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2
used for Son, and gender-specific pronouns referring to the Child are avoided. Thus
readers are enabled t identify themselves with Jesus` humanity.
If the fact that Jesus was a man, and not a woman, has no christological
significance in the New Testament, then neither does the fact that Jesus was a son and not
a daughter. If Jesus is identified as Son, believers of both sexes become sons of
God, but if Jesus is called Child, believers of both sexes can understand themselves as
children of God.
3

And a few pages later, they assert:
A son is a male offspring, and the historical person Jesus was, of course, a man.
But that Jesus was a male person was not thought in the early church to have
christological significance, or significance for salvation. It was not Jesus` maleness that
was believed to save males, but Jesus` humanness that was believed to save human
beings. As was said by many theologians in the early church, what was not assumed (by
Jesus) was not saved. . . .
If the fact that Jesus was a son and not a daughter has no theological
significance, then we are justified in rendering the Greek huios (usually son) as Child
or Child of God instead of Son when it occurs in a christological sense. In this
version gender-specific pronouns are not used when referring to the Child, thus
enabling all readers to identify themselves with Jesus` humanity. When Jesus is
identified as Son, believers, as heirs, become sons; but when Jesus is identified as
Child, believers become children of God--both women and men.
4

A second reason for raising the question of whether our Savior could have been a woman
is the rendering of Jesus` gender in certain passages in the Today's New International Version
(hereafter TNIV) released earlier this year from the International Bible Society and Zondervan.

For example, consider Hebrews 2:17 in the NIV and TNIV, respectively:

NIV: For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might
make atonement for the sins of the people.

TNIV: For this reason he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way, in
order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that
he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

One might have expected the TNIV to translate it rather, For this reason he had to be made like
human beings in every way . . . . At least this would focus on the generic flesh and blood
from 2:14. But, to turn brothers into brothers and sisters leads inevitably to confusion and
possible misunderstanding.
5
What was Jesus` gender, anyway? one wonders. Just how was he
3
Ibid., xiii (emphasis in original).
4
Ibid., xvii-xviii (emphasis in original).
5
I agree with Wayne Grudem`s comment on this text: Did Jesus have to become like his sisters in every way` in
order to become a high priest in service to God`? All the Old Testament priests were men, and surely the high