Hear what Gordon Fee, Douglas Moo, and Karen Jobes (some of the translators of the TNIV) have to say about the TNIV. These are some highly respected biblical scholars.
While the TNIV had its share of problems I really wish they would reconsider and at least do a thorough revision to give this translation a shot. I guess we will have to wait and see what becomes of the NIV revision and just write a “T” in front of it on the covers and title pages of our Bibles 😉
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Matt,
Hopefully you will be notified by email that I am leaving a comment on an earlier post. I don’t read blogs as regularly as I used to but occasionally I do catch up at least some. Couldn’t resist commenting on the TNIV.
I’m really not concerned about which translation people use. I’m convinced that none of them are perfect but that truth can be discerned from all of them (even the Living Bible Paraphrased!). So I really don’t have a stake in this matter but just had to get my two cents in (or is it one cent?).
After watching the Rob Bell video a question popped into my mind – What qualifies Rob Bell to comment on the value of a translation? Is he a original language scholar or does he just enjoy getting giddy on video about language that he personally likes? Also his criticism of critics of the TNIV at the end was so ironic – he is a critic of the critics! I guess all of us don’t realize that we are all critics of something or someone.
The reason for the demise of the TNIV is that Zondervan has a new CEO. I read about her in World Magazine. The TNIV is called derisively the “Stealth Bible” by its critics. Zondervan (according to many evangelical leaders) promised to not do a gender-neutral Bible. Then all of a sudden the TNIV appears. That enraged parts of the evangelical community (and some other fellowships as well). Even though Zondervan is still the #1 Bible publisher, their numbers have dropped considerably. The new CEO saw this as a sign that Zondervan needed to mend fences. So she decided to drop the TNIV and revise the NIV. She has promised to not be so gender-neutral this time. The NIV didn’t really enjoy upon its entrance an across the board acceptance by evangelical scholars. This is why the ESV eventually came out. They wanted a more essentially-literal translation that still was a good read in the English.
And that is the rest of the story.
I couldn’t agree with you more on which translation people use unless they are trying to do some sort of in-depth study or a word study from the message…that would be a hoot. As far as what qualifies Bell to speak about the TNIV, I have no knowledge whatsoever about his training. I just thought it was timely to mention that clip was out there since people are aware of Bell and all the NIV/TNIV hoopla was going on. For that matter, what qualifies me to critique a translation? I can work from the original lanugages and have studied them for several years but I am no where close to the men and women who were on the NIV and TNIV translation committees. So we do the best we can with what we have.
Thanks for sharing the rest of the story. That is an interesting bit of information that I wasn’t aware of. Maybe we need a video of you critiquing Bell’s critique of the TNIV. 🙂
When do we start taping? lol