Henry Neufeld blogged a few days ago about how he has started carrying and publicly using the TNIV. As most of us know, the TNIV and its publisher, Zondervan, have been greatly vilified because they dared to try to change from traditional Bible phrasing to a gender-accurate style more in keeping with the way we speak English today. So in the eyes of many, Henry is carrying a “bad”, “evil”, even “Satanic” Bible now, and even using it where other people can see him!
The critics of the TNIV seemed to have almost kept it from debuting a few years ago, so heavily did they attack it! And they made arguments good enough to convince a great many Christians that “gender-neutral” was the worst thing anybody could ever ask for in a Bible translation.
Since that time, the supporters of the TNIV have pretty well debunked these attacks and shown that the TNIV is actually a better translation than the long-revered NIV, which it was originally intended to replace. Henry makes this statement in big, black letters on his blog:
This value of this version has been completely lost in the smoke of the controversies about it. There is no reason for this to be a controversial Bible!
I myself used to shun the TNIV because of all the terrible things I read about it, but in recent days I have begun studying the TNIV, and I have discovered an excellent translation, as good as virtually any available today and better than most.
But you know what I’ve found? People still refuse to even look at the TNIV. They still think it’s a bad Bible. They still think Zondervan is trying to change the Word of God. So what can we do about this situation?
We can tell people about the TNIV. We can carry and use the TNIV, and read from it to people, as Henry is doing. Those of us who teach Bible studies can teach from it and recommend it. We can learn to defend the TNIV and point out the lies that the anti-TNIV people are saying about it.
The hoopla has died down quite a bit now. The TNIV is being sold in the Christian bookstores, and people are actually buying it. The attacks aren’t completely gone yet; it may be many years yet before that happens, so don’t be surprised if somebody is offended by your use of the TNIV.
But do you suppose this could be a taste of what it must have been like almost 2000 years ago, to be caught with a copy of those terrible “Christian” writings? How offensive it must have been! How dangerous it was to be identified as one of “those” people.
At the end of his blog entry, Henry Neufeld writes this:
Here I just want to give my impression, which is simply that if a certain small number of theologians who have “persecuted [the TNIV] without a cause” (with apologies to Psalm 119:161), and that if they had not done so, the TNIV would have taken an honored place amongst those versions that have helped advanced scriptural knowledge.
I hope that this can happen even now.
Me too, Henry. Me too!
Kevin said:
It doesn’t really bother me that some people will put down the TNIV anymore. When I teach the youth in Sunday School class, will use many translations and do not hesitate to use the TNIV too. They usually like to use the GNT just because it’s easy to understand and it’s what they’ve been using since adolescence. I think by getting the younger generation started on it now, they will learn to appreciate, especially when they discover it’s closer to the language they speak.
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orthodox said:
It’s not a satanic version, but do we really need the bible scholars, with their own particular biases to force onto us which verses should be understood in a gender neutral way, and which verses should be understood as relating specifically to men? Gender neutrality takes the discernment away from the reader and puts it onto the translator. If you want to be spoon fed, and you think your translators are infallible, go for it.
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Gary Zimmerli said:
As we read on these translation blogs all the time, Bible translation is a hard thing.
What the TNIV translators tried to do was not make a gender-neutral translation, but a gender-accurate translation. They corrected a great many places that were translated more traditionally in the NIV, but which did not match up with the manuscripts.
This article will help: http://www.tniv.info/pdf/Blomberg.pdf
I understand your concerns about our being spoon-fed by translators injecting their own theology or agendas into the scriptures. My own study of the TNIV and the controversy that surrounds it have convinced me that is not what happened with this one. But what is scandalous is the slanderous attack of certain people on what is actually an outstanding, orthodox, conservative translation.
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orthodox said:
>I understand your concerns about our being spoon-
>fed by translators injecting their own theology or
>agendas into the scriptures. My own study of the
>TNIV and the controversy that surrounds it have
>convinced me that is not what happened with this
>one.
Even if every gender decision in the TNIV is spot-on with the intention of the authors, it STILL is spoon feeding you the translator’s agenda. It would just mean that the translator’s agenda was a correct one. What you’re really saying is that your agenda lines up fairly well with that of the TNIV translators. You may be educated enough to have made an informed decision. Many TNIV readers will not be, and will just be taking what they are fed.
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Gary Zimmerli said:
If the translators'”agenda”, or my “agenda” or interpretation is the same as the Holy Spirit’s, that’s enough.
All I want is for the Gospel of Christ to be clearly proclaimed.
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orthodox said:
>If the translators'”agenda”, or my “agenda” or
>interpretation is the same as the Holy Spirit’s, that’s
>enough.
The question is, do you feel infallible enough to make that judgment for everybody else?
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Gary Zimmerli said:
I am certainly not infallible, and I don’t presume to make that judgment for other people, certainly not for everybody.
I do a lot of Bible study. Occasionally people ask me for a recommendation. They want my opinion, and I give it. That’s all that it is.
You reject my opinion; that’s fine. Make your own judgment.
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