Give me Oil in my Lamp – without the misogyny
Coming up in the lectionary in Matthew this year are two readings – the first in just a few weeks’ time – featuring strong dignified independent women with key roles in the story of our salvation. Centuries of lazy misogyny by scripture translators have slandered them, and they will be slandered again in thousands of churches starting this August; but there is finally an alternative that restores their dignity.
On 8 November, as the nights draw in, Jesus calls on us to be alert and ready, with our lamps charged with oil, ready for the coming of the kingdom at an unexpected hour. It is the source for the folk‑song, Give me Oil in my Lamp.
As the lead characters in this parable - as the first heralds of the coming kingdom - Jesus specifically chooses women, just as it is women who are chosen to be the first witnesses of the resurrection.
They are presented as independent women, making their own choices, with their own resources, and with their own autonomy in the ultimate question of whether or not to participate in preparing for the coming of the kingdom. Some are called phronimos, for wisdom and preparedness. Some are called moros, which is a lack of discernment, a spiritual failure. They represent all of us, and the serious moral choices we have to make.
Our lazy misogynistic translations mock these women, first with the word ‘foolish’, associated since before Shakespeare not with serious moral peril, but with comedy, jesting, slapstick and clowning. The next tragedy is a contemporary one – that people today have seen far more weddings mocked in comedy, or scandalised in drama, than experienced in solemnity and joy; most churches will still use ‘bridesmaids’, ‘maidens’, or, worst of all, ‘virgins’, following the word ‘foolish’, to complete the misogyny of the text. The original dignity of these women will be entirely obliterated by inappropriate translation. The weight of history is not an excuse.
It was a Canaanite woman living in Syria who helped Jesus realise that his mission extended beyond the Hebrew people to the whole world. At first Jesus ignores her, but she stubbornly kneels in front of him, blocking his way. Hebrews called Gentiles dogs. Jesus playfully calls her a puppy – a sweet little Gentile – and says the puppies shouldn’t have the children’s food. She looks up from her kneeling position and asks that the puppies might have the crumbs that fall from the table. Jesus replies, ‘Great is your faith’. The woman’s daughter is healed. She receives not crumbs, but a place at the table. This is a hugely significant moment. And yet in most congregations, only weeks from now, on 16 August, three-quarters of the congregation will wince, and many will be utterly horrified, and newcomers and young people will vow never to come again or have anything to do with this appalling religion, as they solemnly stand to hear the gospel proclaimed, and hear Jesus call this woman a dog; and the reader solemnly declares, “This is the Gospel of the Lord”. I have been thinking of this as ‘gross misogyny by neglect’. The more I reflect on it, the more it feels closer to blasphemy, to put on the lips of Jesus, by a combination of lazy misogynistic translation and inertia, at the high-point of the divine liturgy, a potent contemporary misogynistic slur he never spoke, and never would have spoken.
Sunday Scriptures for Reading Aloud (SSRA.UK) translates both these texts into inclusive language ready for use in ordinary churches on ordinary Sundays. As a bonus, you get inclusive language every Sunday: no more default-male pronouns in every parable; no more default-male pronouns for God or for Holy Spirit (no longer suffering the indignity of being reduced to a pronoun at all). No one will even notice unless all this is specifically pointed out. The text is clear, timeless, dignified, even poetic – and part of a complete, ready-to-use lectionary solution for the whole benefice, in print and online; check out the ‘Top Ten Reasons’ on the home page, then order a lectern edition in time for the Canaanite woman on 16 August, and perhaps some paperbacks for the church bookstall, and roll out the system across the benefice. You will be joining what has become a global community that has grown ten-fold in six months and now appears in the top five in every English-language search engine worldwide in searches for ‘lectionary readings’ and a forthcoming date, up there with Vanderbilt University and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Jesus gave these women – and millions of others - key roles in the story of our salvation. Don’t let the weekly reading of patriarchal mistranslations undo the work that Jesus did.
Home page
ssra.uk
Full texts and linguistic studies of these two key passages
ssra.uk/articles/lamps.html and ssra.uk/articles/kynarioi.html
