This week I dug into research on one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 131. I attended a workshop last weekend at a local seminary. A professor there mentioned that she thought the psalm was written by a woman, and I want to know why. What I found surprised me, although less than it would have just a year ago. As I practice my Biblical Hebrew and Greek, I find more and more how English Bible translations reflect the translators biases, and male authorship of scripture is one of those biases.
Here are two translations of Psalm 131 for your consideration.
The Inclusive Bible:
YHWH, my heart has no lofty ambitions,
my eyes don’t look too high.
I am not concerned with great affairs
or marvels beyond my scope
It’s enough for me to keep my soul tranquil
and quiet like a child in its mother’s arms;
my soul is as content as a nursing child.
Israel, rely on YHWH like a child,
now and forever!
Compare this to the NRSV version:
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.
In the first version, the child is a nursing infant, and therefore completely dependent on its mother. The child is weaned and has acquired some independence from its mother in the NRSV version. The Inclusive Bible version repeats a common theme of scripture, that we are to turn to God for all support, emotional support, our daily bread, everything. In the NSRV’s version, we are to distance ourselves from God and rely on our own ability to “calm and quiet ourselves.” This is not a repeated biblical theme and in fact, I consider it bad theology, as we can see in these Bible verses:
Proverbs 3:5-6:
Trust YHWH with all your heart,
and don’t rely on your own understanding;
acknowledge God in everything you do,
and God will direct your paths.
Jeremiah 17:5-6:
YHWH says;
“Cursed are those who trust in human ways,
who rely on things of the flesh,
whose hearts turn away from YHWH.
They are like stunted vegetation in the desert
with no hope in the future.
John 15:5:
I am the vine;
you are the branches.
Those who live in me and I in them
will bear abundant fruit,
for apart from me you can do nothing.
So what’s at the core of why the early church fathers and later theologians decided on a distanced-from-God version of Psalm 131? The only thing I can think of is that they were uncomfortable with the God as a nursing mother imagery. That’s my gut reaction and assumptions to the translations and interpretations, but what is actually in the original Hebrew text? Let’s see what happens when I do some research on this psalm.
In the second verse, the meaning turns on the word “weaned.” In my Hebrew translation software, I see that the root word is גָמֻל, or gamul, I found the following possible translations: a primitive root; to treat a person (well or ill), i.e. benefit or requite; by implication (of toil), to ripen, i.e. (specifically) to wean:—bestow on, deal bountifully, do (good), recompense, requite, reward, ripen, + serve, mean, yield. (In the sense of labor or burden-bearing); a camel:—camel.”
In Psalm 131 the word appears twice, both times in the past participle form. I ran into a problem – the word only appears two more times in the Old Testament that form. There was nothing in the context of the other two verses to indicate if weaned, nursing, carrying, bearing, matured or something else was the correct translation.
In Willem VanGemeren, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School’s essay on psalm 131 , he wrestles with the metaphor of the child with its mother, the possible translations, and historical interpretations.
VanGemeren concludes (and note the author assumes the infant is a he when there’s no indication of the gender in the original Hebrew.): “The analogy of the psalmist and the gamul lies in the contentment of the child with his mother. It is an image of quietness and rest. The metaphor does not fit in every aspect, and so commentators have often erred by looking for additional aspects: freedom, dependence, maturity, long experience of love and care, absence of self-gratification, filial trust, assurance, etc. The affective metaphor creates a special feeling (effect) in which the impression of the one is compared with another. The picture of a child quietly resting on his mother fits the usage of gamul and the context. To go beyond the special affective correspondence has given rise to questionable analogies.”
But further research revealed that there was a surprise that had nothing to do with the word gamul.
In Rev. Melody Knowles, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary’s essay A Woman at Prayer: A Critical Note on Psalm 131:2b she posits that the voice in Psalm 131:2b is that of the mother. She doesn’t address the translation of gamul, but instead makes a persuasive argument that an accurate translation of “the child with me” or “the child in its mother’s arms” would be:
2b. like the weaned child on me, its mother,
like the weaned child on me is my soul.
Knowles points out that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the author was female, although it could be so, but it does indicate that ancient Hebrew men were comfortable in using texts written in a female voice to worship. Duke University Professor Brent Strawn takes a critical look at Knowles’ essay in A Woman at Prayer (Psalm 131,2b) and Arguments from Parallelism, trying to pull her argument apart. Strawn argues against some of Knowles’ methodology, but in the end concurs with Knowles’ translation of the lines.
I went back and re-read the psalm in the Biblical Hebrew, and the phrase “child on me” jumped out at me. I wondered how I had managed to miss it before. Clearly this psalm is written in the voice of a woman. God here is telling us that he/she is like a mother cradling her child.
What changes in our faith if women are also authors of scripture? It means that they too are gifted by God with spiritual authority. I wonder how much people who misinterpret the Word of God in order to justify their power miss God’s word for them, miss out on the deep love YHWH has for all of us. There is no greater image of love and comfort here in this world than that of a mother with her child.