse went on, and they became heated, they ordered her to sit down and give them a song. The poor girl (anthropos) was bewildered, for she did not wish, and she did not know how, to sing.

Then Aeschines and Phryno declared that it was intolerable impertinence for a captive,--and one of those ungodly, pernicious Olynthians too,--to give herself such airs.


“Call a servant,” they cried; “bring a whip, somebody.”

In came a flunkey with a horsewhip, and--I suppose they were tipsy, and it did not take much to irritate them,when she said something and began to cry, he tore off her dress and gave her a number of lashes on the back.

Demosthenes, Speeches 11-20, On the Embassy

ἡ ἄνθρωπος:

A human creature,
statuesque and goddess-like,
mistress and murderer

She is the body-broken slave,
a captive to be whipped
because she cannot sing.

She loves,
has sex
and expels the child
from her womb.

But some men
still deny
woman
the name
"human."

Bibliography

Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University

Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.

Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.

Isaeus. Isaeus with an English translation by Edward Seymour Forster, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1962.

Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.

Pindar. Odes. 1990.

Aner: either male or female

Alan Bandy has been blogging about gender language and the generic pronoun. Today he posted on the gender implications of aner. Alan writes,

[Blomberg] posited that James 1:8 employs ανηρ as parallel to the generic “man” described as ανθρωπος in verse 7, and “a quick glance at all of the other uses of aner in this letter demonstrates that almost all clearly refer to men and women alike.”[3]

In response, however, it is possible that James could be using ανθρωπος as a specific reference to a male rather than humanity in general.[4] More importantly, it remains that BDAG does not include the possibility for a generic use of ανηρ and it is difficult to prove the existence of clear examples.[5] All references in BDAG clearly mark ανηρ as a distinct word for male, except entry six which indicates it as equivalent to τις (someone) in certain contexts.[6] A look at those references cited reveals that every one of the uses of τις refers to a man or men.[7] To translate ανηρ inclusively requires a liberty in translation that semantic range does not clearly allow.

In response to Alan, I offer this list,

Examples of aner in the singular being translated in a gender neutral fashion

a) ἀνήρ (singular) as ‘person’

i) εὐφήμει: οὐ μεντἂν καλῶς ποιοίην οὐ πειθόμενος ἀνδρὶ ἀγαθῷ καὶ σοφῷ.

Hush, hush! Why, surely it would be wrong of me not to obey a good and wise person. Plato. Hipparchus. 228b

ii) ἀλλ' ἴσως, ὦ βέλτιστε, φαίη ἄν τις ἀνήρ, ὃς ἐμοῦ τε καὶ σοῦ σοφώτερος ὢν τυγχάνοι, οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἡμᾶς, λέγειν, οὕτως εἰκῇ ψέγοντας ἄγνοιαν,

But perhaps, my excellent friend, some person who is wiser than either you or I may say we are wrong to be so free with our abuse of ignorance. Plato. Alcibiades 2. 143b

b) ἀνήρ (singular) as ‘everyone’

πᾶς ἀνήρ, κἂν δοῦλος ᾖ τις, ἥδεται τὸ φῶς ὁρῶν

Slave or free, every one is glad to gaze upon the light. Euripides. Orestes. 1523.

c) ἀνήρ (singular) as ‘they’

ὅταν ἀγασθῶσι σφόδρα του, σεῖος ἀνήρ φασιν, οὕτω καὶ ὁ θηριώδης ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις σπάνιος:

‘Yon mon's divine, ’they say--, so a bestial character is rare among human beings; Aristotle. Nic. Ethics. 1145a 25.

d) ἀνήρ (singular) as ‘citizen’, either male or female

ποτὲ ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς γίγνοιτ' ἄν, τὴν ἀνθρώπῳ προσήκουσαν ἀρετὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἔχων .... , εἴτε ἄρρην τις των συνοικούντων οὖσα ἡ φύσις εἴτε θήλεια, νέων ἢ γερόντων

… in which a member of our community--be he of the male or female sex, young or old,--may become a good citizen, possessed of the excellence of soul which belongs to man. Plato's Laws 6. 770d.

(In this sentence, the Greek word ανθρωπος is translated as "man" generic, "the excellence of soul which belongs to man", that is, the human, either male or female; and the word ανηρ is translated as citizen, either male or female.)

e) ἀνήρ as ‘individual’

ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν τοῦ χρυσοῦ τε καὶ ἀργύρου ἀπληστίαν πᾶσαν μὲν τέχνην καὶ μηχανήν ... ἐθέλειν ὑπομένειν πάντα ἄνδρα, εἰ μέλλει πλούσιος ἔσεσθαι

every individual, because of his greed for silver and gold, is willing to toil at every art and device, noble or ignoble, if he is likely to get rich by it, Plato's Laws. 8.831d.

