Should translations exercise “translational gender sensitivity” in order to make clear the “gender scope” of passages?
This question comes from the paper by Darrell Bock, “Do Gender Sensitive Translations Distort Scripture? Not Necessarily.” Bock distinguishes between “ideological gender sensitive renderings,” which is a radical approach that removes even male metaphors for God and Jesus because it is an attempt to “degenderize” the Bible, on the one hand, and “translational gender sensitivity” on the other hand which “renders terms to make clear the gender scope of passages” (p. 2). Bock thinks that this “translational gender sensitivity” is especially appropriate when passages “use an all encompassing reference to man or mankind to address both men and women” (p. 2). I have two difficulties with this approach as Bock explains it. First, to use the phrase “gender sensitive” to describe what the TNIV has done is unnecessarily to prejudice the discussion in favor of the TNIV. For who wants to be insensitive? I would argue that a truly “gender sensitive” translation is one that is sensitive to the exact
