from cross dressing to gender roles

Talking about biblical translation is a tough thing.  I witnessed a sermon this weekend that explained the issue well, but that success only clarified for me the delicacy required in talking about the ancient original text and the way that it is translated into english- whether in the  way that it “should” be translated or not.

Bible translation is just hard; to capture in a single English phrase or word what an ancient language, that is built and functions so differently from our own, is trying to communicate, is nearly impossible.  Hence the neccesity of biblical scholarship; to fill in the rhetorical gaps & nuances that a flat English word may not portray. 

I get sad when we talk about “errors in translation.”  There have been, of course, over the years, times when translation teams have overlooked textual issues and selected a word that should have been selected differently.  But often, the “errors” that teachers talk about (you know,  you sould REALLY smart when you say there’s an “error” in translation) aren’t really errors at all, but simply nuances that we didn’t know we needed to read into a word.  And because God is God and generally pretty good at his job, he provides the Christian world with scholars to help explain these nuances.  Did God mess up when he let humans leave some holes in the text?  Probably not.  He probably assumed that these students of Scripture would do a great job of explaining those nuances, in a way that a single word in a text would not have been able to do. 

All of this to say that Deuteronomy 22:5 talks about women not dressing in men’s clothes.  Better translation of the Hebrew words for men’s clothing: “soldier’s armor.”  Hm.  Not so much about cross dressing… as much as proper roles in the Israelite social structure.  If you want a full textual explanation, just let me know.  I can pass it along!

Interesting, eh?  I learned that Sunday and I thought I’d pass it along.  It was explained sooo well, and I was glad to have heard about it.