Letter from Ron Watts

Ron discusses the debate on "women in the church"

Dear Ray

Any readers interested in the debate in relation to the role of women in the church might be interested to read the following letter, published in 'The Independent' on January 6: - "Before the rejoicings become too widely spread about the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, may I point out a small but significant mistranslation? In Romans 16,i, we read of "Phoebe our sister", "a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea". Yet if we look up the original Greek, we find that Phoebe is not a servant but a deaconess. (The Greek words are "ousan diakonon".) In this way, through a ruse of the translators, women's role was to remain for centuries that of polishing pews and arranging flowers, rather than serving in the church.

Christopher Walker"

I have no idea as to the validity of Mr Walker's claims but I found it interesting and it did raise in my mind the possibility of other mistranslations that could have had a major influence on people's beliefs.

Ron Watts