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New Bible draws critics of gender-neutral language
In the old translation of the world's most popular Bible, John
the Evangelist declares: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his
brother, he is a liar." Make that "brother or sister" in a new
translation that includes more gender-neutral language and is drawing criticism
from some conservatives who argue the changes can alter the theological
message. The 2011 translation of the New International Version Bible, or
NIV, does not change pronouns referring to God, who remains "He" and
"the Father." But it does aim to avoid using "he" or
"him" as the default reference to an unspecified person. The NIV Bible is used by many of the largest Protestant faiths.
The translation comes from an independent group of biblical scholars that has
been meeting yearly since 1965 to discuss advances in biblical scholarship and
changes in English usage. Before the new translation even hit stores, it drew opposition
from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an organization that
believes women should submit to their husbands in the home and only men can
hold some leadership roles in the church. The council decided it would not endorse the new version because
the changes alter "the theological direction and meaning of the
text," according to a statement. Similar concerns led the Southern Baptist
Convention to reject the NIV's previous translation in 2005. At issue is how to translate pronouns that apply to both genders
in the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts but have traditionally been translated
using masculine forms in English. An example from the translator's notes for Mark 4:25 to show how
the NIV's translation of these words has evolved over the past quarter-century. The widely distributed 1984 version of the NIV quotes Jesus:
"Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has
will be taken from him." The more recent incarnation of the NIV from 2005, called Today's
New International Version, changed that to: "Those who have will be given
more; as for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from
them." The CBMW had complained in 2005 that making the subject of a
verse plural to convey that it could refer equally to a man or a woman
"potentially obscured an important aspect of biblical thought -- that of
the personal relationship between an individual and God." |
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