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A list of over one hundred examples of inaccurately translated verses accompanied the statement. We have listed these verses here below
In light of troubling translation inaccuracies - primarily (but not exclusively) in relation to gender language - that introduce distortions of the meanings that were conveyed better by the original NIV, we cannot endorse the TNIV translation as sufficiently accurate to commend to the church.
Gregg R. Allison, Ph.D. Henry S. Baldwin, Ph.D. S. M. Baugh, Ph.D. Hans F. Bayer, Ph.D. James Borland, Th.D. Harold O. J. Brown, Ph.D. Ardel B. Canedy, Ph.D. E Ray Clendenen, Ph.D. Clifford John Collins, Ph.D. William Cook, Ph.D. Jack Cottrell, Ph.D. Daniel Doriani, Ph.D. J. Ligon Duncan III, Ph.D. John M. Frame, M.Phil. Paul D. Gardner, Ph.D. Wayne Grudem, Ph.D. C.E. Hill, Ph.D. H. Wayne House, Ph.D. W. Bingham Hunter, Ph.D. Peter Jones, Ph.D. Reggie M. Kidd, PhD. George W. Knight, III, Ph.D. J. Carl Laney, Th.D. Al Mawhinney, Ph.D. R. Albert Mohler, Ph.D. William D. Mounce, Ph.D. Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., Ph.D. Paige Patterson, Ph.D. John Piper, D. theol. Vern S. Poythress, Ph.D., Th.D. Mark R. Saucy, Ph.D. Thomas R. Schreiner, Ph.D. R. C. Sproul, DRS, Ph.D Bruce Ware, Ph.D. William Weinrich, Ph.D. Dean O. Wenthe, Ph.D. Robert Yarbrough, Ph.D. |
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A Categorized List of 901 Examples From the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Note: This list of translation inaccuracies in the TNIV now stands at 901 examples, and when we stopped collecting them we knew that more could be added. But this list seemed sufficient to indicate the scope and type of changes that have been made in Today's New International Version (TNIV), mostly in order to avoid using five words with masculine meaning or nuance: father, brother, son, man, and he/him/his. It seems to us that in every case listed here the change eliminates masculine meaning or masculine nuances that are present in the underlying Greek terms, and also that these changes frequently go beyond the legitimate bounds of ordinary, well-established meanings for the common Greek words being translated (though in some cases there are differences among the lexicons, as noted in the individual categories below). These examples therefore seem to us to be "translation inaccuracies" that were included in the TNIV for the sake of producing a more "gender neutral" or "inclusive language" version. This list was prepared under general oversight of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and has been compared for accuracy against the Greek New Testament.
All the changes noted are from the 1984 NIV to the 2002 TNIV. A. Changes from singular to plural to avoid the use of he/him/his he/him/his/himself changed to they/them/their/themselves (where Greek has singular verb and/or masculine singular 3rd person pronoun) (232) MATT. 10:10, 24 (2x), 25 (2x), 38, 39 (2x); 12:35 (2x); 13:12 (3x), 19, 21
(3x), 23, 57 (2x); 16:24, 25 (2x); 18:15 (2x) 23:12 (2x); 25:29 (3x); (31
total changes) he/him/his/himself (with singular Greek verb and/or masculine 3rd person singular Greek pronoun) changed to they/them/their/themselves (with singular antecedent in English; these are examples of the so-called "singular they") (112) MATT. 5:39, 41; 11:15; 13:9, 43; 15:4, 5, 6 (2x); 16:27; 18:6 (3x), 15
(2x), 16, 17 (3x); 24:18; (20) he/him/his/himself (singular verb and/or masculine singular 3rd person pronoun in Greek) changed to those (often “those who”) (39) MATT. 7:8 (2x), 21; 10:22; he/him/his/himself changed to you/your/yourself (90) MATT. 6:24 (2x); 6:27; 7:9; 10:36; 16:26 (2x); (7) he/him/his/himself changed to we/our/ourselves (9) ROM. 14:7 (2x-ourselves); 12 (ourselves); 15:2 (ourselves); he/him/his/himself changed to no pronoun (sentence changed to other wording) (16) MATT. 5:22; 18:4; he/him/his/himself is omitted (29) MATT. 5:40; 10:32, 33, 42; 12:29 (2x); 16:26; 18:15; he/him/his/himself changed to other (3) MATT. 18:15 (omit "your" and "you"); “whoever” (singular) changed to those (often “those who”) (22) MATT. 10:39 (2x); 13:12 (2x); 16:25 (2x); 23:12 (2x); “anyone” (singular) changed to those (often “those who”) (9) MATT. 10:38; 16:24 “one” (singular) changed to those (often “those who”) (8) LUKE 6:49; “everyone” (singular) changed to those (often “those who”) (7) MATT. 25:29 (2x) Other changes from singular to plural for the whole sentence (20)
