Talk Elections

It's a dishonest translation, and as a translator myself I take that seriously, but I don't really object to people referring to God with non-male pronouns when speaking for themselves.

What's your opinion of The Message?

Pro-nouns aside, not bad.

That said, I don't believe the Great Mother in Heaven has anything to do with this and something else seems missing.

Horrible translation. In the Latin version, the Bible clearly says "deus", not "dea". Period.

Paraphrase, not a translation.

Mixed, lean Horrible Paraphrase. My opinion of it has moderated quite a bit since the last time you and I discussed Bible translation a few years ago, and I could see it being used to good effect in youth groups and as private spiritual reading, but the idea of using it liturgically or for adult group study makes me dry heave.

I want you to visit my church and see your reaction.

As a good Protestant, I couldn't care less about the Latin translation from the original.

Honestly, I'm game if I'm ever in Minneapolis.

But it was a Protestant who translated the Bible into a modern language. :P

Yes, from Greek and Hebrew, not Latin.

Even newer Catholic translations are from the original languages rather than the Vulgate.

But the Greek version still says θεός, and not θεά.

100% agree. I was just nitpicking.

FT

Unless women are to have full equality, "God" should not be seen as a male and
to be fair the Goddess is not really a female. If the creator is spirit rather than flesh, he or she transcends gender.

If "men" are created in the image and likeness of the creator, and with a divine-like nature (or at least an "inner light" ), so are women.

As for the "translation", since it is in quotes, I don't take the word literally, so translations which are literal would be just that, but that is a different issue. There is a case to be made for literal (accurate) translations, because an inaccurate translation distorts the original message.
Just saying, it's all open to debate anyway.

Also, I am not sure about Hebrew, but I know that not all languages require a personal pronoun. Also masculine nouns like the Latin word "homo" can apply to a woman as well as to a man. So "theos" could arguably refer to a god that is not necessarily a "he".

Hang on, isn't that just the NRSV but the tweeter has changed 'he' to 'she'? I would imagine someone somewhere has made an original translation where God is female which they could have used instead.

Also, HP because it excludes gender nonbinaries. There's no reason other than cissexism that it should be changed against the text to 'she' and not e.g. 'xe' or 'ze' or 'they'.

II Samuel wasn't originally written in Greek, either. The word you're looking for is אֱלֹהִים .

Horrible translation

Actually, the division of Samuel into two books can be traced to the Septuagint, so while I get what you meant and agree with it, from a certain point of view II Samuel was originally written in Greek.

Basically that is Christianity in a nutshell

I'm sure God is really happy that anyone would get upset over a gendered pronoun /s

Learn Latin.  Word is a poor translation for Logos

Yep, it's NRSV. Voted FT b/c I like the NRSV & don't really care about the pronoun-switching — it's intentionally provocative, sure, but honestly not a big deal.

This woman is an Episcopal priest by the way. Is she abnormal or pretty standard?

Please tell me if this makes sense.

In Judaism, "God" is not a physical human. He/she is pure spirit, as I understand the tradition.
"God" (unlike Jesus) has never been seen with a human eye, therefore. Are "God" and "he" merely arbitrary ways to refer to this unseen spirit?

Also, the Hebrew word which is translated "THE LORD" refers to Jehovah, not to Jesus (in Judaism). This is because, from the way I understand it, Jews have traditionally not been allowed to speak this name (Jehovah), because to do so was considered bad because the name was too holy to say out loud.
The word "lord" also implies maleness, and perhaps? more so than Jehovah, since Jehovah was not seen as a physical being.

Depends on where you're at. Using she/her (She/Her?) to refer to God is something you'd just never see done in Southwest Florida, and it's not something I've encountered in Chicago. Snodgrass, however, is a priest in the Diocese of Newark, which has always been one of the most radical dioceses in the Church — on gay & female inclusion in the priesthood, on virtually everything John Shelby Spong has ever said, and so on. I'd call it abnormal for the Episcopal Church I know, but probably not unusual in Newark.