In the realm of “gender-inclusive” Bibles, there is The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian
Translation, copyrighted in 2007 by Priests for
Equality. The Preface states, “We challenge the traditional ways of speaking
about God. Traditional Western religious language calls God ‘Father’ and Jesus
‘Lord.’ Our intention is to recover the sense of the text and express that
sense in a manner that facilitates immediate application of the Word to the
experience of the listener. To that end, we correct out own interpretations by
referring them to what scripture scholars have to say about the texts.”
Virginia Ramey
Mollenkott, a lesbian who worked as a stylistic consultant for the
New International Version of the Bible, wrote “The
Inclusive New Testament Review.” Concerning the
TIB translation of Ephesians 5:21-22, Mollenkott writes, “Not only is the appearance
of one-way submission corrected in a way that is actually more in line with the
Greek text, but the insights are made accessible to people in nontraditional
relationships. In fact, the Priests for Equality frequently use the word
partner...”[i] “The goal of the Priests
for Equality was to give to the English-speaking world a New Testament that
would be ‘accessible to everyone, particularly to those who have felt that
sexist language creates an uncomfortable (and, at times, insurmountable)
barrier to their devotional life.’”
The Amazon
blurb about this Bible states:
“While this new Bible is certainly an inclusive-language translation, it is much more: it is a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them. Not merely replacing male pronouns, the translators have rethought what kind of language has built barriers between the text and its readers. Seeking to be faithful to the original languages, they have sought new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths. The Inclusive Bible is a fresh, dynamic translation into modern English, carefully crafted to let the power and poetry of the language shine forth—particularly when read aloud—giving it an immediacy and intimacy rarely found in traditional translations of the Bible. The Inclusive Bible contains both the Old and the New Testaments.”
Like many other recent Bibles, The Inclusive Bible by Priests for Equality can be seen as a niche
Bible, rather than a mainstream one. There also exists The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive
Version by a more mainstream Bible publisher, Oxford University
Press. These translations, along with others, support the continuing goal of
blurring gender language and gender roles in our contemporary society. How long
will it be before a mainstream translation fully embraces this agenda?[ii]
[i] Ephesians
5:21-22 in The Inclusive Bible:
“Defer to one another out of reverence for Christ. Those of you who are in
committed relationships should yield to each other as if to Christ,”
[ii]
The NIV has embraced the agenda concerning pronouns, but have continued to
explain it from an “evangelical” viewpoint. The 2011 version replaces perhaps
thousands of masculine pronouns with gender-neutral or gender-inclusive ones
(for example, “brethren”or “brothers” become “brothers and sisters). See Robert Slowley and John Dyer statistics.
