Katharine Bushnell

In her book God’s Word to Women, Katharine Bushnell was successful in revealing some of the lies in the traditional understanding of Genesis,  making it a good place to begin our journey.

The late Katharine Bushnell (1856 to 1946) was a physician, missionary, author, and Greek and Hebrew  scholar.  Her book, God’s Word to Women, was originally published in 1910 and the last edition in 1923 was republished in 1943 by Ray Munson who recognized its value in drawing attention to inconsistencies in Pauline theology with respect to the female sex.  It is available in electronic form on the internet site by the same name, or a hard copy can be purchased at major book retailers for a reasonable price.

Bushnell’s goal was to point out the fallacies in the “scriptural” argument for the supremacy of the male sex, show the true position of women with God, and to encourage women to learn the Bible in its original tongues so they can refute these fallacies (#1).  To overcome false teachings, she recommended consulting God more than books, study scripture in its original language, as if we “had never seen it before, and knew nothing about it” (#18).  I heartily agree! By putting aside what we’ve been taught and studying scripture in the original languages, we cut out the false shepherds and follow  the Messiah, who as Yahweh promised will “Stand up over them shepherd to separate (echad translated ‘one’) and tend to covenant with them (eth not translated) in covenant with (eth not translated) my servant, beloved one (david translated ‘David’), he will tend in covenant with them (eth not translated) and he will be to them to shepherd.” Ezekiel 34:23. (Note: the re-translation of this sentence is based on what I have learned in my study of Hebrew to this point, adding depth and meaning to the sentence, emphasizing the separation function of the Messiah, which is critical.)

Bushnell was well aware of the obstacles that might impede our understanding of ancient Hebrew.  Vowel letters were added to the Hebrew text to indicate pronunciation which proved insufficient and vowel-signs were added “as late as 600-800 A.D.” (#6), neither of which were part of the original inspired text (#7).  Fortunately, today we have free resources like Biblehub.com which allow us to view the Hebrew text of multiple Bible versions in parallel, and provide a text analysis that links individual words in verses to Strong’s Concordance numbers, where we can access in-depth information about the word meaning and its origin.

Bushnell uncovered several fallacies in the traditional understanding of the Genesis creation account.  She identifies the androgynous state of the first man, and discusses the ‘fable of the rib’ in-depth.  She recognized that in Gen 2:18 the previously very good state of humanity had become “not good”, that the Hebrew bad does not mean ‘alone’ but something to do with ‘separation’, that the Hebrew ‘ezer’ is only used of God’s help, yet she still thought perhaps the woman was to help the man “recover himself”, not recognizing that God was trying to help/save the woman.  What she reveals evidences that the fall took place in Genesis 2, not 3, and the man was responsible, not the woman.

Bushnell believed “all scripture is inspired” as stated in 2 Tim 3:16, infallible Isaiah 40:8, and inviolable John 10:35 (#2). As a result, she tried to explain away the inconsistencies in writings attributed to Paul as a misinterpretation and leavened her beliefs with some lies which prevented her from seeing the whole truth.  Ray Munson, in the Foreword to her book, claims they are “the false pen of the scribes” quoting Jeremiah 8:8.  He considers the Pastoral Epistles and other obvious interpolations a perversion of Judaizing teachers which could not succeed in Pauls’ day, but now has blinded ministers to try and silence God’s ministry through the female sex by changing God’s truth into a lie Romans 1:25.  Who is correct?

In my next article, I will weigh the evidence as to whether all scripture is inspired or not.