Men and women in the Scripture

Kookmin Newspaper dated September 3 reported that the NIV Bible would be revised again in 25 years with the major purpose of changing the masculine gender dominated terms with the neuter gender ones: for example, the sons of God to the children of God, and the brothers to the brothers and sisters.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

It is also reported that some theologians in Korea try to change the Bible in the same way.

But men and women in the Scripture do not represent the sex in this world but express the characteristics of the spiritual world of life. For instance, it is reasonable to express the person who has the seed of the word not as neutral or feminine but as masculine, and it is natural to call him not a daughter of God but a son of God. If a woman in the fleshly sense is born again to be a person who has the seed of the word of God, she is called son of God.

I feel really sorry to see that the spiritual blind, who read the sexes in the Scripture according to the worldly standard of the equality of the sexes, will try to progress such a thing.

When Paul the apostle said “Let your women keep silence in the churches” in 1 Corinthians 14:34, he meant that they with no seed of the word should not be lords over others in the church.

If this word is translated into "Let your men and women (or persons) keep silence in the churches" in the neuter manner, the meaning of the Scripture will be completely distorted. Worriedly, this may happen.

Those who want to advocate the equality of the sexes will do it in the world outside the Scripture. Any attempt to alter the sexes in the Scripture to neuter ones and support the equality of the sexes matches the try to modify the word of God.

The gender in the Scripture has spiritual meaning so it must be distinguished and used strictly as it is.




by Chung DuckYoung, pastor