Mark Sameth, named one of ‘America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis’ by The Forward (inaugural list, 2013), is working on a history of the Tetragrammaton.
Mark Sameth
By Mark Sameth
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Community The Secret Sex Life of Hebrew Letters
This series began as an unpacking of some controversial translations of Biblical texts I offered in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?. I argued that the Hebrew Bible is filled with gender-bending language, all intended to hint at an Israelite priestly / scribal tradition that God is “dual-gendered” – “male” and…
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Community When Biblical Gender Is Lost In Translation
We find gender-bending language in the Torah, in the greater Hebrew Bible, as well as in later Hebrew literature. And I am hardly the first one to notice this. Bible scholars, critics, and translators of later Hebrew works have all drawn attention to the phenomenon. In his 1990 bestseller “The Book of J,” Harold Bloom…
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Community Is God Both Male and Female?
In this series I am responding to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in a 2016 op-ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” So far, we have looked at Eve as “he;” Noah repairing to “her” tent; Rebecca, who…
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Community Gender Bending In The Torah: The Nursing Kings of Israel
I am responding in this series to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” (August 12, 2016). So far, we have looked at Eve as “he”, Noah repairing to “her” tent,…
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Community Was Adam a Hermaphrodite?
I am responding in this series to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” (August 12, 2016). So far, we have looked at Eve as “he”, Noah repairing to “her” tent,…
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Community Gender Bending in the Torah: Was Rebecca a Young Man?
I am responding in this series to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” (August 12, 2016). So far, we have looked at Eve as “he” and Noah repairing to “her”…
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Community Did Noah Repair to ‘Her’ Tent?
I am responding in this series to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” (August 12, 2016). Last time we looked at whether the Torah refers to Eve as “he.” This…
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Community Was Eve Called ‘He’ in the Torah?
Translations of the Bible are never without controversy. In a few articles since 2008, and in a recent Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?,” I have provided examples of grammatical gender-bending in the Torah – all hints, I believe, to the “dual-gendered” nature of God. I’ll have more to say about what…
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