From: Stephen C Carlson (scarlso1@osf1.gmu.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 03 1996 - 11:58:09 EST
A. Brent Hudson wrote:
> More positively, italics (or square brackets) allows the reader to locate
>some of the obvious biases of the translator(s). One example in the NASB is
>Rom 1:17b (the righteous _man_ shall live by faith -NASB). Why the
>translators decided to make this passage exclusively male is beyond me.
I think the NASB was published before the recent fad about gender-
neutral language really came along (see, e.g., the NRSV). I understand
the point that Greek words like ADELFOI can encompass females as well
as males, but so does (or did?) English. Maybe I'm no better than King
Canute over this issue, but I disagree that "man" is or should be
exclusively male.
The real issue should be: are the Koine Greek terms more or less "biased"
than the historical English equivalents? Does the English term "brothers"
(or "brethren") connote something different than ADELFOI? This is really
a fight over the meaning of the *English* words, not the Greek.
Stephen Carlson
-- Stephen C. Carlson, George Mason University School of Law, Patent Track, 4LE scarlso1@osf1.gmu.edu : Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs http://osf1.gmu.edu/~scarlso1/ : chant the words. -- Shujing 2.35
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:40 EDT