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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] The Biblical politics of masculine and feminine

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Ethel Jean (Kowan) Saltz" <macnietspingal AT airmail.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Biblical politics of masculine and feminine
  • Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:12:31 +0000

On 17/11/2006 17:42, Ethel Jean (Kowan) Saltz wrote:
...

I KNOW with my own eyes how ancient Greek Jews thought because of the
treatment of women in Ecclesiasticus Chapters 25 (last verses) and
26(beginning verses). My favorite verses I used to tell Catholics what God
told them about females:) It's great in Spanish too:) In fact, and this is
the truth, my mom wouldn't let me get her a Bible, but when I showed her
these verses, she said "You can get me that Bible" and I did:) You should
see people when I personally show them these verses. They do what I did.
Made the same indignant noises spontaneously:) Wonder how it really sounds
in Greek to a Greek:) This book was originally written in Hebrew. Wonder
how it sounds in Hebrew:)

Ethel, thank you for pointing me to these verses. I don't think I had ever read them, so I just read them in the Good News Translation (Today's English Version) electronic text which I happen to have open. Here is 25:24-26:
24 Sin began with a woman, and we must all die because of her. 25 Don't let a bad wife have her way, any more than you would allow water to leak from your cistern. 26 If she won't do as you tell her, divorce her.
I'm so pleased that this didn't make its way into the Hebrew Bible, and thence into to the Protestant Christian canon (although it is accepted by Catholic and Orthodox Christians). What a contrast with what another Greek-speaking Jew wrote a few centuries later, quotations from the same version:
12 Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. (Romans 5:12)
3 A man should fulfil his duty as a husband, and a woman should fulfil her duty as a wife, and each should satisfy the other's needs. ... 10 For married people I have a command which is not my own but the Lord's: a wife must not leave her husband; 11 but if she does, she must remain single or else be reconciled to her husband; and a husband must not divorce his wife. (1 Corinthians 7:4,10-11)

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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