A. Just to use certain words can be perceived to be an insult by various groups.<\/p>\n B. All variations of Negro are off limits, as is use of colored to refer to people with\nvery dark skin tones, though people of color is making a comeback.\n C. Just recently Indian Red, referring to a reddish-brown pigment from India, has\nbeen changed because Native Americans (not American Indians) find it offensive.\n 1. Though Native Americans is a misnomer since most Americans are natives\nof this country, being born here.\n D. Feminists have been attempting to alter the English language to remove male\nterms.\n 1. While spoken English has not changed, nor has popular written English\nchanged, recent translations of the Bible have been altered to reflect an\nidealized “gender-neutral” style of English.\n 2. For example, a group called the National Council of Churches of Christ\n(nothing to do with us) insists that \n a. “Paraphrastic renderings have been adopted only sparingly, and\nthen chiefly to compensate for a deficiency in the English\nlanguage—the lack of common gender third person singular\npronoun.” (Introduction to the NRSV)\n b. “During the almost half a century since the publication of the RSV,\nmany in the churches have become sensitive to the danger of\nlinguistic sexism arising from the inherent bias of the English\nlanguage towards the masculine gender, a bias that in the case of\nthe Bible has often restricted or obscured the meaning of the\noriginal text. The mandates from the Division specified that, in\nreferences to men and women, masculine-oriented language should\nbe eliminated as far as this can be done without altering passages\nthat reflect the historical situation of ancient patriarchal culture.” \n(Introduction to the NRSV).\n c. “Only very occasionally has the pronoun “he” or “him” been\nretained in passages where the reference may have been to a woman\nas well as to a man; for example, in several legal texts in Leviticus\nand Deuteronomy. In such instances of formal, legal language, the\noptions of either putting the passage in the plural or of introducing\nadditional nouns to avoid masculine pronouns in English seemed to\nthe Committee to obscure the historic structure and literary\ncharacter of the original. In the vast majority of cases, however,\ninclusiveness has been attained by simple rephrasing or by\nintroducing plural forms when this does not distort the meaning of\nthe passage.” (Introduction to the NRSV)\n d. “In everyday speech, “gender generic” or “inclusive” language is\nused because it sounds most natural to people today. This means\nthat where the biblical languages require masculine nouns or\npronouns when both men and women are intended, this intention\nmust be reflected in translation, though the English form<\/i> may be\nvery different from that of the original.” (Introduction to the CEV)\n e. “It is often appropriate to mute the patriarchalism of the culture of\nthe biblical writers through gender-inclusive language when this\ncould be done without compromising the message of the Spirit.” \n(Preface to the NIVI)\n 3. In other words, these translations are admitting to paraphrasing instead of\ntranslating the original manuscripts if the translators<\/i> believe the author\nmeant something different than what was stated.\n E. Today we will examine the gender neutral translations to see if they are usable by\nserious Bible students.\n
1. Versions which claim to be gender neutral are:<\/p>\n
a. New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)<\/p>\n
b. New Living Translation (NLT)<\/p>\n
c. New Century Version (NCV) [adult version]<\/p>\n
d. Contemporary English Version (CEV)<\/p>\n e. New International Version – Inclusive Language Edition (NIVI)\n[currently distributed only in England].\n
II. Changes to eliminate “he”<\/p>\n
A. Changing “he” to “they”<\/p>\n
1. Example from John 14:23<\/p>\n a. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will\nlove him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”\n(NASB)\n b. The KJV uses “man” for “anyone,” but the Greek pronoun is tis<\/i> is\nan indefinite pronoun that does not carry a male or female meaning,\nso “anyone” is a more accurate translation.\n c. The inclusive versions want to eliminate the “he” and “him”s\nbecause it is obvious that women are included by Jesus’ words.\n d. “If anyone loves Me, he or she<\/i> will keep My word; and My Father\nwill love him or her<\/i>, and We will come to him or her<\/i> and make Our\nabode with him or her<\/i>.”\n
(1) Impossible to read and extremely awkward.<\/p>\n e. “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love\nthem, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” \n(NRSV)\n
(1) Avoided the awkward by changing the singular to plural.<\/p>\n f. The problem is that Jesus did not speak with plural pronouns in this\npassage. The Greek shows that Jesus used masculine singular\npronouns.\n (1) Instead of being applied to the individual believer, the\nstatement is made to apply only to groups of believers\n (2) It is no longer a literal translation, but a paraphrase which\ndoes not carry the same meaning as the original text.\n (3) The Greek does have generic plural, masculine \/ neuter\nsingular, masculine singular, and feminine singular pronouns\nfor self-reference.\n 2. Consider John 15:5 where denominations gloss over the pronouns to make\napplication to churches instead of individuals.\n a. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in\nhim, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing”\n(NASB)\n b. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those<\/i> who abide in me and I\nin them<\/i> bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do\nnothing.” (NRSV)\n c. With a gender neutral version, one could argue falsely that Jesus\nwas speaking to groups of Christians (i.e. churches), even though\nthis does not match the Greek.\n
3. Worse is Psalm 34:20, a prophecy of Jesus’ death.<\/p>\n
