References to Christ as human

Henry Neufeld, on his blog, Threads from Henry's web, has been writing about the incarnation. I had read his first post and meant to mention it tonight. He has posted again on this topic here. Henry puts the incarnation at the centre, "Jesus come in the flesh."

So I want to show three rather straightforward verses about Jesus, come in the flesh, and how they look in the TNIV, NRSV and the ESV. At some later date, I would like to write about Hebrews 2, which is somewhat more complex.

All the words coloured red represent the word anthropos in the Greek. I have removed notes in the original due to technical reasons. Please view these verses at BibleGateway or Studylight for the full context.

1 Corinthians 15:21

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being NRSV

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a human being. TNIV

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ESV

Philippians 2:7-8

but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross. NRSV

rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! . TNIV

but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ESV

1 Timothy 2:5

This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human NRSV

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, Christ Jesus, himself human, TNIV

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ESV

I do want to admit that it is difficult to get these passages just right. Because 'humans' is not stylistically viable in all contexts in English, anthropos is sometimes translated as 'people' and 'everyone'. I think 'people' is better, but there it is. However, I feel that altogether the solutions found by the NRSV and the TNIV are accurate and helpful.

It is of utmost importance to understand that in Phil. 2:7, the Greek does not say that Jesus was born in the likeness of a male. He was, but that is not the significance of the verse. This will influence how one interprets the concept of being in the image of God, imago dei. Another topic for later.

Notes: Dr. Grudem says about these verses, (page 4)

the masculinity of Christ was downplayed

But, if human is the basic semantic component of anthropos and that is the intended meaning, then translating it as 'man' only works if we are absolutely certain that 'man' is understood in the generic sense, in which case there isn't any semantic masculinity to be downplayed.

Dr. Kostenberger writes in a similar vein, (page 12)

It has already been noted in the survey of the translation of anthropos above that their commitment to gender-inclusive language frequently led the NIVI translators to neuter the word “man” in Scripture.

Is there some sense that to translate anthropos as human, rather than man, neuters the word? What about anthropology, and philanthropy, and anthropomorphic? I hope Dr. Kostenberger will feel free to respond to this question.