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:
WOW! I have heard of this new translation but I have not read it (I have no intrest in reading it). I am glad that you wrote those verses out for us to see the difference in the translations. I use a NKJV. It does help you to read it "easier" you know the thou thee thy... Call me a rebel!!
I think that learning the origional language, greek and hebrew are a great idea. I am a little too busy to start school right now, maybe when all the kids are a lot older, maybe even out of the house. I hear that the studing takes a lot right Deb?
Great article Robb, and thanks for bringing it to our attention.
May every person have a great day!
Robb,
I personally don't care for the NIV either. However, it is good for a functional equivalence. I would not study from it or do any kind of deep exegesis with it, but I would certainly use it when preacing or teaching. Not in preparing the sermon or lesson, but in delivering it. The more formal translations of the NAS and ESV (which I favor heavily), can be confusing to some people who are not as trained in the scriptures as some may be. As long as a proper understanding is relayed along side the functional reading, I think you're all set. Of course it is best to use a variety of translations while studying.
Now, the TNIV, on the other hand, is a disgrace. Some of the uses of gender can be translated in the neuter, but when the gender is specific, it is usually pretty important. How would the TNIV deal with the title "Son of Man"? The theological rmifications, I think, are vitaly important.
And it's not just the gender issue. This verse really shocked me:
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.'"
Moses was no ordinary child!? That is so weak that it doesn't even resemble the original text. The divine intimacy Moses had with Yahweh is of great theological importance. He was the only human mediator in a covenant between God and man besides Christ. To strip that away from the text is blasphemous.
Ian
Robb,
You ought to try a literal translation for studying. You can download the e-sword program for free and then after you have the basic program there are lots of goodies you can download to add. The "ALT" is a Literal Translation. It translates literally and you get a much better idea of the text as it is written. In Greek, as I'm sure you know, the order of words is according to the emphasis desired. It's really neat to see what is most important in every sentence; you completely loose that when you smooth it into readable English.
www.e-sword.net
I have to admit, as I am beginning to know the Greek a little bit, I am amazed at how people will argue over the meaning of a particular verse based on the English translation! Of course, that is exactly what the cults do.
MacArthur got so mad at Zondervan, who published it, that he got up in chapel my senior year and told everyone to send them any NIV Bibles they owned in protest. The continuing protest got to Zondervan and they made a donation to the Shepherd's Conference at Grace Community this past year of Reader's Greek New Testaments to try to get back in good graces. I guess it worked out ok for me because i got a free greek new testament!
i guess part of the reason they do it is because they figure if people will be ofended by the Bible, they don't want it to be over gender issues. But where's the line?
as for myself, i prefer the Ebonics Bible. You remember that? a guy in Slight had one our freshman year. good stuff there.
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