Examples of aner in the plural being translated in a gender neutral fashion

a) ανδρες as 'people'

αὐτὸς δ', ἀργυρότοξε, ἄναξ ἑκατηβόλ' Ἄπολλον,
ἄλλοτε μέν τ' ἐπὶ Κύνθου ἐβήσαο παιπαλόεντος,
ἄλλοτε δ' ἂν νήσους τε καὶ ἀνέρας ἠλάσκαζες.

And you, O lord Apollo, god of the silver bow,
shooting afar, now walked on craggy Cynthus,
and now kept wandering about the islands

and the people in them. Homeric Hymns 3.142

b) ανδρες as 'race of men', which I note refers to human beings of both sex.

καὶ ἡμιθέων* γένος ἀνδρῶν

… and the race of men half-divine. Iliad 12:23

c) ανδρες as 'mankind'

ἐξ οὗ Κενταύροισι καὶ ἀνδράσι νεῖκος ἐτύχθη

From hence the feud arose between the centaurs and mankind. Odyssey 21:303

d) ανδρες as 'men' generic

τὴν δ' ἠμείβετ' ἔπειτα πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε:

In answer to her spoke the father of men and gods: Iliad 1.544

e) ανδρες as 'men' with the same referent as 'people'

ἀκίνδυνοι δ' ἀρεταὶ
οὔτε παρ' ἀνδράσιν* οὔτ' ἐν ναυσὶ κοίλαιςτίμιαι:
πολλοὶ δὲ μέμνανται, καλὸν εἴ τι ποναθῇ*.

But excellence without danger is honored
neither among men nor in hollow ships.
But many people remember,
if a fine thing is done with toil. Pindar Odes 6.9-12

f) ανδρες as ‘friends’

ὦ πάντων ἀνδρῶν ἄριστοι

Most excellent friends, … Plato's Laws. 5.741a.

g) ανδρες as ‘citizens’

νείμασθαι δὲ δὴ καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας δώδεκα μέρη

And he must divide the citizens also into twelve parts, … Plato's Laws. 5.745d.

This list is by no means exhaustive and was done without a sophisticated software search. It is just a smattering of examples of the gender inclusive use of aner.

Bibliography.

Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1934. Nichomachean Ethics. line 1145a 25

Euripides. Orestes. 1523 tr. E.P. Coleridge. 1938. (translated in 1898)

Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.

Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.

Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.

Pindar. Odes. 1990. (accessed in the Perseus Digital Library)

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 8 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1955. (1914) Alcibiades 2. line 143b

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 8 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1955. (1914) Hipparchus. 228b

Plato. Laws. In Two volumes, tr. By R. G. Bury. Loeb Classical Library. 1926.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968.

What would you send to Africa?

Would you send an ESV Study Bible or a microloan to a woman in Africa? April recently posted on the $100 million missing women in Asia. (Some girls are also missing in the school I teach in. 3 grades out of 7 have twice as many boys as girls. The other grades have a more even distribution. No grade has more girls than boys.)

Here is the article April linked to,

Contrary to popular assumption, “developed” societies don’t necessarily treat women any better than developing nations. The education level and economic success of a society do not guarantee high status for women. According to an article by Tina Rosenberg, the sole determinant for women’s low social status is patriarchy. No matter how wealthy or educated a society is, if men are privileged women will suffer.

The issue offers some good news. There is something that helps: microlending to women. Women who are loaned small amounts of money (sometimes the equivalent of $20) not only dramatically improve their own lives but also those of their families and their communities. From a sheer economic standpoint, lending to women is more effective than lending to men: women feed and educate their children and employ others. Several profiles of women put flesh on those statistics, telling moving stories of how women who are financially empowered are able to radically change their health and the power dynamics within their families. (Want to offer a microloan to a woman? Go to kiva.org.

Now for the other option. If you send an ESV Study Bible to Africa, the woman will be taught that she must submit to her husband, and he does not have to submit to her. Perhaps the loan will be wasted. The two are incompatible. So take your choice, but you can't have it both ways, either the loan or the ESV Study Bible.

Jesus Girls

Read this book review and the comments for some insight into how bizarre and painful it can be to be a woman in an evangelical Christian community. Some of the comments are to make you cry.

