Rosh ha-Shanah
As I write this, the Jewish world
has just celebrated its New Year, Rosh ha-Shanah, when they eat pieces of apple
dipped in honey, round challah, fish, and pomegranates, all of which have a
symbolic meaning. The apple pieces represent sweetness in the new year and the
round shape of the challah bread symbolizes the circle of the year and the wish
for harmony and hope. The pomegranate calls for as many good deeds as the fruit
has seeds. Of the fish, parts of the head are also eaten, so that they will be
like the head and not the tail, because Rosh ha-Shanah means "head of the
year".
The first words of the Bible take us
to the beginning of the history of the world. There we read "In the beginning
God created." Bereshit bara. The
first word of the Bible is Bereshit, and the root of this term is the word Rosh
(ראש), which means
"head."
On Rosh ha-Shanah, Judaism
celebrates not only the New Year but also the beginning of the era when God
created the world and man. In this context, the word Rosh also means beginning.
And this leads me to consider what the apostle Paul meant in the New Testament
when he wrote about the head. At his time, the Septuagint, the oldest
continuous translation of the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible into the ancient Greek
everyday language (about 250-100 BC) already existed, and the New Testament was
written in Greek. When the Old Testament was quoted in the New Testament, it
was from this Greek translation of the Bible. Thus Paul used the Greek word
kephale (κεφαλή) which
our translations usually render as head, as does the King James Version:
"But I would have you know,
that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and
the head of Christ is God. … For the man is not of the woman; but the
woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for
the man" 1Corinthians 11:3,8,9 KJV. Paul clearly refers to the creation of
man.
In the German translation (2009) Das Buch, Roland Werner uses the terms
head and origin, which seems to make sense since head (Rosh, the root of
Bereshit) is translated as “beginning” in the creation story in Genesis 1. I
have in vain tried to find a corresponding English translation, but all only
use the term “head”. My English version of this German translation would be
something like: "I also want you to know this: the Messiah is the head and
origin of every man, and the origin of the woman is the man, but the origin of
the Messiah is God Himself”
The man is the head. We have read
and heard this so many times. And yet this is a difficult passage because the
mostly male translators were influenced by their culture in which women lived
under the authority of men. Their translations imply the subordination of women
under male headship, and some even make corresponding additions. The meaning of
the rest of the chapter depends on what Paul means here by the word
"head." According to the dictionaries, "head" in Greek does
not mean "head" in the sense of sovereignty, power, and authority,
but "head" in the sense of "source," as the
"spring" or "head" of a river. This meaning of origin or
source, which Paul uses elsewhere, makes perfect sense in 1 Corinthians 11:3,
for five verses later (1 Corinthians 11:8) he says, " For the man is not
of the woman; but the woman of the man," referring to the creation account
in Genesis 2:18-25.
The God’s Word (GW) translation of 1
Cor 11:3 reads: "However, I want you to realize that Christ has authority
over every man, a husband has authority over his wife, and God has authority
over Christ." This is not what the text means.
Biblical scholars have the right and
responsibility to work hard, to weigh and evaluate what they think the biblical
passages mean and how they should be applied. That is interpretation and one of
the purposes of Bible commentaries. But that is not the translator's job; his
job is to tell us what the Bible passage says.
Paul's main argument in this
passage, as we read on, is that men in worship should follow the dress and hair
codes that identify them as male, and women should follow the codes that
identify them as female. There is no question of men ruling over women or being
their final authority.
Unfortunately, whenever a term can
be translated in different ways, many Bible translators have chosen to use a
word that better suits their patriarchal culture. This has led to the Bible
being used to justify the subordinate role of women and that they have to
submit to the authority of men and are of less worth. Thus, religion has also
been guilty of causing abuse of women. But that is another topic I will take
up.
Having started with the meaning of
Rosh ha-Shanah, I would also like to end with the Jewish New Year’s greeting
and wish that everyone, including we women, have a good year. Shana tova!
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