What's next ?!?
No pictures or videos today, I'm actually going to write something...Crazy I know.
Well, personally I've never really used the NIV translation of the Bible. I've never liked the philosophy used in the translation. Instead of striving to come as close as possible to a "word for word" translation from the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts (such as the ESV, NASB, NKJV, KJV...). The NIV is more of a "thought for thought" translation, or what is called " "Dynamic Equivalent", with the aim at making it easy to read and understand for the modern reader. The translators of the NIV have taken this one step further.
Last night I was driving home from NH listening to Dr. James Dobson the host of Focus on the Family: family.org. He had a guest on the show, Wayne Grudem a Research Professor of Bible and Theology at Phoenix Seminary. Grudem is the author of the new book The TNIV and the Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy. The "TNIV" is the newest translation of the NIV Bible,"Today's New International Version". There is a huge controversy over this new translation. According to Grudem there have been over 3,000 male oriented words replaced with what the TNIV translators call "gender-accurate" words(read "gender-neutral"). The male oriented words father, son, brother, he, him, and his have, in many cases been replaced with more "gender-inclusive" words. For example
Matthew 4:4
ESV: "'Man shall not live by bread alone,...'"
TNIV: "'People do not live on bread alone,...'".
Matthew 4:19
ESV: "'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'"
TNIV: "'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will send you out to fish for people.'".
This is just scary if you ask me. These are the words of Christ. Why are we changing them?
Here are a few more examples
Romans 10:14
ESV: "But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?"
TNIV: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?"
Acts 7:20
ESV: "'At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house,...'"
TNIV: "'At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his parents' home.'"
How about this one
Mark 6:4
ESV: "'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.'"
TNIV: "'Only in their own towns, among their relatives and in their own homes are prophets without honor.'"
There are many more examples at sheperdchurch.org. Not all verses on that website refer to the gender issue, but the majority do.
If you would like a little more info read this article.
So what do you all think? Is this taking dynamic equivalence too far? If this is acceptable now, what changes to the Scripture will be accepted in the future? With over 3,000 small changes how is anybody who picks up a copy of the TNIV supposed know what the original text said? Now I know that no translation is perfect, and that no English bible can perfectly translate what the original manuscripts said, but blatantly changing the meaning of words(that you know how to translate) for whatever reason you may have is just wrong. I suggest to all Christians...learn Greek and Hebrew! This is the best way to know what the Bible says. I highly recommend it. I plan on learning as soon as I can. But until I can write my own translation I'll stick with a word for word translation.
Well, personally I've never really used the NIV translation of the Bible. I've never liked the philosophy used in the translation. Instead of striving to come as close as possible to a "word for word" translation from the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts (such as the ESV, NASB, NKJV, KJV...). The NIV is more of a "thought for thought" translation, or what is called " "Dynamic Equivalent", with the aim at making it easy to read and understand for the modern reader. The translators of the NIV have taken this one step further.
Last night I was driving home from NH listening to Dr. James Dobson the host of Focus on the Family: family.org. He had a guest on the show, Wayne Grudem a Research Professor of Bible and Theology at Phoenix Seminary. Grudem is the author of the new book The TNIV and the Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy. The "TNIV" is the newest translation of the NIV Bible,"Today's New International Version". There is a huge controversy over this new translation. According to Grudem there have been over 3,000 male oriented words replaced with what the TNIV translators call "gender-accurate" words(read "gender-neutral"). The male oriented words father, son, brother, he, him, and his have, in many cases been replaced with more "gender-inclusive" words. For example
Matthew 4:4
ESV: "'Man shall not live by bread alone,...'"
TNIV: "'People do not live on bread alone,...'".
Matthew 4:19
ESV: "'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'"
TNIV: "'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will send you out to fish for people.'".
This is just scary if you ask me. These are the words of Christ. Why are we changing them?
Here are a few more examples
Romans 10:14
ESV: "But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?"
TNIV: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?"
Acts 7:20
ESV: "'At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house,...'"
TNIV: "'At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his parents' home.'"
How about this one
Mark 6:4
ESV: "'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.'"
TNIV: "'Only in their own towns, among their relatives and in their own homes are prophets without honor.'"
There are many more examples at sheperdchurch.org. Not all verses on that website refer to the gender issue, but the majority do.
If you would like a little more info read this article.
So what do you all think? Is this taking dynamic equivalence too far? If this is acceptable now, what changes to the Scripture will be accepted in the future? With over 3,000 small changes how is anybody who picks up a copy of the TNIV supposed know what the original text said? Now I know that no translation is perfect, and that no English bible can perfectly translate what the original manuscripts said, but blatantly changing the meaning of words(that you know how to translate) for whatever reason you may have is just wrong. I suggest to all Christians...learn Greek and Hebrew! This is the best way to know what the Bible says. I highly recommend it. I plan on learning as soon as I can. But until I can write my own translation I'll stick with a word for word translation.
posted by Robb at 8:15:00 AM
4 comments