MATT. 10:10, 24 (2x); 13:19, 20, 57; 19:23, 24; B. Changes to avoid the word "father" and related words father (pater, singular) changed to parents (2) ACTS 7:20; fathers (pater, plural) changed to parents or people (3) ACTS 7:11 fathers/forefathers (pater, plural) changed to ancestors (34) (The BDAG Lexicon, p. 786-787, gives "ancestors" as a possible meaning, but the LSJ Lexicon (p. 1348) only gives the meaning of "forefathers." We have included these verses in this list because they seem to us to fit the general pattern of excluding male nuances in the TNIV, and because the male nuance or connotation of the plural word pateres would have been evident to the original Greek readers, but "ancestors" has no evident relationship to the word "father" and no male connotation in English.) MATT. 23:30, 32; C. CHANGES TO AVOID THE WORD "BROTHER" (OR TO ADD THE WORD "SISTER") brother (adelphos, singular) changed to brother or sister (19) MATT. 5:22 (2x), 23; 18:15, 35; brother (adelphos, singular) changed to (fellow) believer (5) (The BDAG Lexicon, p. 18, lists "brother, fellow member, member, associate" as possible meanings for adelphos, but all the singular examples listed refer to male human beings. The earlier BAGD Lexicon, p. 16, did not give these meanings, and the new BDAG Lexicon (2000) gives no new examples or new arguments to justify these new meanings that it proposes. Neither BDAG nor BAGD gives "believer" as a possible meaning.The LSJ Lexicon (p. 20) gives the meaning "brother (as a fellow Christian)", but does not give the meaning "believer" either.) 2 THESS. 3:6; brother (adelphos, singular) changed to (fellow) believers (4) 1 COR. 5:11; brother (adelphos, singular) changed to other (15) MATT. 5:24 (that person); 7:3 (someone else), 4 (omitted), 5 (other
person); 18:15 (them), 21 (someone) brothers (adelphos, plural) changed to brothers and sisters (where sisters is uncertain or doubtful) (8) ACTS 1:16; 2:29; 13:26, 38; brothers/brotherhood (adelphos, plural) changed to fellow believers (4) ACTS 15:22 brothers (adelphos, plural) changed to believers (27) JOHN 21:23; brothers (adelphos, plural) changed to other (9) MATT. 5:47 (own people); 22:5 (associates); 28:21 (our people); 1 COR. 8:12
(them); brothers (adelphos, plural) omitted (2) MATT. 7:4; D. CHANGES TO AVOID THE WORD "MAN" man or husband (aner, singular) changed to other (7) (The BDAG Lexicon (p. 79) gives as the general definition of aner the meaning, "a male person," and under that general definition it gives as meaning 2, "equivalent to tis, someone, a person." All the examples they list under meaning 2 either clearly refer to a male human being (as Luke 19:2, for example, "and there was a man named Zacchaeus"), or the context is not determinative but the meaning "man" makes good sense and the meaning "person" is not required. BDAG at the end of this entry also notes an idiom, kat'andra, which means "man for man, individually," and clearly includes women in some instances, but that idiom does not occur in the New Testament. The LSJ Lexicon (p. 138) also notes the idiom kat'andra, with a similar meaning. The LSJ Lexicon does not give the meaning "person" for aner, but rather, "man, opposed to women," "man, opposed to god," "man, opposed to youth," "man emphatically, man indeed," "husband," and some special usages. For further discussion on the word aner, "man" see Vern Poythress and Wayne Grudem, The Gender Neutral Bible Controversy (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2000), p. 101, note 2, and pages 321-333; see also, "Can Greek aner ("man") sometimes mean "person"? at www.cbmw.org/tniv/aner.html.) ROM. 4:8 (those); man (aner, singular) omitted (2) JAS. 1:8; 3:2 men (aner, plural) changed to people (10) MATT. 12:41; men (aner, plural) changed to other (5) ACTS 4:4 (believers); 14:15 (friends); 17:34 (people); 19:25 (friends); 20:30 (some) men (aner, plural) omitted (2) LUKE 14:24; man (anthropos, singular) changed to people or other plural nouns (9) MATT. 12:35 (2x); 18:7; man (anthropos, singular) changed to you/your (10) MATT. 10:36; 15:11, 18, 20; 16:26 (2x); man (anthropos, singular) changed to human being/human/mere mortal when referring to a specific historical man (6) ACTS 10:26 (Peter); men (anthropos, plural) changed to people when referring to male human beings (1) HEB 5:1 (high priests) men (anthropos, plural) changed to other (9) (Neither the meaning "man" nor the meaning "person," is represented in these verses.) MATT. 5:9 (underfoot); 10:32 (publicly), 33 (publicly); men (anthropos, plural) omitted(6) MATT. 10:17; 19:12; “man” (anthropos, singular) meaning the human race changed to people/mortals/human (6) MATT. 4:4; E. CHANGES TO AVOID THE WORD "SON" son (huios,, singular) changed to child (3) MATT. 23:15; son (huios,, singular) changed to children (3) GAL. 4:7 (2x-sentence plural); sons (huios, plural) changed to children (16) MATT. 5:9, 45; 17:25, 26; sons (huios, plural) changed to people (2) MATT. 13:38 (2x) sons (huios, plural) changed to sons and daughters (1) HEB. 2:10 F. CHANGES TO AVOID THE PHRASE "THE JEWS" (The 2000 BDAG Lexicon (pages 478-479) objects to translating hoi ioudaioi as "the Jews" because it claims that "many readers or auditors of Bible