Dangerous Dan

Zondervan and the International Bible Society are releasing a new translation of the Bible called Today's New International Version, or just TNIV. I'm not against an occasional updated translation to take account of modern English. But by occasional, I mean about once every hundred years since that's about how long it should take for the language to morph enough that a new translation would be helpful. Any sooner than that and the publishers and translators are just trying to keep busy and/or they have other motives. It's currently been about 30 years since Zondervan and IBS's last big work, the NIV came out.

With any translation effort, there's going to be a certain amount of interpretation. You simply can't do a word for word translation and have it always make sense. The structure of the original language and the concepts/connotations of certain words require some interpretation for them to be understandable in the new language. All the same, it's important to remain as faithful to the original text as possible and not to use your own modern sensibilities and mores to restructure the text. You may preserve the general meaning, but you've taken away from the richness of the original that can also provide insights into the time and author. That's the error I think has been made with the TNIV.

Here is a list of changes the TNIV has made:

*Word changes that more precisely render the meaning of the original text. For example, “Christ” is changed to “Messiah” when the underlying Greek functions as a title.

*Word changes that reflect a better understanding of the meaning of certain terms in the original Greek and Hebrew. References to “the Jews” are described more specifically, such as “the Jews there” or “the Jewish leaders,” when the context indicates a more precise group of people.

*Changes that clarify the meaning of language for today’s reader. For example Mary is said to be “pregnant” rather than “with child.” Or “the third watch of the night” is changed to the more understandable, “shortly before dawn.”

*Changes made in paragraph structure, sentence structure, word order, punctuation, spelling and capitalization as well as word changes based on contemporary English style.

*Generic language is used where the meaning of the text was intended to include both men and women. For example, when it is clear the original text never intended any exclusive male gender reference, “sons of God” becomes “children of God,” and “brothers” becomes “brothers and sisters”.

*All gender-related changes in the TNIV are made to update masculine terminology that has generic intent and is often misunderstood by today’s generations. References originally intended to be masculine remain masculine in the TNIV.

Notice that in each of these changes, the translators are making heavy interpretative choices, beyond what is reasonable. Though the text says 'sons,' it's meant to be inclusive so they change it to 'children.' Now that may be and is so, but that's for the reader to interpret, not the translator. The same goes for adding more specific identifiers, e.g. Jewish leaders instead of just Jews. Again, that may be true, but the translators have taken the interpretation out of the hands of the reader and done the thinking for them. They're veering away from the original text.

Also note that the changes are based on a rather low assessment of the readers' intelligence. It's assumed they have trouble understanding somebody being 'with child' so it's changed to 'pregnant.' Well, it seems IBS has a rather dim view of 18-34 year olds since that’s for whom the TNIV is intended. It also engages in this rather egregious phrase parsing:

Q: Is the TNIV more accurate than the NIV?

A: The best way to judge whether a text is accurate is to determine whether the translation accurately transfers the intended meaning of the text to the reader.

The TNIV is the most accurate translation for 18- to 34-year-olds because it is written in today’s language. As Dr. Ronald Youngblood, longtime CBT member, says, “English is always changing. As a result, we must continue the work of translation to guarantee that the Bible is accurately communicated in the language of the day.” So how do you understand the language of the day? How does someone twenty years younger understand language?

Both the NIV and TNIV are extremely accurate translations for their intended audiences. However, the TNIV is more precise in its language, creating a highly readable Bible for today’s generations that reflects the most recent advances in biblical scholarship.

In other words, the text isn't really as accurate as the NIV, but it's closer to what they think the meaning is, so it is more accurate, or at least is more accurate for 18-34 year olds. Outside this relativistic age group, I suppose the TNIV suddenly becomes less accurate. It’s rather absurd and relativistic that a work of translation is somehow more or less accurate depending on how old the reader is.

In short, there's no real need for a new translation of this sort at this point in time. If you want something that you think appeals more to a younger set, there are plenty of interpretive Bibles out there, e.g. The Living Bible (I think it's called), that can do that. As a matter of scholarship, however, and a Bible translation that's intended to be widely used, the TNIV goes too far in its revisions and strays from the original text.

Update: See Michelle Malkin's take here. Also check out this parody at Locusts and Honey. And to see a truly exhaustive (and, I think, still in progress) treatment of the TNIV, go to Mark D. Roberts's blog.