Subject: Gender-neutral NIV |
Bible Note: Yes, EdB! "Promise broken" is correct! In 1997, I first learned of the NIVI, a 'new inclusive' version of the NIV. I was shocked to hear that the publishers would seek to "change" the NIV! But they pulled the NIVI off the shelves and promised not to introduce such a "change" ever again. For a little more "perspective" of 1997... "The straw the broke the camel's back, however, came when the nation's largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Covention, considered dropping the NIV from its Sunday-school curriculum. In the face of impending catastrophe, the IBS executive committee met in an emergency session. On May 23, 1997, the committee approved a statement abandoning "all plans for gender-related changes in future editions of the New International Version (NIV)." They also pledged to continue publishing the present (1984) NIV, to begin revising the gender-inclusive New International Reader's Version (NIrV), and to enter into negotiations with Hodder and Stoughton, the British publisher of the NIV, on the matter of ceasing publication of the NIVI." (1) However, only five years later, IBS announces plans to launch the TNIV! Promise broken? Yes!! Promise is definitely broken!! Why was/am I so shocked? Well, the NIV is almost a victim of its own success. No translation since the 1611 KJV has come as close to usurping the dominance of the KJV in the English-speaking world as the NIV. Among many evangelicals (as well as among many other Christians), the NIV has become the Bible of choice. The NRSV is for Catholics, or so it seemed to me. But when one of "our" Bibles- indeed THE most popular and widely read of evangelical Bibles- was accused of caving in to feminist demands for political correctness, the translators had/have a scandal on their hands! As Christianity Today puts it: "Hands Off My NIV!!" Also, why will the TNIV be published and marketed in the way that it is being planned? No other publisher has produced two separate versions from the same text- one inclusive and the other noninclusive. For instance, when the NRSV came out, the RSV was no longer being published. And the NRSV did not identify itself as a 'gender inclusive' version, like the TNIV does, but it was a 'revision.' By publishing two different versions, the International Bible Society is only inviting criticism upon itself. Why should the publishers seek to continue to publish the un-updated (and seemingly less accurate) version? Have they forgotten that this is the very Word of God? The only conclusion that I can come up with is that the TNIV is a 'agenda driven' translation. My question to the IBS: Why the TNIV? You would have thought that they would rest their pens and ink with all the success that the NIV has enjoyed in its very brief lifespan. Their actions only serve to threaten the longevity of their own proudest culmination! Makarios Source: (1) "Distorting Scripture? The Challenge of Bible Translation and Gender Accuracy" by Mark L. Strauss, 1998, InterVarsity Press |