Bible’s treatment of gender at issue

By Yonat Shimron

Raleigh News & Observer

Was it “man” that God created in his own image, or “human beings”? And when the Apostle Paul wrote from prison “my brothers, rejoice in the Lord,” did he mean “my brothers and sisters”?

These are burning questions in evangelical circles these days. Word that a new, gender-neutral translation of the New International Version – the best-selling modern English translation of the Bible – is planned has unleased a fury of protest, mostly among conservative Southern Baptists.

Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and a national leader within the denomination, said it’s part of a “feminist effort to re-engineer society and abandon God’s parameters for the home and church.”

Officials at the Southern Baptist Convention expect delegates at the national convention next month to propose a resolution urging members, boards and agencies to reject the new edition. “We see the Bible as God’s inspired word,” said Danny Akin, dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. “We’re not enthusiastic about anyone tampering with it. God is perfectly capable of revealing himself in a clear, culturally relevant way.”

The hoopla follows a decision by Zondervan Publishing House of Grand Rapids, Mich., Publisher of the NIV, to appoint a committee of 15 translators to add or substitute inclusive language to generic masculine references. For example, when the Bible uses the word “men” generically, the translators will use “people” or “human beings.”

We want to make the NIV as accessible as possible to a new generation,” said Jonathan Petersen, director of corporate affairs at Zondervan. “There’s no social agenda or desire to be politically correct.”

The new translation, which Zondervan expects to publish in 2001, will keep the masculine gender in references to God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Zondervan doesn’t plan to discontinue its current edition when the new edition comes out.

In the United States, gender-inclusive Bibles are available under the New Revisited Standard Version translations. But the stakes are much higher with the New International Version, which holds a 45 percent share of all the Bibles sold in the United States.

“Zondervan obviously thinks there are more moderates and people with a feminist agenda who will buy those Bibles,” Patterson said. I happen to think most of those people don’t buy Bibles. I haven’t been trampled by a feminist trying to get to the Bible section of a bookstore.”