Citing blogs

Considering all the talk about whether blogging has legitimacy or not, I wonder if people have linked to webcite. Here is how it works,

The Problem

Authors increasingly cite webpages and other digital objects on the Internet, which can "disappear" overnight. In one study published in the journal Science, 13% of Internet references in scholarly articles were inactive after only 27 months. Another problem is that cited webpages may change, so that readers see something different than what the citing author saw. The problem of unstable webcitations and the lack of routine digital preservation of cited digital objects has been referred to as an issue "calling for an immediate response" by publishers and authors [1].

An increasing number of editors and publishers ask that authors, when they cite a webpage, make a local copy of the cited webpage/webmaterial, and archive the cited URL in a system like WebCite^®, to enable readers permanent access to the cited material.

What is WebCite^®?

WebCite^®, a member of the International Internet Preservation Consortium, is an on-demand archiving system for webreferences (cited webpages and websites, or other kinds of Internet-accessible digital objects), which can be used by authors, editors, and publishers of scholarly papers and books, to ensure that cited webmaterial will remain available to readers in the future. If cited webreferences in journal articles, books etc. are not archived, future readers may encounter a "404 File Not Found" error when clicking on a cited URL. Try it! Archive a URL here. It's free and takes only 30 seconds.

A WebCite^®-enhanced reference is a reference which contains - in addition to the original live URL (which can and probably will disappear in the future, or its content may change) - a link to an archived copy of the material, exactly as the citing author saw it when he accessed the cited material.

And here for archiving.

Who is a defender of widows?

When we hear that God is the defender, or judge, of widows we may think of a human judge - a man, who defends or advocates for the single woman. But, in 1 Tim. 5:16, it is the woman who cares for the widows in her family,

"If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need."

In Psalm 68:5, God is,

"A father of the fatherless,
and a judge of the widows"

This sounds like the image of a male authority, a protector and defender. But before we assume that the reference is male, it is worth remembering that in this psalm there are several allusions to the song of Deborah, who was a judge and a mother of Israel.

There are, in fact, many women in scripture who fit the role of protector and defender. Rahab was the one who rescued all the members of her family who assembled in her house. Michal helped David to escape from her father, Saul. and Naomi and Ruth stood by each other. Other women who filled the role of protector are Miriam, Pharoah's daughter, Esther, Joanna, Phoebe, and Lydia.

In our tradition, Elizabeth Cady-Stanton, Catherine Booth, Catherine Kroeger-Clark and Susan Hunt are women who are known for being defenders of women. But I think that Miriam, Pharoah's daughter, Esther, Michal, Rahab, Lydia and Phoebe are more accurately defenders of men. Either way, in response to Damien's post, the image of judge and defender in the scripture is not a purely masculine image.

Compassionate Mother: part 9

A passage from this post by Dorothy Peters continues the discussion of God as mother and deliverer,

With minor apologies to my male colleagues and friends, my mind definitely has been running lately to more feminine metaphors about God, meshalim on childbirth, the labouring mother, and on midwives. In the latest meditation under construction for my book, I have been thinking about the delivering God and wondering whether he is more like the midwife or the labouring mother.

Although I love my God-as-Father, there are days when I just need a God-as-Mother more, someone who is little less the all-powerful military hero and a little more like a woman. Someone who, in her vulnerability, understands how to carry, deliver, nurse, and comfort a suffering child. One is seldom more vulnerable and helpless than when giving birth or being born. In this ancient song from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writer first identifies himself as a labouring mother but then makes the shift to identify with the baby, the safely delivered one who is named as a “wonderful counselor.

The songwriter uses two different words for the deliverance accomplished by God and by the mother. That there is significant overlap in their meanings, however, can be seen in the way that these words are found in parallel in Isaiah 31:4-5. Here, the prophet first describes God as a great, growling lion and a masculine warrior “LORD of hosts” coming down to do battle on Mount Zion. In the next verse, the image of God shifts to a much gentler one. In this verse “birds hovering overhead” deliver and rescue Jerusalem. These words, “deliver” and “rescue,” are the same ones used by the Dead Sea Scrolls songwriter to describe both God’s delivering role and that of the mother.

Ryken vs Köstenberger

Here is an odd thing. Perhaps a few people could comment on this conundrum -

Leland Ryken defends a "word by word" translation here.