a. “He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken.” (NASB)<\/p>\n b. “He keeps all their<\/i> bones; not one of them will be broken.” \n(NRSV)\n c. Even though the pronoun here is singular in Hebrew, the messianic\nprophecy is lost to those reading the gender neutral translations.\n
4. Psalm 19:11-12, speaking of God’s Word<\/p>\n a. “Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there\nis great reward. Who can discern his<\/i> errors? Acquit me of hidden\nfaults.” <\/i>(NASB)\n b. “Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there\nis great reward. But who can detect their errors? Clear me from\nhidden faults.” (NRSV)\n c. The pronoun is inserted to keep the meaning clear. Notice that in\nthe NASB, we are addressing the individual’s error, but in the\nNRSV we are addressing the errors in God’s Word!\n
B. Changing third person to second person<\/p>\n
1. Consider Galatians 6:7<\/p>\n a. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows,\nthis he will also reap.” (NASB)\n b. “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you<\/i> reap whatever\nyou<\/i> sow.” (NRSV)\n 2. A reader could come away thinking that Paul’s statement only applies to\nChristians and is not a general commentary on human conduct.\n
C. Removing direct quotations<\/p>\n
1. Consider Psalms 41:5<\/p>\n a. My enemies speak evil against me, “When will he die, and his name\nperish?” (NASB)\n b. My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish.\n(NRSV)\n
c. Speech has been converted to thoughts.<\/p>\n
d. The Hebrew text does not say they wondered<\/i>, but that they spoke<\/i>.<\/p>\n
D. Why do they alter the text so much?<\/p>\n 1. Supposedly there is a defect in English because it does not have a\ngenderless third person singular pronoun.\n 2. They fail to mention that Hebrew, Greek, and most other languages in the\nworld also lack a genderless third person singular pronoun.\n 3. English masculine third person singular pronouns precisely translate the\nHebrew and Greek masculine third person singular pronouns in the original\ntext.\n
4. The problem is not in the languages, but in the beliefs of the translators.<\/p>\n 5. By the way, not all the gender-neutral translations have the exact same set\nof problems. Some avoid one set of problems, but cause a different set.\n
III. Changes to eliminate “man”<\/p>\n
A. Changing “man” to “human”<\/p>\n 1. In the Hebrew, there is an interesting situation. The word “adam” can refer\nto the first created individual, any individual male, or all mankind. In\nEnglish we have a word “man” which can refer to any individual male or all\nof mankind.\n 2. However, this is now supposedly offensive, so “man” is changed to\n“human,” “human being,” or “human kind.”\n
3. Genesis 1:27<\/p>\n a. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He\ncreated him; male and female He created them.” (NASB)\n b. “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he\ncreated them; male and female he created them.” (NRSV)\n c. Notice that God no longer created a man, Adam, who was the\nfounder of the human race, God created the whole human race. A\nsubtle, but important difference.\n
d. Also these multiple creations were made in the image of God.<\/p>\n
(1) What does this do to Paul’s reasoning in I Cor. 11:7-9?<\/p>\n (2) What happens to the order of events for Paul’s argument in\nI Timothy 2:13\n
B. Changing “man” to “mortal”<\/p>\n
1. Acts 10:26<\/p>\n a. But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just<\/i> a man.” \n(NASB)\n b. But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.” \n(NRSV)\n
c. The emphasis shifts from Peter’s humanity to his mortality.<\/p>\n (1) Peter does not refuse worship because he is subject to\ndeath.\n (2) Peter refuses worship because he is a creature made by\nGod; he is not God, but a man.\n 2. There is a Greek word, which means mortal, but it is not used in this verse.\nThe translators chose the alteration.\n 3. Sometimes it gets humorous. Even though King Agrippa is a male, we\ncan’t call him that (Acts 12:22).\n a. The people kept shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a\nmortal!” (NRSV)\n
b. As if the people of the first century were politically correct.<\/p>\n
C. Changing “son of man” to “mortal” or “human”<\/p>\n
1. Ezekiel 2:1<\/p>\n a. “Then He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet that I may\nspeak with you!” (NASB)\n b. “He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak\nwith you.” (NRSV)\n c. “He said to me, “Human, stand up on your feet. Then I will speak\nto you.” (NCV)\n 2. The fact that Jesus called himself “son of man” as Ezekiel was called is\nnow lost.\n
3. Daniel 7:13<\/p>\n a. “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of\nheaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the\nAncient of Days And was presented before Him.” (NASB)\n b. “As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being\ncoming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One\nand was presented before him.” (NRSV)\n
c. The prophecy regarding Jesus is lost.<\/p>\n
4. Similarly the prophecy in Psalm 8:4 is lost.<\/p>\n
D. Changing the Greek word for men that excludes women.<\/p>\n
1. In the selection of elders in Titus 1:6<\/p>\n a. “namely,<\/i> if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife,”\n(NASB)\n
b. “someone who is blameless, married only once,” (NRSV)<\/p>\n
c. The eldership is no longer restricted to married men.<\/p>\n
d. I Timothy 3 is similarly altered.<\/p>\n
e. The CEV is also guilty of this perversion, though the other gender-neutral translations preserve the necessity of being male.<\/p>\n
E. Loss of a righteous man<\/p>\n
1. Psalms 1:1<\/p>\n a. “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the\nwicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of\nscoffers!” (NASB)\n b. “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or\ntake the path that sinners tread,” (NRSV)\n c. The subtle contrast of the singular righteous man as opposed to the \nmany sinners is lost. \n
d. The meaning is important. Few are righteous, many are wicked.<\/p>\n
