Date: January 20th, 2022 7:22 PM
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Updated biblical interpretation of sodomy sparks debate| Business Top stories | Google News
A recent update to the Bible translation used by many major Protestant churches has sparked accusations of “gaywashing” over the way an ancient Greek word is translated.
At issue: arsenokoitai (ἀρσενοκοῖται), a Greek word used only once in the New Testament, does it mean all homosexual relations or only illicit relations?
The question of how the Bible deals with homosexuality, both in terms of sexual orientation and conduct, has become a hot topic. Gay rights activists say the so-called “clobber” verses condemning same-sex relationships actually refer to temple prostitution and forced sex, not committed partnerships. Evangelicals and others with more orthodox views reject this position, saying the Bible clearly prohibits homosexual acts of any kind.
The New Revised Standard Bible Updated Edition, called “NRSVue” for short, came out digitally last month, and print versions are expected from a range of Protestant and Roman Catholic publishers in May. The updated NRSV is the product of the National Council of Churches, which last revised the text in 1989.
The 2021 update translates arsenokoitai in 1 Corinthians 6: 9 as “men who engage in illicit sex” – a change from the “sodomite” translation of the 30-year-old NRSV edition.
Jennifer Knust, editor of the New Testament of the 2021 edition and professor of religious studies at Duke University, told the Washington Times that the “sodomite” was an “anachronism” and was “seriously misleading.”
The terms ‘sodomite’ and ‘sodomy’ were first used in English in the 11th century and have nothing to do with the term arsenokoitai, an obscure Greek term coined from other terms meaning ‘man’ and “reads”, “she said via email. “1 Corinthians 6: 9 makes no reference to Sodom (the biblical city). “
Michael L. Brown, who hosts the Christian radio show “The Line of Fire” and holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, said Ms. Knust is partially right, but adds that the final translation of arsenokoitai in the NRSVue is deficient.
“Although the translation of ‘sodomites’ is anachronistic,” Brown said in an emailed statement, “translating arsenokoitai to” men who have sex with men “is accurate while making it [as] “Men who engage in illicit sex” does not make sense. … This new translation, so far virtually unknown in the history of Bible translations, is as misleading as it is misguided, and it must be recognized as a surrender to culture and a rejection of the authority of the Scriptures.
Laura Nasrallah, professor of New Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School in Buckingham, was the translator of the updated 1 Corinthians, a message to believers in the ancient city of Corinth written by the apostle Paul . Speaking to The Times by phone, she said someone else had suggested the translation “illicit sex”.
“I did not suggest this translation. They obviously rejected my translation, ”Ms. Nasrallah said, adding that she“ was not aware ”of the change until a reporter emailed her questions.
“This is completely normal,” added Ms. Nasrallah. “There is a larger editorial committee which tries to make the translations coherent and reconcilable on several texts. And I don’t know the inner workings of this editorial board, except to express my deep respect for these editors, ”she said.
By email, Duke’s Ms Knust said: “I can’t remember specifically who proposed this change.”
Friendship Press, the editorial arm of the National Council of Churches (NCC), said on its website that it “had commissioned the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), a diverse and scholarly group of Bible scholars, to lead the review “.
SBL Executive Director John F. Kutsko, an affiliate professor of Bible studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, said a team that included himself and Ms. Knust reviewed the work of Book editors such as Ms. Nasrallah and the panel made the change to the text. He did not identify a single person as being responsible for the change.
Mr. Kutsko said the team’s consultations were “really pretty solid” and that there was no program to “produce a politico-social review” of the scriptures.
Whoever made the change did readers a disservice, said Robert AJ Gagnon, a professor at Houston Baptist University.
Translating the word as “sodomites,” Mr. Gagnon conceded, was “not the happiest translation, but at least it had the advantage of making readers understand exactly what Paul was clearly saying to his readers: that the behavior has to do with male homosexual practice.
He said the new interpretation makes Paul’s meaning “so obscured in their new so-called updated translation, that no one has any idea that it has any reference to homosexual practice.” It is intellectually dishonest or intellectually ignorant.
Mr. Gagnon, who offered to debate Ms. Knust online or in person, wrote “The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics,” a 2001 analysis of biblical texts relating to homosexuality. When asked if he had a goal in opposing the translation of “illicit sex,” he replied, “The goal I have is to get to what the biblical text means to l ‘origin. “
“I’m not interested in lying for the Bible to suit my ideology. Unfortunately, they seem ready to do it, ”said Mr. Gagnon. “If the evidence in the biblical text does not support the conclusion that arsenokoitai focuses on sexual activity between men, then I do not want to support a faulty argument. I am not going to make an argument just to support an earlier ideological position that I want to achieve. “
The Rev. Jim Winkler, Executive Director of the NCC, said that although he was aware that the changes “were discussed in committee [level], who discussed what, I do not know. He added that all updates to the new version are “a group process”.
Based in the District of Columbia, the National Council of Churches calls itself “an ecumenical partnership” of 38 Christian communities in the United States, including Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, African American and “peace” churches. . The current board leaders are drawn from the United Methodists, The United Church of Christ, The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Fellowship of Christ, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Updated biblical interpretation of sodomy sparks debate
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