Bible Question:
Did you know? "Today's New International Version" - gender-neutral version America's best-selling modern Bible is being issued in a gender-neutral version BIRMINGHAM, January 28 -- The International Bible Society says it will update America's best-selling modern language Bible to make fewer gender distinctions. Biblical conservatives including the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention have criticized the idea. References to God and Jesus won't be changed. An example given was changing Matthew chapter 5, verse 9 to "children of God" instead of "sons of God." The New Testament of the latest version goes on sale in April with the full Bible including Old Testament books expected by 2005. The society said Monday its original "New International Version," first published in 1978, will remain on the market. That translation has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. The new Bible will be called "Today's New International Version." Publisher Zondervan of Grand Rapid, Michigan, holds North American rights to both versions. (http://www1.msnbc.com/local/wvtm/nbcat8911wc.asp) |
Bible Answer: 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 |