Sansblogue

In one of my classes I was asked about translation, so I was delighted to see Susanne’s post Adoption of children: the NRSV and the ESV it deals carefully and clearly with a translation issue whose cultural implications are thorny and it involves both originator and receptor cultures. Do look at it :)

Photo by iandeth

Link now working, sorry :(

I am still gradually expanding the open book Not Only a Father. I have added a section concerning “The Gender of Yahweh” to chapter five which (as a whole) is about “Theology of God as both Father and Mother“.

This growing book is an experiment in publishing as discussion, not merely a blog, but a coherent book-length exploration of a topic, but not merely a book online, since each thought and idea can be questioned, commented, challenged or expanded by the readers. The trouble is that unless it gets people visiting the material it does not get discussed, and unless YOU, or others like you who find the topic of using motherly language and pictures interesting, link to the material no one will find it, and the experiment will fail :(

Doing the podcasts on the E100 readings has made me even more aware of the need to provide some ‘casts that provide short introductions to some of the deeper issues in reading Scripture, like that of  God as cold-blooded killer. I am currently preparing the audio comments on Proverbs, that most male of books, and realise that I need a podcast on women reading men’s texts.

I wonder if any women readers would be willing to give me some very brief (just a few sentences) soundbites about one or more of the strategies you use. That I can edit together (ideally without any comment or even linking phrases from me, though the second aim may not be possible) to make a 5 minute podcast. (Of course if I got lots of takers it could be more than one podcast ;) Or is anyone willing to do a guest 5 minutes on the topic on her own?

It would mean either you recording yourself, or me phoning or Skyping you and recording, unless you are in Auckland… You can either be an anonymous voice, or identify yourself and be listed on the “credits”, as you wish.

I phrased the title as “Women men’s reading Scripture” because

• I am interested in ways of reading Scripture not merely the Bible – the difference being (in my mind at least) that one can read the Bible with only academic interest, but one reads Scripture because in some sense the text has divine authority.
• I am interested in how you read in practice, to offer practical help for others, not in how “Feminists” read, though “you” (the reader) may be thoroughly Feminist – I am sure I have not explained this well, but hope that you know what I mean…
• Some parts of Scripture are more men’s than others, the Song of Songs is less oriented to a man’s perspective than Proverbs to take two extreme cases, it is how you read the more male gendered parts that I think could be most helpful…

To volunteer, or to talk about the possibility, either use the (public) comments, or to do so in private email me.

Aristotle’s Feminist Subject has a post in which various translationsof Psalm 90 are compared. As always I’m astounded by the way most treat verse 2:

בְּטֶרֶם׀  הָרִים  יֻלָּדוּ
וַתְּחֹולֵל  אֶרֶץ  וְתֵבֵל וּמֵעֹולָם
עַד־עֹולָם  אַתָּה  אֵל׃

Before the mountains were born
or you gave birth to the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

It seems quite clear to me. I cannot see how else to render the words!

The nearest to this explicitly (I think) maternal imagery for the creation of our world (among the translations in front of me here) comes from the NASB:

Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting,
You are God.

though the NIV comes close:

Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

But the rest fudge it. Why? (There is a fuller, though still aimed at non specialist readers version of my take on it in chapter two of my Not Only a Father. Since the format of that work invites, needs, discussion, please go there and discuss either this or one of the other things I say!)

Repost first posted in Sept 2004

Maggi Dawn in her “Three Must-Reads in blogville” drew my attention to John Sloas’ post in Crooked Line titled “motherly spirituality for a dad“. I started to post these thoughts as a comment there, but they grew…

My “kids” are now thoroughly grown and have left the nest. I still love sitting with them, but now it’s more often in the spa than over building blocks. I have no small kids to “parent” except when we borrow some from friends at church.

Holding a baby by rumpleteaser

There is something really special about looking after a small one that is different, and lovely. Holding a baby or toddler always helps one get in tune with God. Perhaps that’s why parenting (both mother and father) is such a strong biblical picture of what God is like. (On God as mother see my becoming-book: Not Only a Father.)

It is a great shame that so many Western fathers have missed out over the years. And now, keen as we are to provide equal deprivation for all, many mothers miss out as well. Yet these experiences are times when we are open to those rumors of another world. They should not be missed.