[B-Greek] 1 Pet 2:17 Knowing when a noun is gender-inclusive
vunzndi at vfemail.net
vunzndi at vfemail.net
Thu Apr 17 16:26:35 EDT 2008
In short as far as Greek is concerned such terms are inclusive - the
question is context, since both men and women are the receivers of the
letter it suggests the brotherhood includes both mem and women. Those
who would use brotherhood just to mean men would not according to
rabbinacal tradition "waste their time" by talking to addressing women.
From memory the book of Aboth starts with "Rabbi so and so told Rabbi
so and so ... not to waste time talking with women" The commentator
the adds "If that was what was said about talking to ones wife, then
talking to women in gemeral is even more of a waste of time.
Regards
John Knightley
Quoting Kenneth Litwak <javajedi2 at yahoo.com>:
> I'm sure we all know about the issue of gender
> inclusivity/neutrality in translation. I am wondering
> about a specific example in terms of what it might
> indicate. In 1 Pet 2:17, Peter says to love the
> )ADELFOTHTA. This word means "brotherhood." One
> might be tempted to offer a gender-inclusive
> translation like "love all the members of God's
> family" but there is a potential problem. In both
> Jewish and Greco-Roman culture in the first-century
> A.D., the status of women was pretty low (as
> exemplified in 1 Pet 3:1-7, with lots for a wife to do
> and hardly anything for a husband to do).
>
> Do we actually have any good reason to think that
> nouns like this in the first century were
> gender-inclusive or is that only our 21st century
> agenda? Does brotherhood really mean all members of
> God's family or does it actually mean "all male
> members of God's family"? I know all about the
> generic use of words like "man" and I am sympathetic
> to using the actual word of the text in translation
> but I wonder if we can legitimately go beyond that in
> interpretation. Would Polybius or Josephus or
> Aristotle have thought that )ADELFOTHTA actually
> referred to males and females in any context? Thanks.
>
> Ken Litwak
>
>
>
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