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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." |