Popular ‘Conservative’ Egalitarian Says We Need More Bibles That ‘Aren’t Translated Primarily by White People
Beth Allison Barr, is Professor of European Women, Medieval & Early Modern England, and Church History Baylor University and author of the best-selling book The Making of Biblical Womanhood, which seeks to refute the complementarian position and challenge the notion of ‘biblical womanhood’ is in fact biblical.
We wrote about her on occasion after she refused to to affirm biblical inerrancy, claimed that the line breaks in Ephesians 5 change the whole narrative of the bible, and argued that all complementarians are racists.
Speaking to the A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar show, she shares:
Question: What do you foresee in the future of biblical translations? Is there, will there be pretty much a universal gender-inclusivity when it comes to putting committees together? Will there be a difference in the way these things are brought about? Will there be a difference in the language? Will there be things that are considered unacceptable now that will be in biblical translations in 50, 100 200 years from now?
Barr: My hope is that we actually are much more attentive to diversity. We need to have Bibles that aren’t translated primarily by white people.You know, I would love to see a modern english bible translation that stems from black theologians, and see that become much, you know- I would love to see much more diversity on translation committees. But at the same, I would also like more texts, more translations that we can use to compare.
And so I really would like to be at a place where we can see that, where when somebody asks a question, ‘what’s the most diverse translation committee?’ we can actually tell, we can really use some answers.
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I am beginning to think that Woke-ism could be the “strong delusion” …
” And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie…”
If not, Woke-ism has a lot similar traits.
It certainly qualifies.
At the very least, Woke-ism is a doctrine of demons…
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…”
I have wondered the same thing. The current “icing on the cake” seems to be transgenderism. It is itself a lie. There’s nothing true about it. But people are either believing it or are afraid to speak against it.
It seems like one of the perennial problems that God’s people face is dealing with people who don’t follow God yet insist on being counted among those who do. When Israel worshipped the golden calf at the foot of the mountain, they did not think to themselves, “we are becoming apostate by rejecting the God who delivered us from Egypt”; no, they thought to themselves, “this golden calf is the same God who just delivered us from Egypt”. It is the same with Scot McKnight and Beth Allison Barr, they are in a very dangerous place no only for their low regard of the Bible, but also because they are oblivious to the fact that they’re making shipwreck of their faith.
It is also interesting to me, that they proclaim the need for non-White translators, but they really don’t have any specific example as to why this “diversity” is a good thing. If someone has a legitimate criticism of how the text is translated (the only thing that comes to mind is translating the Greek word “doulos” with the made-up English word “bondservant” instead of “slave”) then they should have a hearing regardless of their race or sex. However, the only reason they can come up with for including brown and black people in the translation committee is so they can ignore gendered pronouns.
It’s also interesting that they mention that using translators that are influenced by “African” theologians as if, the last 1700 years of the church hasn’t been influenced by St. Augustine (born in Numidia which is in northern Africa). Of course, what they say “Africa” they really mean “sub-Saharan Africa” aka where the slave traders got black people they sold in the western hemisphere. Undoubtedly, the goal is not to include theological insight from people on every continent, but to fabricate translations that legitimize “liberation theology” under the pretext of diversity.
So if black theologians properly interpret and translate the Hebrew and Greek texts, will it still be valid, or will it be considered systemic white supremacy?