Books in Brief: The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version

The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version, edited by Victor Roland Gold, Thomas L. Hoyt Jr., Sharon H. Ringe, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Burton H. Throckmorton Jr., and Barbara Withers (Oxford, 535 pp., $14.95)

IN his translation of the Bible, Martin Luther made God speak German. In this “inclusive version,” the editors attempt to make God politically correct. To avoid sexism, they cut out God the Father and begin the Lord’s Prayer with “Our Father-Mother in heaven.” The Son of Man becomes “the Human One.” Children should not “obey” their parents but simply “heed” them. To avoid offending people of color, the editors eliminate all references equating “darkness” with sin, evil, or ignorance. They prefer “dominion” to “kingdom” because the latter implies male authority, and they reduce the number of references to “lord” and “master” because these words connote male control or slavery. Seeking to make the Scriptures accessible to all, they replace or rephrase “all gender-specific language not referring to particular historical individuals, all pejorative references to race, color, religion,” or “physical disability.” The editors’ solicitude is touching. The reader is left wondering how, before they came along, the Bible managed to get through to men and women, to the lame and the blind, to people of every clime and color—as today’s 2.8 billion Biblical believers attest. —Ernest W. Lefever

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Ernest Lefever

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The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version, edited by Victor Roland Gold, Thomas L. Hoyt Jr., Sharon H. Ringe, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Burton H. Throckmorton Jr., and Barbara Withers (Oxford, 535 pp., $14.95)

IN his translation of the Bible, Martin Luther made God speak German. In this “inclusive version,” the editors attempt to make God politically correct. To avoid sexism, they cut out God the Father and begin the Lord’s Prayer with “Our Father-Mother in heaven.” The Son of Man becomes “the Human One.” Children should not “obey” their parents but simply “heed” them. To avoid offending people of color, the editors eliminate all references equating “darkness” with sin, evil, or ignorance. They prefer “dominion” to “kingdom” because the latter implies male authority, and they reduce the number of references to “lord” and “master” because these words connote male control or slavery. Seeking to make the Scriptures accessible to all, they replace or rephrase “all gender-specific language not referring to particular historical individuals, all pejorative references to race, color, religion,” or “physical disability.” The editors’ solicitude is touching. The reader is left wondering how, before they came along, the Bible managed to get through to men and women, to the lame and the blind, to people of every clime and color—as today’s 2.8 billion Biblical believers attest. —Ernest W. Lefever