Afaik English Bible translations mainly used generic masculine but notably NIV in 2011 started using they instead (which is just more clear for a modern English translation). The original Hebrew and Greek both mostly use generic masculine pronouns, I think. Yes, chuds have been calling the translation woke or some equivalent for 15 years.
But talking about language beyond trends within contemporary English I think kind of shows the artificiality of the dispute, because for example first person pronouns in all languages mentioned here are gender neutral. Do we need to start having Mary refer to herself as atashi? Why do we need to declare the gender of others but not ourselves? If it’s self-evident in our case (a silly idea even in cisnormative society because we are talking about script here with the Bible), what makes it less self-evident in the case of referring to others? But they would pretend the issue is preserving the integrity of the translation, to which one must point out that Hebrew and Koine Greek also use gender for objects and abstract concepts, like Romance languages and many others do, but there is no outcry that when Jesus calls himself “the way, the truth, and the life,” we must make sure the reader knows that all three of those nouns are feminine.
but there is no outcry that when Jesus calls himself “the way, the truth, and the life,” we must make sure the reader knows that all three of those nouns are feminine.
Singular they has been around for hundreds of years, there’s no reason a game from the 80s couldn’t have used it.
It’s even been in the Bible IIRC.
Afaik English Bible translations mainly used generic masculine but notably NIV in 2011 started using they instead (which is just more clear for a modern English translation). The original Hebrew and Greek both mostly use generic masculine pronouns, I think. Yes, chuds have been calling the translation woke or some equivalent for 15 years.
But talking about language beyond trends within contemporary English I think kind of shows the artificiality of the dispute, because for example first person pronouns in all languages mentioned here are gender neutral. Do we need to start having Mary refer to herself as atashi? Why do we need to declare the gender of others but not ourselves? If it’s self-evident in our case (a silly idea even in cisnormative society because we are talking about script here with the Bible), what makes it less self-evident in the case of referring to others? But they would pretend the issue is preserving the integrity of the translation, to which one must point out that Hebrew and Koine Greek also use gender for objects and abstract concepts, like Romance languages and many others do, but there is no outcry that when Jesus calls himself “the way, the truth, and the life,” we must make sure the reader knows that all three of those nouns are feminine.
found my new thing to be a crank about
Even better, ὁδὸς can also be masculine as well as feminine, so the Gospel of John chose to make it “way” feminine when it didn’t have to.
Edit: Ah, fuck, I was wrong, the masculine ὁδὸς means “threshold.” I was thinking of another m/f noun beginning with omicron.
Chaucer used the singular they in the 14th Century, back when he was popularising Middle English.