One of the clichés of the dynamic equivalent movement is “meaning based translation,” rather than “word-based translation.” But the dichotomy is a false one. Essentially literal translators believe that the meaning that the biblical authors intended us to grasp is embodied in the words that they used. The implication of “meaning-based” advocates is that essentially literal translations lack meaning!

and here,

All translation is lexical interpretation, and that is all that can be accurately said about “all” translation. All translation is the translator’s interpretation of what English word or phrase best captures the meaning of the equivalent word in the original text.

The other kind of interpretation is what we call exegesis and commentary. It offers an interpretation of the meaning of a text—not usually an individual word, as in lexical interpretation, but meaning of the broader content of an utterance. For example, to render Psalm 23:5a as “you anoint my head with oil” is a lexical decision as to what English words are the verbal equivalent of the words of the original. But when a dynamic equivalent translation renders that verse as “you welcome me as an honored guest,” we have moved beyond lexical interpretation to commentary.

What happens if we apply this principle to 1 Tim. 2:12. Andy Naselli writes in the JBMW journal,

After exhaustively studying authenteo in extrabiblical literature, he [Henry Baldwin] concludes that four meanings are possible: (1) to control, to dominate; (2) to compel, to influence; (3) to assume authority over; and (4) to flout the authority of.

But lower down Naselli writes, with reference to Köstenberger,

His thesis is that didaskein and authentein (two infinitives joined by oude,) both denote either positive or negative activities; since didaskein must be positive, authentein is a positive activity and thus must mean "to have or exercise authority" and not "to flout the authority of " or "to domineer."

Why does Köstenberger so strongly disagree with translating the word authentein according to its lexical meaning? (While I agree with his analysis of oude, my understanding is that didaskein does not necessarily have to denote a positive activity, but authentein is found with a uniquely negative connotation, so both verbs must be negative in this verse.)

Grudem also strongly disagrees with any attempt to translate the word authenteo according to its recognized lexical meaning,

in 1 Timothy 2:12 the TNIV adopts a highly suspect and novel translation that gives the egalitarian side everything they have wanted for years in a Bible translation. It reads, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man”

Ryken seems to be saying that altering the word due to an exegetical analysis or an appeal to context, would be commentary rather than translation. I wonder if either John Starke or Andy Naselli would care to clarify why authentein should not be translated with a "verbal equivalent" in this passage.

Roundup of Female Biblical Scholars

Thanks to Mike Koke of the Golden Rule, we now have a list of influential female biblical scholars. In another post, Mike tallies the results to see which scholars are most popular. I think readers here will enjoy this list.

Compassionate Mother: part 8

PETITION (A PRAYER FOR SELICHOT)

Compassionate One, remember

we are your children

help us to know again
that we are cradled

during these awesome days
of changing light

we want to return
to your lap, to your arms

remind us how to believe
that we are loved

not for our achievements
but because we are yours

as the moon of Elul wanes
and the new year rushes in

hear us with compassion
enfold us, don't let us go

from Rachel Baranblat of Velveteen Rabbi

Compassionate Mother: part 7

I have been exploring the mother imagery in referring to the different members of the Godhead. Doug has posted on Jesus our Mother,

Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you; •


you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.

Often you weep over our sins and our pride, •
tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgement.

You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds, •
in sickness you nurse us, and with pure milk you feed us.

Jesus, by your dying we are born to new life;
by your anguish and labour we come forth in joy.

Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness; •
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.

Your warmth gives life to the dead, •
your touch makes sinners righteous.

Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us; •
in your love and tenderness remake us.

In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness, •
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us.

A Song of Julian of Norwich

God chose to be our mother in all things •
and so made the foundation of his work,
most humble and most pure,
in the Virgin’s womb.

God, the perfect wisdom of all, •
arrayed himself in this humble place.

Christ came in our poor flesh •
to share a mother’s care.

Our mothers bear us for pain and for death; •
our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life.

Christ carried us within him in love and travail, •
until the full time of his passion.

And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy, •
still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love.

All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God, •
for the love of Christ works in us; Christ is the one whom we love.

Damien hopes to collect these references in one place. I will post Rachel's poem next. It deserves a post of its own.

Bet Avot

I had discovered some time ago that the expression bet avot meant old people's home in Hebrew. No, it is not a place for men only and cannot be translated into English as the "house of fathers."

Here is Joel's full post on this topic, Gender in Modern Hebrew - An Example,

I think it might be informative to look at how av (usually translated “father”) and its plural, avot, work in Modern Hebrew. Even though we can’t directly conclude anything about ancient Hebrew or Greek from Modern Hebrew, we can learn more about how gender — at least potentially — works in human language.

