People. May 1,1997 Carlos Colon: Late-Night Fixture at The Pantry 13 Donough Forde Pendulum Reporter Late night The Pantry is a place of weird ness. Not unlike the Waffle House, it is usually populated by shuffling glazed-eyed students. Carlos Colon, (aka the friendly late- shift Puerto Rican guy at The Pantry to the last seven years of Elon students), greets his customers with a friendly smile regardless of how glazed their eyes are or how confused their behavior is. “We’re all wild when we’re growing up. When the kids go home, this place is dead. When the kids are here, then it really is a store,” Colon said. Colon comes from the Puerto Rican town of Canovanas, a town so small that “it’s not always on the map,” he said. He moved to New York at 14 to live with his aunt because he "was always getting in trouble. He is the only member of a family of 12 to move away from home. “I’m the only one to drift away. I love Puerto Rico and will go back when I get older,” he said. Regardless of his love for home, Carlos once went for a 12-year period without call ing home. “They thought I was dead,” he said. Colon moved to North Carolina to marry a Burlington girl he met in New York. How ever, he has been divorced for six years. “People always ask for me. Even col lege kids who graduate, who are coming back to see family and friends always stop back to see me.” The Pantry experience has been dimmed somewhat by now closing at 11 p.m. But there are plans to bring back the late-night service by August. Colon said, “I miss the third shift. I miss my crazy kids out here.” I Andrew Brickey/r/7e Pendulum Carlos Colon, a popular cashier at The Pantry on Haggard Avenue, said he enjoys seeing the late-night crowd of Elon students who come into his store. Wilson Explores What the Bible Says About Women Donough Forde Pendulum Reporter If one disregards the concept of divine revelation often attrib uted to the authors and translators of the Bible, and recognizes the possibility of human error and bias in the production of such a complex manuscript, one must ask the ques tions: What were the mistakes of translation and what were the fab rications of bias involved in the production of what we now know as the Bible? In order to gain insight into these questions, dealing specifically with the question of the status of women. Pendulum reporter Donough Forde sat down with Christian Wilson, professor of reli gious studies, in his book-lined of fice at Carlton 319. Wilson is an ordained minister who completed his undergraduate and doctoral work at Duke Univer sity. He has been teaching at Elon for 12 years He works extensively in the ancient languages of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic and Egyptian- WUson: Every translation, to some extent, will show the biases of the translator. This one that I will show you now has to do with women in the ministry. The first one is in the letter Colossians 4:7. “Tychicus will tell you all the news about me; he is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the lord.” Now that word translated “minister” when referring to Tychicus as a man is the Greek word dicikonos, That is the New Revised Standard Version. This is the New International Version that will translate this particular pas sage identically. Now if we go to Romans 16:1 in the New Revised Standard. We have, “I commend you to my sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchrea.” Deacon here is not go ing quite as far as to have women in the ministry. If you look at the original Greek on Romans 16 pas sage, it is exactly the same word letter for letter (as in the Colossians passage). But, here it is translated as Deacon rather than minister. The New International is a very conservative version. It’s done by very conservative scholars for whom the idea of women being ministers was probably more than they could bear even though they were so in New Testament times. Here the exact same word is trans lated as servant that was translated minister when it referred to man is translated “servant” when it refers to Pheobe, a woman. Pendulum: So it’s even gone below the level of Deacon. Wilson: Well, they give an al ternative footnote translation, dea coness, even though there is no feminine ending on the word in Greek. The New International Ver sion at times translates things in a sexist way. I think that’s what we see in this instance. Pendulum: Who would view this text as being their primary text for biblical reference? Wilson: A lot of evangelical and fundamentalist groups and Baptists will use this as their pri mary source. Pendulum: How does this ver sion stand up to the old King James version. Wilson: Almost anything is better than the King James. There are two major problems with the King James. First, it is based on very inadequate evidence. The King James translators for the New Tes tament had only five manuscripts none of which covered the entire New Testament. The earliest they had was dated from the 11 th cen tury so it was very late with many errors creeping into the copies over the centuries. Whereas the King James is based upon five manuscripts, the New Revised Standard is based upon 5,300 manuscripts going all the way back,to the second century. Second, the King James is writ ten in early 17th century literary English, not in the English we speak today. Pendulum: How will Chris tianity develop and the thought that is the linchpin of Christianity change as the translations improve? Or will it change? Wilson: Well, it will change differently for different Christian groups. Obviously the Catholic Church is very slow to change things. This particular passage is telling us that women were in the ministry in the first century. At . $200-$500 Weekly . Mailing phone cards. No experience necessary^ For more Miformation send a self~addressed stamped envelope to: Global Communication^^ _ P.O. Box 5679, Hollywood, FL 33083 least at this point this Pope is not about to allow women to be priests. And that’s what ought to change with the new translation. And cer tainly that has changed in many Protestant denominations. Pendulum: Some people have used the Genesis stories as the ba sis for the subordination of women. Is that a valid use for the stories? Wilson: I don’t think that’s the intent of the stories. There are really two stories of creation. In the Genesis 1 creation story, there is no distinction made between female and male, they are both created at the same time in the image of God. Now, the Genesis 2 story, writ ten by a different author at a differ ent time, is somewhat different. From the dust He created the man of dust, in a sense. The woman is created by taking her from the rib of the man. Now, the normal He brew word for man is ish and the word for female is isha. “Adam” translates as the word "Adtham" which is the Hebrew word for hu manity. Therefore, what you have in initial creation is a sexless human being. When the woman is taken from the man, you have a differen tiation and there are two sexes. In a sense it was only when the Adam was divided that you had the ish and the isha. Pendulum: Just recently a Baptist church in Arkansas used the passage from Titus 2:5, “So that Summer Work Painters Wanted for Greensboro $7 hr: $4,200 for summer possible. For info call: 228-5874 they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-con trolled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submis sive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discred ited,” as justification for the clo sure of its day care, saying that a woman’s place was in the house. Wilson: The passages that they find and interpret in anti-feminist ways are never things that Jesus said. It’s always these later letters in the New Testament. You don’t find any anti-feminist statements on the lips of Jesus. For instance, in First Timothy 1:2, it is the author of the book speaking. “I permit no woman to have authority over man.” It’s not saying that God does not permit. CHARLIE'S GREAT SANDWICHES Exclusive sponsor of Elon Soccer! Try the hot dog voted best in Alamance County by Times News Readers Survey Don't Shop at Food Lion Hungry? Grab a fast & delicious hot dog at Charlie's before you shop FRIDAY & SATURDAY FTERSPJrt. 2 CHEESE URGESSFOR$ Show Student ID & get 10% off (regular menu prices) Westbrook Shopping Center next to Food Lion 11a.m. -9p.m. M-Sat 12-9 p.m. Sun 584-7883