Dear Fulks,
The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
According to one site, the Bible was translated to more than 1,300
different languages, one of which is English. This caused several
translation challenges, and those who are interested in Biblical
philology might do best, if they read the Bible in the original
languages, and not only in English, in order to compare versions.
Moreover, “in the English language there are many translations and
renderings with different words and phrases, which imply that one
translation differs from the other. The many translations in the same
language are justified in that new renderings are different from the
previous ones. The fact that there are many translations in the same
language indicates that the first translation is not understood after
many centuries. For instance, the first translation into the English
language from the original New Testament Greek and Old Testament
Hebrew by John Wycliffe in the fifteenth century is incomprehensible
to the, reader today in English.” (Source: Rev. George Mastrantonis,
“THE BIBLE: ITS ORIGINAL LANGUAGES AND ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS” _ Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese of America_ Web site, <
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7068.asp>).
The issue of the pronouns is only one example, where one encounters
great difficulties in translating from Greek or Hebrew into English,
since both these languages have feminine and masculine nouns (from
which only reminiscent is left in the English language, for example
the reference to a ship as feminine), and a reference to “he” in a
text could be to a human being, but also to an object, whose gender is
masculine.
I do not know if translators have always managed to be true to the
gender in *all* translations and also would not be as pretentious as
to claim to know all translations of the Bible, in all sections. This
is a highly contested area, and there are a lot of discussions on the
appropriate translations of pronouns – fro example, you could see a
site, all dedicated to objection to the “Today's New International
Version” of the Bible, claiming that its translation regarding gender
distorts the original (www.no-tniv.com).
A very interesting reference to the issue of gender pronouns
translation and modern interpretations – especially in reference to
God - is available from Colin B. Donovan, STL, at the Eternal Word
Television Network site (“Bible Versions and Commentaries“
<http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/bible_versions.htm#inclusive>).
You could also see the judgment made by the translators of the
International Standard Version, regarding gender in various contested
sections http://www.searchgodsword.org/info/copyright/bible/isv.html>
Hebrew
======
As mentioned before, gender for third and second person exist in
Hebrew (all references are both to modern and to Biblical/ancient
Hebrew, unless noted otherwise). In the case of first person, gender
does not exist in the pronoun itself :
Nominative – ינא / אני –
Pronounced “Ani” – English: “I” - Example: “R’u atah, ki ani, ani hu
v’ein Elohim imadi [See, then, now, that I, I am He; there is no god
beside Me]” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
Objective - Accusative – The personal pronouns are used in correlation
with the relevant preposition. The preposition is the one that is
being changed. For example:
“AL” means “on” , “Alay” means “on me”
“EL” means “to”, “Elay” means “to me”
The accusative preposition is “et” - and in first person singular it
is אותי / יתוא –
Pronounced: “Oti” – English: “Me” – Example” wattehi yir’atam ’oti
mitswat ’anashim melummedim.” [“their fear of me”] Isaiah 29:13 . The
transitive form, is “elay” (to me). Moreover, in the case of
prepositions, not all prepositions translate the same from one
language to another. In this case, we had a preposition in Hebrew that
does not translate into a certain word in English (Compare: “I read
the book” and “Ani kore/t **et** hasefer”), or translates to another
preposition (“Yir’atam oti” and “Their fear of me”).
Possesive - Genitive - שלי לי –
Pronounced “Sheli” and “li”. English: Mine, My . Example: "Ani L'Dodi
V'Dodi Li" [ I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine] (Song of
Songs);
In the first person, gender is indicated by the usage of verbs. In
present term, there is a difference in declination between males and
females. In general, in Hebrew, the declination is an additive of X-et
or X-a at the end of the verb.
Biblical Hebrew course could be found here
http://www.biblicalhebrew.com/
And yet another http://www.bible101.org/hebrew/home.html
Aramaic
=======
Aramaic is another Semitic language, just like Hebrew, and this is
actually the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries. However,
most of the Bible is not written in Aramaic, only small parts of it,
such as the book of Daniel/Vulgate. The Aramaic grammar is similar to
the Hebrew one, as the two are related, Semitic languages. Both in
Hebrew and in Aramaic, there is no neutral gender – only feminine and
masculine “inflection in most tenses marks gender of the subject and
(under certain circumstances) object in the singular along with person
and number.” (Source: “LINGUIST List 4.1066: Gender-neutral Pronouns:
The sequel” www.linguistlist.org/issues/4/4-1066.html).
First person, nominative, in Aramaic, is “ana” (“I”).
The prepositional objective form of first person in Aramaic is “yati”.
Like in the Hebrew case, this word has no specific translation because
of the difference in prepositions and grammar between English and
Semitic languages. “Yati” could mean the same as “oti”.
The possessive is expressed in several ways. The first, is a change of
a noun, to express its relation to the subject. Jesus said, for
example “Elee” which means “My God”, while “God” means “el” (both in
Aramaic and Hebrew). The other, to express possessive relation, is
construct relationship, in which, for example, “the son of God” is
expressed as “Bar Elohim”. A third, in which the first person is
expressed through a change in a preposition is “Sheli”, just as in
Hebrew.