In no particular order, here are some facts about av and avot in Modern Hebrew:



• When people talk about their literal father, one word they use is av.* (When they talk about their mother, one word is em.)
  
• The word av is grammatically masculine.
  
• The plural avot is grammatically masculine, even though it ends in -ot which is often reserved for feminine plurals.
  
• When Lucy, the “first human,” was discovered, she was called av kadmon in Hebrew, literally “original av.”
  
• When people talk about how “fathers” are different than “mothers,” the words they use are avot and imahot (the plural of em).
  
• The Hebrew for “old-age home” is bet avot, literally, “house of avot.” (The phrase applies equally to men and women.)
  
• When people talk about their “ancestors,” the word they use is avot. (Again, the phrase does not have specifically male connotations.)

It seems to me that if a theory of gender and language doesn’t allow for the possabilites above, it’s probably inaccurate, or, at least, incomplete, so we shouldn’t use that theory to try to understand ancient languages.

(*) In addition to av, there’s a less formal word aba in Hebrew. The two words approximate the difference between “father” and “dad.”

Here and there

Chris Heard posts his thoughts on the bibliobloggers kerfuffle. Phew. I can relax now. The whole idea of being a biblioblogger was never intended to be official.

Cheryl Schatz has posted her contribution to the Women in Ministry blog conference, and you can see the most recent post here.

April DeConick has developed a marvellous Women and Religion Blogroll. Fantastic. I will continue to update my list and post a permanent link to it soon.

I am adding God didn't say that to my blogroll. Joel is providing some background to stuff I have seen before but couldn't articulate as well. I think that it would be interesting to compare Joel's ideas about translation with those of Leland Ryken.

Bible translation tribalism

Scot Mcknight is hosting a discussion on bible translation tribalism. I hope that I don't give the idea that we are the TNIV tribe here. We support many different translations and we also want to express out support for the TNIV.

Dutch Biblioblogs

April writes,

I just received a very kind e-mail from Jan Pieter van de Giessen who has been watching the positive and negative reactions on the blogs regarding my postings about what we are going to do about the gender gap. This became the starting point for some Dutch biblical bloggers who write only in Dutch to notice that there is a "gap" for Biblioblogs written in non-English languages. So they have just created BiblioblogNED to represent Dutch voices. Jan also noted that this collection of voices is different from other lists because it does not make distinctions between male and female bloggers or the churches from which they come.

Compassionate Mother: part 6

I have been exploring the use of gendered pronouns for the word, the spirit, the exemplary Christian, and so on. In spite of the fact that the spirit is grammatically feminine in Hebrew, Aramaic and early Syriac, I am not suggesting that the spirit is essentially feminine, but rather that the spirit is not essentially masculine.

God, the creator, and God, the spirit are without sex; but in a gendered language they must be referred to as either masculine, feminine or neuter. The spirit is all three in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. As Doug writes,

I think we need to address the tendency that creeps into some prayer forms (especially) to make the Spirit the feminine side of God. Doing so seems to me to not only introduce the concept of gender into the Godhead (which is beyond gender), but to have the unfortunate side effect of reinforcing Father and Son as essentially masculine terms. I think that a careful use of feminine language about God has its place, who like a mother feeds us with the milk of the word. I just think that we should not confine such language to the Spirit.

Here is the very next segment from Fire from Heaven by Sebastien Brock, page 255,

As was observed earlier, female imagery is by no means restricted to the Holy Spirit, and on occasion the term 'Mother' is applied to the Godhead, without further specification, as in the following beautiful passage from Jacob of Serugh.


(God) created creation, and like a compassionate mother (yaledta)
he carries it, his hidden power acting with strength;
just as a mother does not grow weary of her son, so God never gets weary,
for a mother's compassion is bound up in love for her child.
The Godhead is indeed a compassionate mother (emma),
and he carries the world like a child, in great love.

Update: Damien contributes to the discussion here linking to Rachel Barenblat on this topic.

It is not good for print to be alone

I think my readers will love this introduction to the PodBible. The translation used in the PodBible is the CEV.

Disposing text on a page inevitably interprets it. So written bibles are good, but they are not good alone. It is not good for print to be alone. Enter PodBible.

The predominant voice is Kiwi - which may explain why I am wondering which book of the Bible is called Jerry Mayer. Help, anyone?

