English Language Use and Gender in the Religious Contexts. Case Study: The Bible

Abstract

The last decades of the 21^st century witnessed many concerted efforts in research into language and gender issues all over the world. Linguists, sociologists, and feminists have looked into the way language and gender is used in the Bible.

Their findings were very pertinent. This work set out to investigate the use of language in religious contexts and the effect of gender inequality.

The aim of this study is to investigate language use and gender in the Bible, since the Bible is based on linguistic data, be it of written or oral origin

It is concluded that gender inequality has led to the growth of female tendencies such as feminism and other notions such as the desire to translate the Bible to suit the feminist views and expectations.

From this investigation, I came up with the following research questions:

1. Is the language used in the Bible inclusively or exclusively?
2. What is gender in relation to religious contexts?

The following research methods or procedures were applied in order to carry out this investigation: Questionnaires, Interviews, and Religious texts.

The findings from this study are presented in a tabular manner in order to clearly illustrate the outcome of the investigation.

I recommend that women should feel equal to men in their respective religious communities; Women should be allowed to read and interpret the religious text from their own female perspective,

the social stratification of male and female gender should not be extended to the Bible because the fact that the 66 books of the Bible are male inclined does not mean that it is some sort of female marginalization because I think this view is held by the fact that we related everything about gender to the society, the feminists should also be aware of the limitations of human language to address and reflect on the Divine and male pronouns of God.

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Language and gender are words most of us are familiar with due to their use in our everyday discourse. According to the Advanced English Dictionary 2008, language is “the cognitive process of communication by word of mouth”.

While Gender is “the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles”.

The concept of language and gender can therefore be related to a mechanism in our everyday life as we make use of both terms respectively in society.

Religious texts and their interpretations have become a popular occupation of the masses and do not only concern theologians and philosophers anymore.

This fact also now represents a great challenge for linguists and researchers working within the field of humanities.

The aim of this paper is to respond to one aspect of this challenge, which is the gender discourse.

Before starting the discussion of gender within the Christian faith, it is necessary to present some background ideas and clarify a number of terms within this particular discourse.

Background to the study

The sacred texts on which the Christian religion is based is believed to be the authentic and unchangeable Word of God, the interpretations of these texts have changed throughout history and will continue to do so, often caused by different linguistic analyses of the Holy material.

We are witnessing a revival of religious feelings all over the world and great political and military decisions, such as the joint Zionists’ efforts of the neo-conservative Christians and orthodox Jews, or the suicide terrorism of Islamic radicals, are based on different interpretations of the Scripture.

If additionally, decisions taken in the private sphere are taken into account, one realizes that different readings of the Word of God affect the lives of people all over the world.

Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to investigate language use and gender in the Bible that is, the Christian religion. Since the Bible is based on linguistic data, be it of written or oral origin, the study will concentrate on the Bible concerning the theme of gender.

Although the sacred texts on which the Christian religion is based, is believed to be the authentic and unchangeable Word of God, the interpretation of these texts have changed throughout history and will continue to do so, often caused by different linguistic analyses of the Holy material.

We are witnessing a revival of religious feelings all over the world and great political and military decisions, such as the joint Zionists’ efforts of the neo-conservative Christians and orthodox Jews, or the suicide terrorism of Islamic radicals, are based on different interpretations of the scriptures.

If additionally, decisions taken in the private sphere are taken into account, one realizes that different readings of the Word of God affect the lives of people all over the world.

Research questions

The research questions include:

 1) Is the language used in the Bible inclusively or exclusively?

2) What is gender in relation to religious contexts?

This research question is a result of the several views and interpretations of the Holy Scripture and the inevitable marginalization of the female gender.

These questions, therefore, set the pace for an investigation to find out the reasons for this ambiguity in the concept of language and gender in the religious context.