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NEWS &
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FEATURES |
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EVANGELICALS
WELCOME NIV REVISION WITH CAUTIOUS
OPTIMISM |
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5 September 2009:
Plans to update the popular NIV Bible have been
received by evangelical leaders and critics of the
controversial TNIV translation with cautious optimism.
On Monday, NIV publisher Zondervan, translation overseer
the Committee on Bible Translation, and copyright owner
Biblica, formerly the International Bible Society,
announced their intention to revise the NIV Bible for
the first time in 25 years. They also announced the
discontinuation of sales of Today’s New International
Version (TNIV), which drew fire from conservative camps
seven years ago over a number of issues, including its
use of gender-neutral language.
“We believe that a flawed translation philosophy
resulted in the TNIV presenting English readers with an
unjustified rendering of the gender language of the
original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible,”
commented J Ligon Duncan IIIinois, board chairman for
the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood (CBMW). “It
is our sincere hope that this new revision of the NIV
will do better.”
R Albert Mohler Jr, president of Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, meanwhile, pointed out that the
recent joint announcement by the NIV partners indicates
that this new translation will be known as the NIV, even
though it will be based on the TNIV, as it has been
edited even since publication.
“This is a significant departure from the earlier
promise to ‘freeze’ the NIV translation in order to
protect it from controversy,” noted the prominent
evangelical leader.
Still, Mohler applauded the NIV partners for having
acted “openly and honestly” to announce their intention
and for their promise to consider all concerned raised
during the process – from scholars to the general
public.
“Their straightforwardness on this is commendable, even
where we may find ourselves in disagreement over these
decisions and the underlying translation philosophy,” he
stated.
When the TNIV was published in 2002, evangelical
scholars sounded off against the more than 3,000 changes
that were made – changes that “flattened gender
language”, as some put it, eliminating many references
such as “son”, “he”, “him”, “his”, “father”, and
“brother”, references that diverged from the original
Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.
“As many of us made clear at the time of the TNIV’s
announcement and release, the issues with this
translation had to do with translation decisions that we
were convinced did not produce ‘gender accuracy’, but
lamentable inaccuracy,” explained Mohler. “The rigorous
application of these decisions produced a translation
that was not only problematic in terms of direct and
indirect gender references, but also in its confusion of
crucial texts with messianic significance.”
Though the issues of primary concern with the release of
the TNIV remain, Mohler urged against “reckless talk”
and stressed that those who have had significant
concerns with the TNIV should communicate these concerns
respectfully, candidly, and directly to the Committee on
Bible Translation, Zondervan, and Biblica.
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This page
is updated on Sep 18, 2009 |
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PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY
10 YEARS CELEBRATION
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