translations do not practice the historical judgment necessary to distinguish between circumstances and events of an ancient time and contemporary ethnic-religions-social realities, with the result that anti-Judaism in the modern sense of the term is needlessly fostered through biblical texts" (p. 478). In other words, we should no longer translate hoi ioudaioi as "the Jews" because many Bible readers today will not realize that the Bible is talking about ancient Judaism, not modern Judaism. So it favors the translation, "Judean." However, we find this argument unpersuasive because we believe that the term "Judean" will wrongly imply a reference to people who simply live in a certain geographical area, whether Jews or not, and will not adequately convey the religious and ethnic identification with the ancient Jewish people that the term "the Jews" implies. On the next page, the BDAG Lexicon discusses the phrase hoi ioudaioi when it is used of people who are opposed to Jesus, and says the following: "Those who are in opposition to Jesus, with special focus on hostility emanating from leaders in Jerusalem, center of Israelite belief and cult; there is no indication that John uses the term in the general ethnic sense suggested in modern use of the word Jew, which covers diversities of belief and practice that were not envisaged by biblical writers …" (p. 479). In other words, John does not use the word "Jew" to speak of modern Judaism or anything like the diversity of modern Judaism. The implication of this BDAG comment is, again, that modern readers will not understand that John is referring to ancient Jews in the first century and that these are different from modern Jews in the 21st century. While we agree that John did not use hoi ioudaioi to refer to modern Judaism, we believe that readers of the Bible are able to realize that they are reading about events that occurred in ancient history. To take another example, when Bible readers today read that "Jesus entered Peter's house" (Matt. 8:14), we don't avoid using the word "house" out of fear that people will think Matthew meant a modern house with electricity and air-conditioning and an automatic dishwasher. Readers automatically realize that they are reading an ancient document and that "house" refers to whatever kind of house people had in first century Palestine. Even if the BDAG Lexicon is correct in saying that hoi ioudaioi can be used "with special focus on hostility emanating from leaders in Jerusalem," that does not mean that only the leaders were involved in such opposition to Jesus, for no doubt many common people were involved as well. And there were some Jewish leaders, such as Nicodemus (see John 3) who did not join in the opposition to Jesus. In addition, the Gospel of John and other New Testament books have other Greek expressions that they use when they want to single out the leaders, such as "the chief priests and the Pharisees" (John 7:32 NIV), "the leaders" (John 12:42 NIV), "the chief priests and their officials" (John 18:6 NIV), "your leaders" (Acts 3:17 NIV), "the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders," and "the leaders of the Jews" (Acts 28:17 NIV). So it seems to us that changing hoi ioudaioi from "the Jews" to "Jewish leaders" introduces an incorrect change of meaning into a translation. The older BAGD Lexicon (1979) simply translates hoi ioudaioi as "the Jews" (p. 379). The LSJ Lexicon simply translates ho ioudaios (singular form) as "a Jew," and gives no special meaning for the plural form (p. 832).) the Jew(s) (hoi ioudaioi) changed to Jewish leaders (16) JOHN 1:19; 5:10, 15, 16; 7:1, 11, 13; 9:22; 18:14, 36; 19:12, 31, 38;
20:19; the Jew(s) (hoi ioudaioi) changed to they or omitted (9) JOHN 2:20; 5:18; 8:52, 57; 9:18, 22; 10:33; 18:31; 19:7 G. CHANGES THAT LOSE THE NUANCE OF HOLINESS IN “SAINTS” “saints” (Greek hagios, plural) changed to “believers” (4) ACTS 9:32; 26:10 (2) “saints” (Greek hagios, plural) changed to “people” or “God’s people” (31) ROM. 8:27; 15:25; 16:2, 15 (4) “saints” (Greek hagios, plural) changed to "those" (1) ACTS 9:13 (“those”) (1) H. OTHER GENDER RELATED CHANGES Other gender related changes (11) JOHN 2:4 ("woman" to "mother", also at 19:26); 21
("woman" dropped, also at 20:13, 15); Other examples of unnecessary removal of masculine references to God or Christ (6) JOHN 1:33 (the one who); 6:33 (that which; margin: he who); 10:2 (the one); |
========== TNIV PART 3 ===========
IBS and Zondervan have been corrected by the Forum of Bible Agencies in a recent June 24, 2002 press release for "strongly implying" that the FBA endorsed the TNIV. The statement (PDF) went on to say that "other forum members are aggrieved by the [IBS] release because of the confusion it has generated among their constituents, as it is not the policy of the FBA to approve, endorse, or support members’ translations."
