part 2: the Gender Inclusivity of Jesus in Mark

In part 1 of my posting on the gender inclusivity of Jesus in Mark, we compared the LXX Exodus with Mark’s gospel. We also compared Robert Alter’s and Everett Fox’s respective translations of a bit from Exodus with Willis Barnstone’s and Ann Nyland’s respective translations from another bit from Mark. Of course, the Septuagint translation team and the writer of the gospel did not work together in time or in place. And Alter and Fox focused primarily or exclusively on the Five Books of Moses; and Barnstone and Nyland worked on the New Testament.

In part 2, let’s look at other very good translations in which the translator team and the translator render, in a single volume, both the Hebrew of Exodus and also the Hellene of Mark into English . Below is what has been published respectively. It is Exodus 20:8-11 and Mark 2:27-28. It is this pair of passages as translated by the team for the New Revised Standard Version, and by the team for Today’s New International Version, and by my co-blogger Craig R. Smith for The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation.

NRSV –

8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

27 Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

TNIV –

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Inclusive Bible –

8 “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy! 9 For six days you will labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath for YHWH. Do no work on that day, neither you nor your daughter nor your son, nor your workers–women or men–nor your animals, nor the foreigner who lives among you. 11 For in the six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that they hold, but rested on the seventh day; this is why YHWH has blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred.

27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. 28 That is why the Chosen One is ruler even of the Sabbath.”