Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Gender-neutral NIV | Bible general Archive 1 | Makarios | 32497 | ||
Greetings Kalos, This story made front page news on the South Bend Tribune this morning (01/29/02) (www.southbendtribune.com): "Change involves gender-neutral wording By RICHARD N. OSTLING Associated Press Writer The International Bible Society said Monday that America's best-selling modern Bible is about to get an update using gender-neutral wording, despite past criticism of that idea from conservatives. The revision will be called "Today's New International Version," or TNIV. The original "New International Version," which has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide since 1978, will remain on the market. The New Testament of the latest version goes on sale in April with the full Bible including Old Testament books expected by 2005. Grand Rapids-based Zondervan, owned by HarperCollins, holds North American rights for both versions. To date, the Bible society and Zondervan have spent 2 million to develop the new translation, but they did not disclose other financial terms. Both versions, the work of evangelical translators, are especially popular in the conservative, Protestant heart of America's competitive Bible market. Randy Stinson, executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, a Louisville, Ky., group that works to preserve gender specific language, said Monday he had not yet seen the revisions but was concerned that word meanings may have been altered. "This is incredibly serious to evangelicals, how the Bible is translated," Stinson said. "We believe the Bible is the word of God, so changing these things deliberately is dangerous." But Scott Bolinder, executive vice president and publisher at Zondervan, said there are relatively few changes involving gender and those have only been made "to reflect the original meaning of the text." "There's no social agenda," he said. The older version's gender usage became hotly disputed in 1997 when World magazine, a conservative weekly, reported that the Bible society was working on an inclusive-language revision. The society had already published such an edition with a British publisher. Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination, criticized the language change, as did James Dobson of the influential "Focus on the Family" radio broadcast. After meeting with critics, the Bible society said it would halt publication of Britain's inclusive edition and had "abandoned all plans for gender-related changes in future editions of the New International Version." The Bible society, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., isn't quite abandoning its pledge because the latest version won't replace the "New International Version" -- it will just be sold alongside the older translation. Examples of some changes from 1978 to 2002: "sons of God" to "children of God" in Matthew 5:9, and "a man is justified by faith" to "a person is justified by faith" in Romans 3:28. A publicity release says "the TNIV is not merely a gender-accurate edition of the NIV," because 70 percent of the changes do not relate to gender. Also, terms referring to God and Jesus Christ have not been altered. Like the 1978 Bible, the new version is aimed at Protestants and will not appear in an edition with the extra biblical books recognized by Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. The major U.S. sales competitor for the NIV has been the venerable King James Version. But the international versions will now also have to compete with two evangelical translations that appeared last year: * "English Standard Version" from Crossway, a slight update of the 1952 Revised Standard Version that makes modest use of gender-free terminology. * "Holman Christian Standard Bible" from Broadman and Holman, the Southern Baptist book house, which rejects gender-neutral wording. It is currently available only in the New Testament, with the full Bible due in 2004. All or part of the Bible is currently available in some 70 English translations." Blessings to you, Makarios |
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2 | Gender-neutral NIV | Bible general Archive 1 | Hank | 32503 | ||
Thanks, Makarios, for an informative post regarding the new-fangled NIV. What stopped me in my tracks in your note was the last sentence: that there are now 70 translations in English of the Bible or parts of it. How sparse! I think we should have at a bare minimum four or five hundred. We can always build barns in our backyards to house them..... Of course, there is a viable, if not so garish, alternative to this madness. We could choose a decent translation that is faithful to the ancient manuscripts, sit ourselves down, and actually read and study it. Or is this just too, too mundane to assuage our eternal itch for the new and the dazzling? --Hank | ||||||
3 | Gender-neutral NIV | Bible general Archive 1 | Morant61 | 32510 | ||
Greetings Hank! The sad thing is that much of the push for 'new' translations is simply motivated by the desire to capture our dollars. Do we really need 70 plus English translations? Are they really all that different? Or do they simply create new markets? Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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4 | Gender-neutral NIV | Bible general Archive 1 | Hank | 32514 | ||
Hello once again, Tim! P.T. Barnum has given us a decent answer to part of this new translation mania: Said he, "There's a sucker born every minute." And so long as the Bible market is populated with suckers who have no more gumption than to fall for the "clearer and more accurate" claims of every new translation that comes down the biblical pike, publishers will continue to crank them out. I wouldn't be at all surprised that the market for Bible translators isn't one of the fastest-growing job markets in the country...... And yes, Tim, there is little room for doubt that Big Bucks is the motivating force behind it except for the few non-profit publishers, our sponsor, the Lockman Foundation, being one of them. HarperCollins, the parent firm of Zondervan of NIV fame, is not a non-profit organization by any means..... If market research indicated a possible lucrative market for a Bible translation for people who own German Shepherd dogs, make no mistake about it: you would see one on the store shelves within six months. --Hank | ||||||