John 4:14 - consistency

[openenglishbible]

Consider rewording to avoid gender-neutral use of 'him'

[Coburn]

Heard a perceptive comment on this on the local Catholic radio. Catholics, as you know, are in touch with many language communities. The comment was that it is a bit rude (they used the word "cultural imperialism," a bit tongue-in-cheek, I think) for English-speakers to ask members of other language communities (such as Spanish or French) to observe gender language neutrality. Those languages--like most languages in the world--have a strict gender marking for all nouns in the language. This does not appear to take place in a biased fashion. You cannot rank those words on a scale of some sort of importance, and see any difference in the masculine and feminine words. They are just words. But languages tend to see the world in living color, that is, in terms of masculine and feminine, rather than in the black and white of male and female, or the gray of gender neutrality. I think that as those who cultivate the rich spiritual and linguistic treasure that is the Bible, we should honor and respect this cultural deposit, and not lightly cast it aside. Remember that "in the beginning he made them male and female," and said that it was very good. It is only the post-Christian activists in the last century who have made maleness and femaleness a Marxian power struggle, and insisted on the absolute leveling of all distinctions--though in fact, if we look at Genesis 3:16, this is a rather old struggle, and we do ourselves a disservice by fighting on its terms. If we see maleness and femaleness as beautiful, there need be no conflict. And I, as a (somewhat gender-neutral) male, have always seen the use of the inclusive masculine pronoun in a rather ambiguous sense. "You mean we have to share, and girls get their own pronoun? No fair!" Have fun, Coby

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