New LXX in English

From: clayton stirling bartholomew (
Date: Thu Mar 19 1998 - 07:21:18 EST

What is the point of a Gender Neutral LXX in English?

The NETS project is producing a new English translation of the LXX which is
going to follow the translation guidelines for the NRSV. For details visit:

On page 12 of the Translation Manual for NETS, we read the guidelines for
handling gender in the NRSV which are also the guidelines for NETS.

My question is not a political one. I could care less. If some people want to
read gender neutral bibles then let them read gender neutral bibles. I am not
a book burner. But the whole purpose of the new LXX in English is to
accurately portray the differences between the LXX and the MT and this gender
neutral thing is going to introduce a layer of fog between the reader and the
LXX. So why bother at all? The LXX is not going to be a runaway best seller.

Here are some relevant comments from Robert Jewett, professor of New Testament
at Garrett-Northwestern Theological Seminary and chairman of the steering
committee for the Chicago Bible Translation Project.

Robert Jewett says:

facing, with the NRSV, liberal dishonesty in
spades. The modern liberated perspective which
imposes itself on the text is about as dishonest
as you can be. All the way through the NRSV,
implying that Paul has all these liberated
concepts and so forth like the current politically
correct person in an Ivy League school: I mean
that's just ridiculous. Here you have the
imposition of liberal prejudice on the biblical
text with the ridiculous assumption that our
modern liberal views were Paul's."

Jewett's remarks are aimed at the NRSV. Like I said before, I am not
advocating book burning. If people want the read the NRSV, let them. But the
LXX is a different kind of issue. The only legitimate reason for translating
the LXX is to give a highly accurate picture of how it differs from the MT.
This cannot be accomplished by using the NRSV translation guidelines for the
LXX translation.

Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
