Grace Evangelical Society

P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202
  • About
    • Home
    • Beliefs
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Resources
    • Grace in Focus Magazine
    • Grace in Focus Radio
    • Free eBooks
    • Journal of the GES
    • Book Reviews
    • Partners in Grace Newsletter
    • Audio Messages
    • Videos
    • Blog
    • Su Gracia Gratuita (Spanish Blog)
    • Graça sem limites (Portuguese Blog)
    • Email Subscription
    • Bookstore
    • Online Tracts
  • Store
    • Main Page
    • On Sale
    • Return Policy
    • Your Cart
    • Your Account
  • Events
  • Connect
    • Contact Us
    • Free Grace Church and Bible Study Tracker
    • Free Grace Jobs
    • Ministry Links
  • Donate
    • One Time Donation
    • Monthly Donation
    • Your Account
  • Search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Home
→
Journal Articles
→
Book Reviews
→
The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version

The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version

Posted in Book Reviews

The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version. Ed. by Gold, Hoyt, Ringe, Thistle-Thwaite, Throckmorton, and Withers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 55 pp. Cloth, $14.95.

Since this book is a further revision of the NRSV in the interest of even more inclusive language than was there allowed, perhaps it would be germane to mention that half of the editors are men (numbers one, two, and five) and half are women (three, four, and six).

A detailed review of the NRSV by the present reviewer will be found in the Autumn 1990 issue of JOTGES. The strong and weak points of that version are present here, but with a more radical attempt to demasculinize the Father and the Son, as well as to eliminate many references to persons.

A sample of how our Lord might have sounded had He gone along with the inclusivist “editing” of this version occurs after the [bracketed] adulterous woman passage: “‘Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father-Mother who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father-Mother who sent me testifies on my behalf.’ Then they said to him, ‘Where is your Father-Mother?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my Father-Mother. If you knew me, you would know my Father-Mother also’” (John 8:16-19). Notice how even Jesus’ enemies are politically correct enough to use inclusive language in asking Him, “Where is your Father-Mother?” (italics supplied).

In the Psalms, the desire to reject the dangerously masculine words Lord and LORD (=Yahweh or Jehovah) and the proper pronouns that go with these words, produces one GOD and four Gods in three verses: “GOD is my shepherd, I shall not want. God makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside still waters; God restores my soul. God leads me in paths of righteousness for the sake of God’s name” (Ps 23:1-3). Unfortunately, the Hebrew text has nary a one, just The LORD (23:1).

Most of our readers are committed to a clear-cut presentation of the Gospel of grace. While the Gospel itself is still there in John 3:16, the strict avoidance of Son, He, His, and Him, makes it unlikely that many Bible-memory groups will adopt the following: “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Human One. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up, that whoever believes in that One may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Child, so that everyone who believes in that Child may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Child into the world to condemn the world, but in order that through the Child the world might be saved. Those who believe in the Child are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Child of God” (John 3:13-18).

Although this reviewer’s beloved kindergarten teacher at P.S. 21 wisely taught me to use scissors with the right hand, I must confess I am a southpaw. In spite of this, reading the Bible regularly since the age of seven never made me feel like an abused minority. Therefore this book’s change of “right hand” to “powerful hand” and “at the right hand” to “beside” or “near” seems needlessly hysterical to at least one southpaw.

Arthur L. Farstad
Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Dallas, TX

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
Art Farstad

by Art Farstad

Art Farstad (1935-1998) was Executive Editor of the New King James Version of the Bible, co-editor of the Hodges-Farstad Majority Text of the NT, and a gentleman par excellance.

Cart

Recently Added

April 9, 2021

Dios Recompensa a los Que le Buscan

Una de las cosas que realmente aprecio del movimiento de la Gracia Gratuita en general, y de la GES en particular, es cómo nos ha...
April 9, 2021

Romans–Part 2–Romans 1:16 (concl.), Romans 10:1

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. We are currently going through a series, where we look at five books in the new testament, to see...
April 9, 2021

You Can At Least Put Up With One Another (Ephesians 4:2)

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness,...

Grace in Focus Radio

All Episodes

Listen to Stitcher

Listen on Spotify

Grace In Focus Magazine

Grace In Focus is sent to subscribers in the United States free of charge.

Subscribe for Free

The primary source of Grace Evangelical Society's funding is through charitable contributions. GES uses all contributions and proceeds from the sales of our resources to further the gospel of grace in the United States and abroad.

Donate

Bookstore Specials

  • Absolutely Free, 2nd Edition $20.00 $10.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Hardcover) $13.95 $5.00
  • The Grace New Testament Commentary (Revised Edition) $35.00 $25.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Paperback) $6.95 $3.95
  • A Gospel of Doubt: The Legacy of John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus $22.00 $10.00
Grace Evangelical Society
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

(940) 270-8827 / ges@faithalone.org

4851 S I-35E Suite 203, Corinth, TX 76210
P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202

Tweets by GESwebmaster