Matthew 9:32 REB
They were on their way out when a man was brought to him, who was dumb and possessed by a demon;

I’m not usually into being especially politically correct but I’m glad that the word dumb, used for people who can’t speak, has been replaced with the word mute, here in the USA.

I was reading R.T. France’s commentary on Matthew and he uses the word dumb with no comment at all which was surprising to me. Every modern US translation uses unable to speak, mute or couldn’t talk. The latest one I could find was the 1977 NASB which they changed to mute in the 1995 revision.

So I was wondering if it’s still in use in the UK. I looked up deaf dumb in Google News and found that it’s used across the ocean from us here in the US. I looked at R.T. France’s bio and saw that he is from the land of tea, warm beer, mist and fog also. I then looked at the REB which is the Revised English Bible, as in England, and it uses the word dumb also (as seen above).

I’m not sure of the etymology of the word for this usage but it certainly has a negative connotation to us here in the US in contemporary language.

So I thought I’d mention that if you see the word dumb being used, it’s common in some areas outside the US.

Has there been any discussion on this over there or is it seen in a different light than we do here? I’m not making any judgments, I’m just asking.