RE: gender-norming

creator (Julian.D.Bukalski@lawrence.edu)
Sat, 06 Apr 1996 12:24:31 -0600 (CST)

I think most of us are missing the point. Whether "man" was meant in a little
more general sense or not, it remains "man" in the text. Is this
male-oriented? Yes, certainly. Whether this is right or wrong is not the
issue, and we must keep to the original Greek, if only to demonstrate that the
original WAS male-oriented. This can be explained by desire to convert a
male-oriented world, by simple "prejudice", or as an extention of Christian
belief, refering back to obedience to heavenly father and to husband. We can
argue forever about whether that's right or not, but that's what the Greek says
so that's what we translate. Almost everyone with reasonable intelligence
realizes that "man" can be used in a more general sense and so will not
misunderstand. In fact, they would only misunderstand if it was mistranslated
and distorted, which neither gives the true flavor of the Bible or of the
thought behind it. (Again, this is not to say whether that thought it right or
not, but it IS Christian, at least as expressed in the written N.T.)

Julian Bukalski
Greek Student currently in New Testament Greek at Lawrence University