Updated Bible translation “accurate” and “modern”
Evangelicals are once again in an uproar over a new Bible translation that some say goes over the line when it comes to gender equality.
Today's New International Version (TNIV), recently released by the International Bible Society (IBS) and Zondervan, translates Mary as being "pregnant" and renders brothers as "brothers and sisters," but God still remains male.
The TNIV is a more "accurate" version of the popular New International Version (NIV), says IBS public relations manager Judy Billings, and in reality matches the NIV by about 93 per cent. The Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), the same group that produced the NIV, developed the new translation.
Changes include: Clarifying passages or updating colloquial English without altering the intended meaning, translating key theological terms with greater accuracy and changing the grammar to make the translation more readable.
The TNIV web site (www.tniv.info) gives examples along with explanations. For example, the NIV translated Romans 3:28 as "for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." The TNIV translation is: "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law." The explanation states "The Greek word anthropos—traditionally rendered 'man'—can refer either specifically to males or to people in general, depending on the context."
In Matthew 1:18, the NIV says Mary was "found to be with child." The TNIV says "she was found to be pregnant."
Billings insists the TNIV is not the same as the so-called gender-inclusive "stealth Bible" the IBS pulled from production in 1997 after adverse publicity from conservative evangelicals such as Focus on the Family's James Dobson and World magazine publisher Joel Belz.
Billings says a "gender-neutral" translation removes references to male and female (especially when referring to God) while a "gender-accurate" translation like the TNIV uses "generic language when the original language meant to include both men and women," while God remains masculine.
However, many conservative evangelicals disagree, and say Zondervan, IBS and the CBT have broken faith with the "Guidelines for Translation of Gender-Related Language in Scripture" several organizations signed after the 1997 furor.
Web site launched
A group including Dobson, Belz, Tim Bayly (executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 1997), Wayne Grudem (president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 1997), Charles Jarvis (past executive vice president at Focus on the Family) and theologians John Piper, Vern Poythress and R.C. Sproul have launched a web site to counter the TNIV (www.KeptTheFaith.org).
"To change the text of God's Word so that masculinity intended by the authors of Scripture is muted, and thus risk indirectly obscuring both the archetypal fatherhood of God…and the true identity of Jesus Christ, is to violate the Word of God; to do so after promising not to do so violates one's own word," they say in a press release.
"We call upon the International Bible Society and Zondervan Publishing House again to reverse their announced direction, thus keeping their word and God's."
Overuse distorts
The TNIV group says they "agree there are limited times when the use of gender-accurate language enhances the accuracy of the translation" and that "overuse can become an instrument of distortion."
However, the group is also "determined that many of the technical guidelines (in the Guidelines for Translation of Gender-Related Language in Scripture) are too restrictive to facilitate the most accurate possible text in contemporary English idiom." IBS "withdrew its endorsement (of the guidelines) as a matter of integrity."
Gender language has always been an issue in Bible translation, says Gordon Fee, Professor of New Testament at Regent College, and a member of the CBT.
"We can't use NIV on a university campus because women cannot hear themselves included," he says.
Lengthy discussion
When revisions began 12 years ago, says Fee, there was a lengthy discussion about exclusive language. Gender-accurate changes were made for the "50 per cent of the congregations and the world who felt themselves written out of the Bible."
The Southern Baptist Conference has objected vociferously to the TNIV. William Merrell, vice president for convention relations of the denominations' executive committee, told Christianity Today, "No one is authorized to treat the Bible like Silly Putty. It's threatened by intrusion of hypersensitivity and political correctness. You cannot apply the changing cultural mores to determine what the Word of God says."
Craig Evans, professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity Western University, says accusing the IBS of being driven by political correctness is "silly" and "unfair."
"The NIV had to improve. It was way too paraphrasitic," says Evans. "They (the IBS) are making the Bible acceptable to a society which is increasingly biblically illiterate."
"History tells us nearly every new translation is controversial in the beginning, but then usually goes on to serve a useful purpose," say IBS officials. "The passion with which people from all sides are responding to Today's New International Version is part of the normal discourse in updating translations for the next generation."
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