A Bizarre Treatment Of Holy Scripture

An extraordinary idea has been sponsored in the United States by the National Council of Churches, an organization supported by thirty-two Protestant and Orthodox denominations. Under pressure from the feminist movement, the Council appointed a Committee to re-translate selected portions of Scripture so that sexual inequalities would be as far as possible eliminated! This "Inclusive Language Lectionary Committee" included six male and six female scholars (one a Roman Catholic nun), who all favoured the feminist viewpoint.

The first instalment of these Scripture readings was published last autumn

"An Inclusive Language Lectionary: Readings for a Year". This volume provides 209 passages from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, altered to meet the demand for freedom from "male bias" in the Scriptures. Here is the rendering of John 3:16

For God so love the world that God gave God's only Child, that whoever believes in that Child should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent that Child into the world, not to condemn the world, but that through that Child the world might be saved".

Notice the alterations to ensure that God is not referred to as "He", and the Lord Jesus is not spoken of as "Son". The male references must be avoided in favour of "God" or "Child" which could be thought of (in the view of the translaters) as either male or female.

Similarly all references to God as "Father" are adjusted by inserting "Mother" in square brackets either before or after " Father". As for example in Mat. 11:27

"All things have been delivered to me by (God) my Father (and Mother):

and no one knows the Child except God, and no one knows God except the Child and anyone to whom the Child chooses to reveal God".

Why this clumsy and strained amendment? Because, they argue, "Mother" may be used as a metaphor for God just as well as "Father." Do not some Scriptures refer to God in terms more appropriate to a mother than a father (e.g. Isa. 66:12-13)?

Uniformly in place of "Son of God" the Lord Jesus is described as "Child of God," and instead of "Son of Man" as "Human One." "Lord", seen to be a masculine concept, is substituted by "Sovereign" or "Sovereign One."

The whole basis of this treatment of the Holy Scriptures is of course repugnant to all who believe that "every scripture is inspired of God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, completely furnished unto every good work"(2 Tim. 3:16, 17). If the Scriptures are "God-breathed," if "men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21), if every jot and tittle has significance (Mat. 5:18), then translators should not take the liberty of altering the plain sense of the generally accepted Hebrew and Greek texts. Their responsibility is to produce a translation which accurately conveys what those texts say. Quite evidently, the scholars serving on the Committee which produced the "Inclusive Language Lectionary" were not working on this principle.

Even some "liberal" scholars who do not accept the verbal inspiration of Scripture have protested about the Lectionary They consider that the Bible must be preserved as a historical text, whatever interpretation may be placed upon it. So they are opposed to the alteration of the Bible to further the views of such a cause as feminism.

The spiritually-minded believer will see this attempt to give Scripture a unisexual bias as a further attempt by Satan to undermine mainline truths of divine revelation. For example, our Bible uniquely reveals the only one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Limited though our understanding of this mystery must always be, it is in His infinite wisdom that God has so chosen to reveal Himself. To alter the names and titles of Deity as given in Scripture is fearfully presumptuous, and can only lead away from truth to vain human reasonings. Then throughout Scripture God's distinct design and purpose for man and woman have been so clearly indicated. The feminist attempt to establish the "equality" of the sexes runs against the grain of revealed divine principle. Not that woman is seen in Scripture as inferior to man. Yet in divine wisdom she is given a subject role. It is when this is accepted in fellowship with God that His ideals for womanhood are achieved, and He is most fully glorified (Gen. 2:18-25; 1 Cor. 11:3; 14:34; 1 Tim. 2:8-15).

Further instalments of the Lectionary are planned for 1984 and 1985. When these are completed, the three volumes of readings will include over 90% of the New Testament and about 60% of the Old. The National Council of Churches denies that it has any intention of publishing a new version of the Bible on these lines, although future editions of the Revised Standard Version may include minor changes such as "humanity" instead of "man." But some members of the Lectionary Committee have expressed the hope that the translations will pave the way in due course towards a Bible free of what they regard as "male bias." To be forewarned is to be forearmed. We should beware of this strange attempt to alter God's word in favour of a modern social movement.

unknown | Mar 1984
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