"Gender Neutral" TNIV Bible Launched in the UK

On 15th March, a brand new translation of the Bible called Today's New International Version (TNIV) was launched in the UK. TNIV is generally described as a "modernised" version of one of the world's most widely read Bibles - the New International Version (NIV). It features the use of gender-neutral language and an edited choice of words in order to match today's modern culture.

When the complete-Bible edition of TNIV was released on 4th February in the US, it stirred up a bitter debate among theologians and scholars. A majority of evangelicals, particularly those from the Southern Baptists, condemned the TNIV Bible for twisting the meaning of some passages in the Bible. Similar worries could be triggered in the UK.

The TNIV Bible is presented by the International Bible Society and Zondervan, and has gathered the effort of 15 American and British scholars.

Zondervan said that the TNIV Bible is targeted at the 18-34 age group because this is the demographic that is most hungry for spiritual truth. They believe that the use of gender-neutral language can help people engage with the Bible more. A massive advertising campaign in the US promoted the Bible with the slogan "Timeless truth. Today’s language".

Here are some of the examples of the "modernisation" quoted by London Telegraph. The word "aliens" is replaced with "foreigners" because the academics thought the old word was invariably associated in the minds of the younger generation with extra-terrestrials.

Even the term "saints" is deemed to be too "ecclesiastical" and has been banished, to be replaced with "God's chosen people". The Virgin Mary is no longer "with child"; she is "pregnant".

To promote equality between two opposite sexes nowadays, the original verse in the Book of Genesis reads "When God created Man, he made him in the likeness of God" is changed to "When God created human beings, he made them in the likeness of God."

Official figures said there are more than 45,000 changes made in total, which means about seven percent of the text.

Wayne Grudem, an American evangelical Bible scholar/theologian and Randy Stinson, Executive Director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in the US, commented last month in an interview with the Baptist Press, "This translation is by and large inaccurate when it comes to the gender-related language."

"The TNIV and the Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy", a book written by Wayne A. Grudem and Vern S. Poythress outlines clearly the critiques concerning the use of gender-neutral language.

Stinson urges believers to select translations that are most literally congruent to the ancient biblical languages.

"Evangelicals should be encouraged to embrace translations that have adopted a word-for-word translation philosophy such as the ESV, NASB, NKJV, or HCSB, just to name a few," he said.