Bible in Spanish: "Fishers of men" replaced by "fishers of people" to "be faithful" to the original text

A new translation of the Catholic Bible into Spanish will change the phrase "fishers of men" to "fishers of people". The general manager of the publishing house behind this change says that this approach aims to remain faithful to the original texts. 

Catholic News Agency reports that the publishing house Desclée de Brouwer will replace the expression "fishers of men" with "fishers of people" in a new translation of the Jerusalem Bible into Spanish.

This expression appears notably in Matthew 4 in verse 19, when Jesus calls his disciples to follow him: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”.

For Javier Gogeaskoetxea, general manager of Desclée de Brouwer, this change in wording aims to remain faithful to the original texts. He clarifies that it is not a question of succumbing to pressure linked to inclusive language.

"If I put 'man', we would no longer be faithful to the original text because the Greek word is neither man nor woman," he explained.

“I understand that there is an attempt at 'controversy' by attributing an 'inclusive' language to the translation. But nothing could be further from the truth; the reason for this is fidelity to the original text. »

“If the words are now changed to be 'gender friendly', it has nothing to do with the decision of the Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem. The Bible translations do not conform to modern times, but rather try to be faithful to the ancient text”, underlines the general manager of the publishing house.

He recalls in particular that for the biblical and archaeological school of Jerusalem the rule is that "the oldest text is always the most truthful".

Camille Westphal Perrier