God is not He - A Bible translation with a gender-neutral God
The three print editions of Sunday Scriptures for Reading Aloud.
A COMMITMENT to inclusive language often has a weakness when it comes to the language we use when we speak about God.
Sadly, this is especially true of the scriptures we use, explains Michael Hampson, a published author devoting his early-retirement from parish ministry to producing practical resources for busy clergy and lay-led congregations, beginning with the weekly lectionary resource Sunday Scriptures for Reading Aloud: ssra.uk.
Take a look at these two verses from the Gospel of John, that will be read in many churches on Trinity Sunday (15th June) this year.
(Jesus says:) The Spirit of Truth will come to you, and guide you into all truth; honouring me, by taking what is mine, and making it known to you; disclosing to you the things that are to come.
- John 16: 13-14
In every other modern Bible translation, the Holy Spirit is not only male, but relentlessly so.
In just those two verses, the New International Version (NIV) manages to use ten male-gendered he/him/his pronouns for the Holy Spirit. Even the supposedly ‘inclusive language’ New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) manages seven - in just two verses!
It is an absolutely relentless bombardment of he/him/his, reinforcing the image of an exclusively masculine God.
I have made a point of avoiding he/him/his pronouns for God throughout my ministry, for more than thirty years. It takes a little time to develop the habit, and still the occasional pause to re‑phrase a sentence before speaking - but pausing before making an assertion about God usually does no harm. And as a general principle, it seems appropriate not to make so many assertions about God in quick succession that pronouns become necessary. It seems appropriate not to reduce God to a pronoun at all, rather than arguing about which pronoun to use.
Late in the pandemic, I was seven years into ministry in a four-parish benefice, and it came about that the time was right to invite four different lay people each to take their first turn at providing a sermon at the parish Communion service. Each brought their own unique gifts and experience to their contribution, and each was a delight. But this was interesting: one of the four had decades of faith history, and spoke of God as he/him. The other three had walked much of their faith journey in the previous few years, and they did not use pronouns for God at all. I had the impression that they would no more have referred to God as he/him than referred to God as it.
This is surely the future we need: a future without the false deification of masculinity; a future with God as naturally without gender, just as God is without height, or weight, or race.
God’s pronouns are not he/him. And a tidy and universally uncontroversial solution is not to reduce God to a pronoun at all. We can all adopt this approach, in our preaching, in our conversations, in our church magazine articles, on our websites, and in our worship; and now, perhaps, in our Bible readings as well.
Sunday Scriptures for Reading Aloud began as a project to encourage the appreciation of the public reading of scripture ‘in ordinary churches on ordinary Sundays’. But inclusive language was part of the translator’s DNA. And almost by accident, we have ended up with the only truly inclusive-language translation available. The translation uses he/him pronouns for Father, for Son, and for Jesus (that’s an argument for another day). But God, Lord, the Holy Spirit, the eternal Word, and the eternal Christ, take no pronouns. It is done so subtly that you would not even notice unless it was pointed out. And yet the potential is a generation who would no more refer to God as he/him than refer to God as it; a generation who would simply choose not to reduce God to a pronoun at all, because that’s not how you speak about God.