Some of these forum members have issued statements of their own, distancing themselves from the TNIV issue. Trans World Radio commented that TWR "is not a member of the Forum. We are not involved in any way in discussions regarding the translation standards [of the FBA]. Therefore, to say that TWR had a part in issuing statements defending any version/translation is inaccurate."
The Bible League, in a June 27, 2002 release, stated emphatically, "Contrary to some reports, the Bible League has not approved or endorsed the TNIV. In March, the Bible League determined not to use the TNIV in any of our worldwide ministry."
Randy Stinson, executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) noted that "early in this controversy we posted the FBA guidelines on our site to demonstrate that they did not offer any specific governance over gender-related language. At the time, we were trying to show that it was misleading for Zondervan and IBS to claim that they rejected the Colorado Springs guidelines for the FBA guidelines because it implied that the FBA had a different, yet more widely accepted set of rules for gender-related language. In fact, the FBA guidelines make no mention of gender-related language at all."
Stinson also remarked, "The most recent IBS press release regarding the FBA apparently continues this pattern of misleading the Christian community. This time it is doing so by implying that FBA member organizations, mentioned in the release, collectively endorse the TNIV. The FBA press release clearly shows that this was not true. It is amazing to me that an organization entrusted with the responsibility of translating the Word of God would continue to issue statements that, upon investigation, turn out to be untrustworthy."
CBMW continues to maintain that there are hundreds of mistranslations in the TNIV that systematically remove words such as father, man, son, he, him, and his. Although many scholars have supported our concerns, one does not need to be a Greek scholar to see what is happening here.
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The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) at their General Assembly, held June 18-21 in Birmingham, Alabama, passed a resolution rejecting Today’s International Version (TNIV) of the Bible.
Citing that the TNIV changes gender-specific terms into non gender-specific terms and that the TNIV "responds to other potential controversies by altering the original text, changing for instance 'Jews' to 'Jewish Leaders' (Jn. 19:24; Acts 13:50)," the delegates at the meeting:
Randy Stinson, executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood commented, "Here we have an entire denomination, known for its scholarship and commitment to the Bible, issuing a resounding statement of rejection of the TNIV."
"We are continuing to see the wave of momentum getting bigger as denominations, organizations, and literally thousands of individuals express their lack of trust in the TNIV. Many of us who are adamantly opposed to this translation are still hopeful that, in response to the overwhelming evangelical opposition, IBS and Zondervan will reconsider their decision to publish the TNIV."
[Source: PRESS RELEASE
Issued Monday, July 1, 2002 by
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood]
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SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION (SBC) Strongly Rejects the TNIV
Today, in an overwhelmingly affirmative vote, the messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention, in St. Louis, Missouri, strongly rejected Today’s New International Version (TNIV) of the Bible.
Citing their commitment to the full inspiration and authority of Scripture, their opposition to the erasure of gender-specific details which appear in the original languages, and the obscuring of biblical references to the personal relationship of the individual believer to Christ, the messengers:
Randy Stinson, executive director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, commented, "This action taken by the SBC only further demonstrates the growing evangelical wave of opposition to the TNIV. This statement not only reflects the sentiment of the thousands of messengers in attendance, but will also encourage the other 15 million Southern Baptists to refrain from using the TNIV."
Earlier today, Lifeway Bookstores (owned by the SBC) announced that they would not carry the TNIV. Regarding this, Stinson said, "The affirmation by the messengers at the SBC that Lifeway Bookstores not carry the TNIV should give encouragement to other bookstore chains and leaders that a large segment of the Christian community will stand with them if they make a similar decision to not carry this translation. CBMW is grateful for the bold step taken by the SBC and encourages other denominations, that will be meeting this summer, to take similar actions."
Source: Press Release Issued Wednesday, June 12, 2002, by
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
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