The accuracy of the new “Today’s New International Version” (TNIV) revision of the popular New International Version (NIV) has quickly become a topic of debate among Bible scholars.
“Accuracy and clarity are prime with us,” said Larry Lincoln, communications director for the International Bible Society (IBS), copyright holder of both the new TNIV and the 1984 NIV.
On the other side of the debate, Randy Stinson, executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), said the TNIV contains “absolute mistranslations,” three of which are cited on the CBMW’s Web site at www.cbmw.org.
Lincoln told Baptist Press that the TNIV should be called a “gender-accurate” translation instead of the term used by some in the media, including Baptist Press, as “gender-neutral.” The TNIV, he said, uses “generic language” for men and women “only when the text was meant to include both men and women.” An overview of the TNIV is available on the Internet at www.tniv.info.
Lincoln noted that the TNIV makes no changes in Scripture’s male-oriented references to God and Jesus.
Stinson of the CBMW noted that the three examples of mistranslation on the organization’s Web site are “representative types of changes that they’ve made,” referencing the IBS and the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), a 15-member group of scholars with authority over the NIV translation, such as the revision of the text into TNIV’s gender-neutral language.
Of the changes, Stinson said, “They’re significant. They do change the meaning. These are absolute mistranslations.”
Stinson said the revisions by IBS and CBT in the new translation “are just not the case with the major reputable lexicons.”
Steve Johnson, IBS vice president for communication and development, sent an e-mail to Baptist Press after its Jan. 28 news story on the TNIV, stating: “I wish to state for the record that the overriding concern of the CBT is always accuracy and clarity. While there may be differences within the body on the specific rendering of Greek and Hebrew, the influence of social agenda into any translation is never permitted. We regret that once again, the issue of providing God’s Word to the next generation of English-speakers has become an issue of division in the Body of Christ.”
The three references cited by the CBMW as mistranslations in the TNIV are:
Revelation 3:20: “I will come and eat with them, and they with me.”
“The removal of ‘him’ and ‘he’ completely drains the passage of the individual nature of the relationship between a person and Christ,” the CBMW states on its Web site, noting that the TNIV has “many instances where the singular generic ‘he’ is replaced with the plural ‘they’ or ‘them.’”
John 11:25, in which Jesus is translated as saying: “Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
The CBMW’s concern: “Not only does this convolute the personal nature of the relationship between a person and Christ, but it betrays the fact that Jesus Himself used the generic ‘he’ even though he was speaking to a woman (Martha).”
Acts 20:30: “From your own number some will arise.”
The CBMW’s concern: “This is problematic because the Greek word for ‘aner’ is translated ‘some’ when this is a specific word that can only mean men. Not only is this a mistranslation but it communicates the idea that the passage may also refer to women who would ‘arise.’ Since this passage refers to the elders, that would not be the case. Even if one affirms that there actually could have been women elders, it is still not appropriate to change the translation to reflect this belief.”
Lincoln of the IBS stated that less than 2 percent of the TNIV involves gender-related revisions of the NIV. Other changes account for 5 percent in an overall 7 percent revision of the NIV, he said.
“We’re concerned about a generation of people who are turning their backs on the Bible because they don’t see it as relevant, largely because they don’t understand it,” Lincoln asserted, noting that 100 million people in America are under the age of 30 and that language has changed since the NIV New Testament was initially published.
The IBS noted that its ongoing work has been conducted “in accordance with its own guidelines and the guidelines established by the International Forum of Bible Agencies,” which encompasses “18 of the leading global translation ministries, including IBS, Wycliffe Bible Translators, United Bible Societies, Summer Institute of Linguistics, New Tribes Mission and others … responsible for more than 90 percent of the translation work done around the world [and seeking to do] uncompromisingly accurate translations in contemporary language.”
Among translation guidelines:
“‘Father’ (‘pater,’ ‘ab’ in the original text) should not be changed to ‘parent,’ nor ‘fathers’ to ‘parents,’ or ‘ancestors.’”
‘Son’ (‘huios, ben’) should not be changed to ‘child.’ ‘Sons’ (‘huioi’) should not be changed to ‘children’ or ‘sons and daughters.’ (However, Hebrew ‘banim’ often means ‘children.’)”
The Jan. 28 IBS/Zondervan news release noted that the 1984 NIV “will continue to be published in its current form without change, making the TNIV an additional choice in translations alongside the NIV.”
(BP)
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