IV. Changes to eliminate “father,” “son,” and “brother”<\/p>\n A. One author counted 4,500 fewer references to male family members in the NRSV\nas contrasted with the RSV.\n 1. The original text has not changed. The meaning of the original words have\nnot changed. Just the translators fear of male gender words.\n
B. For example, “fatherless” is changed to “orphan”<\/p>\n 1. An orphan has no living parents. A fatherless child may still have a living\nmother.\n 2. Leading to nonsensical verses, such as Job 24:9 “There are those who\nsnatch the orphan child from the breast,”\n
3. I was surprised to find that the NASB mistranslated this verse as well.<\/p>\n
C. Daughters now must be concerned about immoral women<\/p>\n 1. “My child, be attentive to my wisdom . . . for the lips of loose women drip\nhoney, and her speech is smoother than oil . . . And now, my child, listen to\nme . . . keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her\nhouse.” (Proverbs 5:1-8, NRSV)\n
2. The warning is no longer to just sons, but daughters as well. <\/p>\nV. We could go on and on, but the point has been made. The purpose of a translation is to\nconvey the original meaning of a text in another language. The gender-neutral versions\nfail to retain the meaning propagating at times serious false teachings.\n A. English has not changed. You can look in the local paper and popular magazines\nand see that male terms are still used to represent male and females. It is the\nnature of English and most languages in the world.\n
B. No one has the right to alter God’s word, even if he wears the title of scholar.<\/p>\n C. The Bible claims to be God breathed (II Timothy 3:16). The very words in the\nBible were selected by God to convey His meaning. What right does any man\nhave to say God did not mean it exactly in that fashion?\n
D. Every word of God proves true (Proverbs 30:5-6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I. Our society has been extremely concerned about avoiding giving offense to various sections of our culture A. Just to use certain words can be perceived to be an insult by various groups. B. All variations of Negro are off limits, as is use of colored to refer to people with very dark skin tones, though people of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[322,327,323,321,162,311,326],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-contemporary-english-version","tag-new-international-version-inclusive","tag-new-living-translation","tag-new-revised-standard-version","tag-politically-correct","tag-translations","tag-versions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16472,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-heavy-use-of-the-phrase-and-it-came-to-pass-a-point-against-the-book-of-mormon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":0},"title":"Is the heavy use of the phrase “and it came to pass” a point against the Book of Mormon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read the claim recently that all of the \"And it came to pass\" phrases in the Book of Mormon are a non-issue because the Greek rendering of that phrase appears with as much frequency in the original Biblical record, and the editors of the King James version chose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8065,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-new-living-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":1},"title":"What do you think about the New Living Translation and the Complete Jewish Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am of need of some help with Bible translations. What I would like is a list of good translation Bibles and a list of bad Bible translations. I don't like the NIV and I always felt in the spirit that it indeed was not trustworthy. However, I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-2011-version-of-the-new-international-version\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":2},"title":"What do you think about the 2011 version of the New International Version?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: USA Today, Wednesday, September 2, ran an article about the New International Bible. An updated version is coming out in 2011. Do you have an opinion about this Bible? What version do you use? Answer: The\u00a0New International Version, while easy to read is a flawed translation. See \"The New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59530,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/seeking-to-establish-their-own-righteousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":3},"title":"Seeking to Establish Their Own Righteousness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton A series of articles came across my desk that caused me to realize that our society is not just abandoning the teachings of Christ. People realize that society needs moral standards in order to function, but without the standards of God to guide them, society is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58329,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-esv-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":4},"title":"The New ESV Translation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Roberts I am moving toward using a new translation of the Bible: the English Standard Version (ESV). I have used the New King James Version (NKJV) for years and I love it and appreciate it as a fine translation. However, the new ESV is, in my opinion, just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5032,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-use-your-pictures-on-my-website\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":5},"title":"Can I use your pictures on my website?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was led to your website and had a chance to view these very beautiful and symbolic\u00a0pictures. I am an evangelist for the Lord, and I feel so many teens need to see these pictures. I was going to put some on my page. I also do Christian Rap\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}