How should we defend restoring generic masculine nouns & pronouns such as "man of God" in translations?
My choice of version is the NRSVue which has "person of God" and NRSV " everyone who belongs to God" in 2 Timothy 3:17. Their stylistic choice of avoiding the generic masculine "he", "man" in Psalms makes the whole Bible sometimes appears awkward, mechanical and tone deaf. There are few reduction of "man" in the NRSVue, but overall it avoids the generic masculine. It is particularly notable in the Wisdom literature. What is the strongest scholarly argument, supported by English-language sources, for retaining or restoring generic masculine pronouns and nouns in a Bible translation? I wish to send a well supported suggestion to the Bible publication for improvement. If more readers give them feedback they will improve it.
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Asked 4 days ago
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Michael J
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Michael J
It is a matter of language style and elegance, pragmatic practical language which uses the singular generic masculine in Psalms and other Wisdom literature, and also in various New Testament passages which have been made pluralized in the NRSV to be gender inclusive for "political correctness". This political correct view seems to ignores the fact that the masculine noun and pronoun doesn't necessarily exclude women. In fact the generic masculine is very common in all languages, not just in English. Hence, the problem is that their political correctness has been executed on the expense of linguistic eloquence, elegance and pragmatics.
A popular youtuber "A Frisch Perspective" addressed this issue in his video : NRSV is Annoying. Check it out https://youtu.be/fGzhN8Bnuog?si=WRtMdpUxOzwc0dIg&t=593
I have become fond of the accuracy of the NRSV, however, this stylistic custom sometimes bothers me. I hope that they won't force us to create a different Bible version which uses the traditional English language as opposed to this modern recent style. The ESV was created only to restore some of those things as a bridge between RSV and NRSV. I wish that others find reasons to suggest improvement to the NRSV committee through their friendshippress publication website.