Negative reaction to TNIV is unwarranted—and unfounded

By Mark Strauss

The recent commentary by Chaplain Bill Rhetts [March 2002] attacking the new Bible translation, Today’s New International Version,” contains a great deal of misunderstanding and misinformation. It will only serve to cloud the issue and confuse readers. It is clear from the article that Chaplain Rhetts has not seen the TNIV and has no understanding of its nature. Almost everything he says about it is simply wrong.

Contrary to Chaplain Rhetts’ claims, the TNIV does not “remove most references to he or she” in the Bible. Nor does it remove masculine reference to husbands, or feminine references to wives. Contrary to his claim, the TNIV retains all masculine references for God. This is not, as he claims, a “gender-neutral” version. It is rather a “gender-accurate” version, which seeks to reproduce the precise meaning of the original Greek with reference to gender distinctions. When Greek terms are used in the New Testament to refer to both men and women, the TNIV translates them this way. For example, Romans 3:28 TNIV reads, “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith …” The apostle Paul here used the Greek word anthropos, which in this context means “person” [all scholars agree on this]. The TNIV is more precise and accurate than the NIV, which translates “a man is justified by faith.” The TNIV seeks to retain gender distinctions that were intended by the inspired authors of Scripture.

Chaplain Rhetts claims that the TNIV will give comfort to transgenders, transvestites and transexuals. This is absolutely wrong. The TNIV never changes references that are gender specific. Nor does it change anything related to gender roles in the church or the home. This is certainly not a “unisex” or a “feminist” version. Anyone who even briefly examines the TNIV in passages like Romans 1:26-27 [concerning homosexual behavior], or 1 Timothy 2:11-15 [concerning the role of women in the church], or Ephesians 6:22 [concerning the submission of wives to their husbands] will see that there are no changes in meaning introduced by the TNIV. The TNIV does not change the meaning of the text, as Chaplain Rhetts claims, but rather seeks to express as precisely as possible the meaning inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Chaplain Rhetts also seems unaware that the kind of gender language used in the TNIV has in fact become standard in Bible translation over the last 20 years—due to changes in the English language. Translations like the New Living Translation, the New Century Version, the International Children’s Version, the New Revised Standard Version, God’s Word, The Message, the Revised English Bible, the Contemporary English Version and the Good News Bible [also called Today’s English Version] are all gender-accurate in the same way as the TNIV. In fact, the use of such language is nothing new, and all translations of the past have used some inclusive terms for masculine generic terms in Hebrew and Greek. The King James Version often used the inclusive “children” for masculine generic terms sometimes rendered “sons.” Matthew 5:9 KJV reads: “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.” The KJV translators correctly recognized that though the Hebrew and Greek terms [banim, huioi] were masculine in form, their meaning in context was generic and inclusive.

I heard a conservative commentator recently refer to this debate as a “tempest in a teapot,” and that is what it is. People are often bothered, even outraged, by new translations because they do not sound like the Bible they are used to. But to be honest, the original Bible—the Greek and Hebrew texts—does not sound anything like the Bible people are used to! The point is that every English translation must take Greek and Hebrew words and find their closest equivalent in contemporary English. This is exactly what the TNIV is doing.

Christians need to use their minds [and their eyes!] before reacting so strongly to sensationalistic and inaccurate press reports. Otherwise, we risk misunderstanding both the culture around us and God’s inspired and authoritative Word.

Mark L. Strauss, Ph.D., is a professor of New Testament and Greek at Bethel Seminary in San Diego. His former colleague, Dr. Ronald Youngblood, is one of the collaborators on the New International Version and the subsequent TNIV.