Gender in Pronouns

Danny Andre' Dixon bereandad at yahoo.com
Sun Jun 9 15:01:13 EDT 2002


Harry:

You ask "wouldn't Grammatical gender be the same as
biological gender?"

I think it would be best to allow the contextually
inherent nature or quality of the word determine how
to translate the grammatical gender.

For example, consider the neuter phrase TO APOLWLOS of
Luke 19:10. Here we are told that the "Son of Man came
to seek and to save the lost thing," or as some
translations render it, "what was lost." "The lost" is
obviously that group OF PEOPLE that is spiritually
lost. Regarding the use of the neuter with reference
to persons, consider Blass, Debrunner, and Funk who
write, "In Greek literature, the neuter is used at
times with reference to persons if it is not the
individuals, but a general quality that is to be
emphasized" (Grammar of New Testament Greek and other
Early Christian Literature¸ p. 76).

Or consider James 1:25 where the masculine "perfect
law" (TELEION NOMON) appears in the masculine. We
don't "look intently into him" but rather into "it"
because "the word"--the Scripture--is a thing (Cp.
context at James 1:22-23).

Or consider the eternal concept the word, HO LOGOS, in
John 1:1, it, which becomes (EGENETO) flesh, namely
the person Jesus in John 1:14 (Cf. the Tyndale New
Testament at John 1:1, 4: "In the beginning was the
word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
. .All things were made by IT . . .In IT was life,"
emphases added).

Brits and Americans like to think of ship or a boat as
"she." The Greeks thought of a ship as an "it" (TO
PLOION, e.g. in the singular at Matthew 4:21 and in
the plural TA PLOIA in James 3:4).

Try to read without presupposition in a given textto
determine how you will translate, always being aware
of the grammatical form. And if there is no compelling
reason to do otherwise, translate as context
determines. Things and concepts are "its." Persons are
"he's and she's."

Danny Andre' Dixon


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