Greek
=====
Again, the reference here is mainly to Koine, the Biblical Greek, but
references to other types of Greek are mentioned. In Greek, each
object has a gender – whether it is masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Objects are referred to as “he”, “it” or “she” in the sentence, when
it is clear that the indication is to that particular object. This
might create a problem in translation, since in English, these objects
are usually translated into “it” and in any case, an indication, based
on gender, does not exist.
In Greek, too, the first person is not distinguished by gender. Both
females and males will express them selves as:
Nominative: “ego” (, a word that must
be familiar to you, meaning “I”.
Objective - Accusative : “eme”, “me” (εμ`ε) – me
(please note, that in the Greek “me”, the “e” is as in “end” and not
as in the English “me”).
Genitive – Possessive: “emou” (εμου) – my, mine
(“mou” is pronounces just like in the word “Emu”).
Dative: This form doesn’t exist in English, and represents “Of,
relating to, or being the grammatical case that marks the recipient of
action, that often indicates the indirect object of the verb, and that
can be used with prepositions or other function words corresponding in
meaning to English to and for.” (Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dative&r=67). “emoi”
(εμοι) – for me, from me, to me (pronunciation:
“e” is as in “end”, “moi” as in “moisture”).
Recommended further reading could be
Max Zerwick and Mary Grosvenor A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New
Testament,. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981.
A very good Website is “Little Greek”, http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/,
which teaches the basics of reading NT Greek.
Search God’s Word’s Greek Lexicon could also be of help:
http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/grk/
The University of Chicago Library offers S. C. WOODHOUSE’s
“English-Greek Dictionary - A Vocabulary of the Attic Language
(London: Routledge & Sons Ltd., 1910) online at
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/Woodhouse/
The University of Texas, Austin, offers online NT Greek lessons: New
Testament Greek Online
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/lrc/eieol/ntgol-0-X.html
Other Ancient Languages of the Bible
====================================
The Bible itself was not originally written in any other languages,
but I shall refer to several other ancient languages that might be of
interest to you:
Latin first person pronouns are pretty similar to those in Greek:
Latin Language Resources: Inflected Latin: Pronouns
http://www.forumromanum.org/latin/pronouns.html
Coptic : http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Social_Sciences/Language_and_Linguistics/Natural_Languages/Afro-Asiatic/Coptic/?il=1
Ge’ez (Classical Ethiopian):
http://www.ethiopianhistory.com/pre-aksum/geez.html
Recommended Reading: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient
Languages Edited by Roger D. Woodard (Cambridge University Press).
Summary
=======
None of the three languages reviewed differentiates between genders in
first person pronouns. All three, though, differentiate in verb
declination between males and females. This is somewhat a logical
conclusion that comprehends to theories on development of systems of
meaning in linguistics, since it is safe to assume that the speaker in
first person form knows its own sex and needs not differentiate.
Other Resources
===============
Strong’s Hebrew/Greek Dictionary
http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/jnc/Strongs/
Bible Gateway Concordance http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible
Virtual Keyboard http://www.paralink.com/virk/
My Search Strategy
==================
Most of the work was not done through computer search but in the old
fashioned way – I spent a couple of days in the library. I also called
a friend of mine (international call! :-) to make sure regarding
Aramaic. However, there were several searches online. I searched for
terms such as {Grammatical form – accusative, genitive, etc.} “first
person” {name of language}.
I hope this answered your question. Don’t hesitate to contact me, if
you need any clarifications on the answer I gave you, before you rate
/ tip it. |
Clarification of Answer by
politicalguru-ga
on
07 Oct 2003 03:08 PDT
Dear Mr. Fulks,
Thank you, as this is a very interesting question. On face value, it
seems that the answer is pretty "simple". The references to God are in
a singular masculine form. Moreover, the words that refer to God
themselves are YHWH, who *could* be translated as "He causes to be"
(this interpretation is controversial, but it does indicate a
singular-masculine reference); Adon ("Lord") and Elohim ("God") - all
singular and masculine, despite the fact that "Elohim" is -
theoretically - in a male plural form in Hebrew (the -im suffix), and
I'll refer to that in the next paragraph.
Nevertheless, it is important to note, that unlike English and Greek,
Biblical Hebrew doesn't has a neutrum, an "it". Although it is beyond
me to know the original intentions of the writers, the reference to
God in a masculine form does not necessarily imply a
gender-preference, a masculine-male form as opposed to a feminine
form. According to Jewish theology, in any case, God is above the
notion of gender. The singular form - mentioned before in reference to
"Elohim" is more significant, as it stands in contrast to the
polytheistic beliefs in the region at that time.
In that aspect, I am not sure that reference to Ugarit (as made by a
commentator to this research), or to many other belief systems that
dominated the region, is entirely in place. It is true (and important
in that), that the Israelites interacted with other cultures in the
region and through that, with their religions and legal codex.
However, the case of a god who is married, as well as cases of
goddesses in other belief systems stands in total contrast to the
known intention of the formers of the Bible - to signify the
monotheistic belief of the Israelites/Jews, and its a-sexuality in
that.
You could read more interesting references to God's gender in
translation in :
S T Kimbrough, Jr., "Bible Translation and the Gender of God"
_Theology Today_
July 1998, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 195-203
<http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jul1989/v46-2-tabletalk.htm>.
[Theology Today's Homepage is
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/index.htm].
Finally, as we are not supposed to contact our clients directly, I
suggest you'll contact the editors, at
mailto:answers-editors@google.com - in order to arrange the transfer
of material.
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