Gender Neutral

Photo by Saeed Karimi

As a little girl, I often demanded that my mother explain why books consistently refer to he/him. Sadly, her answer was always the same: “That’s just the way it is.”  

Well that’s not the way it has to be! Whenever possible, twenty-first century Expressions of Joy writings replace male and female words and pronouns with inclusive gender neutral words and pronouns. Don’t worry. The original word is identified in the references.

It’s interesting to me that ancient scripture acknowledges this void I felt in my heart:

Any place where the masculine and the feminine
are not both present, God is not fully present [to our conscious awareness].¹

— The Zohar

Ironically, we learn from The Priscilla Papers that:

The King James Version
and the pre-2011 New International Versions
of the Bible
each include more than 1,000 occurrences
of the words “man” and “men”
which are not found
in the Greek New Testament.²

— Jeff Miller

References

[1] Zohar, B’reishit 55b: “‘Male and female [God] created them.’ • [consciously] replaces “fully”

[2] Jeff Miller, Editor, Priscilla Papers, 7 Places Where Gender-Inclusive Bible Translation Really Matters: Part 1, https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/7-places-where-gender-inclusive-bible-translation-really-0 • 04.24.2016 • https://www.cbeinternational.org/persons/jeffrey-d-miller • 11.24.2021 • https://www.cbeinternational.org/content/pursuing-gender-accurate-bible-translations • 11.24.2021

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