Friends of the TNIV

The TNIV is an evangelical translation, I would say, and as such has its best friends among the evangelicals. Here are a list of blogs which love the TNIV,

Aberration Blog - They’ll get my TNIV only when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!
Just After Sunrise
This Lamp - On a more personal note, I love the TNIV because I am a pastor
New Leaven - unwavering love
συνεσταύρωμαι: living the crucified life - The only Christian public who was refusing the TNIV was you and your cronies
Scripture Zealot
Gentle Wisdom
Eugene Cho
Wesley Report
Sojourners
Jesus Creed
Evangelion
TNIV Truth
Evepheso
Sansblogue
Jack of all Trades
Classical Arminianism
Apprentice2Jesus - I have retained the use of the TNIV in preaching,
New Epistles - I am currently reeling from my deep disappointment with this decision.
Emerging Women - since it’s publication have used the TNIV
Tomorrow's Reflection - I was one of the apparently small minority of people that really enjoyed the TNIV
Unrelated Ramblings - The TNIV is the only conservative gender-accurate bible on the market right now and it will be sorely missed
Inquiring Minds - dear old friend
Tim Chesterton -I still think it's one of the best translations of the Bible on the market today.
Sundry Times - will do my own word-of-mouth advertising for it. I will encourage other people to buy it and use it.
Brad Boydston - the TNIV is already the best balanced translation on the American market
Ian Hugh Cary - t’s sad that a good translation is going the way of the buffalo
Headsparks - I have found the TNIV to be a faithful, accurate and scholarly update
Reflections - I love the TNIV. I believe that it is a balanced view of translation and biblical scholarship and also takes out previous gender biases.
Strangers and Aliens - I rather nailed my colours to the mast, pointing out in passing that I have purchased a TNIV and that is going to be my preaching Bible.
Mark Stevens
Clobberblog
Mannaword
Disciplus Scripturae
Mark Baker-Wright - my favored translation for some time now

I will keep this post active and add citations as I am able. Please spread the word and I will add more names. If I link to you unadvisedly I will happily remove your name. Thanks for your patience.

Update: This post will have to be followed by a list of scholars who support the TNIV. As well as its own translators, Fee, Waltke and others, I have just read quotes by Wallace, Bock, Carson, Blomberg, Strauss, ...

Female Biblical Scholars Meme

• Linda Belleville for demonstrating that one can never, ever be too careful with language data. Her work on Junia was ground breaking but possibly too little read.
  
• Carol Meyers for writing everything there is to know about women in the Hebrew Bible. I first ran into her ideas in Richard Bauckam's Gospel Women.
• Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza for In Memory of Her
• Catherine Booth for being a pioneer of women preaching.
• Karen King for opening the door to a new way of thinking about other religions.
• Elaine Pagels for turning things on their end and giving permission to ask fundamental questions.
• Katherine Bushnell for pioneering the work of challenging male dominated translations.

Mike, thank you very much for starting this meme. Sorry I am a little late.

Women's voices

I used to think that because April DeConick was an academic that she would be accepted as one of the guys. However, it turns out I was quite wrong. I won't link to all the crap posted on this topic, but I have seen the posts, and am aware that female bibliobloggers have been derided as "bible chicks" and dominatrixes. The accompanying cartoons are not affectionate by any stretch of the imagination so you can discount the myth that this is affectionate teasing.

April DeConick writes,

I have to say that it is striking how immediately aggressive and sexualized some of the male reaction to my gender blogging has been, and how the humor used (including the cartoons and some of my colleagues reactions to those cartoons and circulation of them) turned women like me into either bitches, madams, or dominatrixes. Much of the male interpretation of my words has literalized them and exaggerated them, so that my words have been turned into the sexist words of a "man-hater" as one blogger put it. I wonder if he would say this to my husband?

I wonder if anyone else has wondered what the purpose of this kind of sexually aggressive rhetoric is? What is it trying to accomplish?

Curiously men want to maintain that if there are few women blogging about the bible, in general and acceptable ways, it is their own fault.The truth is that there are many women blogging about the bible and many of them are asking the simple question - how did it all go so wrong? Many men are not that interested in that question, since afterall, for whom did it all go wrong?

Rather than assert that women have the worst of all worlds, let me simply say that the bible is often used to deprive women of authority, in the home and in the church. This is what many women bloggers are trying to address before they move into the luxury of dabbling in speculation on archaeological contributions to the academy.

Here is a good example of a biblioblog focused on this single issue. Who knows what women might write about if they were freed from the tyranny of the teaching of submission?