- XThe Bible, which once taught men how
to be better God-fearing citizens, will now teach "people" the
same lesson.
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- Starting with its next update, America's
most popular modern Bible is going to be gender neutral, the International
Bible Society said Monday.
The new version will be called "Today's New International Version,"
or TNIV, with a New Testament on sale in April and the full Bible expected
by 2005. The original "New International Version," which has
sold more than 150 million copies worldwide since 1978, will remain on
the market.
Examples of some changes from 1978 to 2002: "sons of God" to
"children of God" in Matthew 5:9, and "a man is justified
by faith" to "a person is justified by faith" in Romans
3:28.
A publicity release says "the TNIV is not merely a gender-accurate
edition of the NIV," because 70 percent of the changes do not relate
to gender. Also, terms referring to God and Jesus Christ have not been
altered.
Both versions, the work of evangelical translators, are especially popular
in the conservative, Protestant heart of America's competitive Bible market.
The idea of a gender-neutral has drawn fierce criticism from traditionalists.
Randy Stinson, executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and
Womanhood, a Louisville, Ky., group that works to preserve gender specific
language, said Monday he had not yet seen the revisions but was concerned
that word meanings may have been altered.
"This is incredibly serious to evangelicals, how the Bible is translated,"
Stinson said. "We believe the Bible is the word of God, so changing
these things deliberately is dangerous."
Scott Bolinder, executive vice president and publisher at Zondervan, said
there are relatively few changes involving gender and those have only been
made "to reflect the original meaning of the text."
"There's no social agenda," he said.
The older version's gender usage became hotly disputed in 1997 when World
magazine, a conservative weekly, reported that the Bible society was working
on an inclusive-language revision. The society had already published such
an edition with a British publisher.
When Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest U.S. Protestant
denomination, and James Dobson of the influential "Focus on the Family"
radio broadcast criticized the language plan, the Bible changed its mind
and halted publication of Britain's inclusive edition. After meeting with
its critics, the society said it had "abandoned all plans for gender-related
changes in future editions of the New International Version."
Throughout this change, the wordplay's the thing. Technically, the Bible
society, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., is hewing to the letter of its
pledge because the latest version won't replace the "New International
Version" ó it will just be sold alongside the older translation.
Like the 1978 Bible, the new version is aimed at Protestants, and will
not appear in an edition with the extra biblical books recognized by Roman
Catholic and Orthodox churches.
The major U.S. sales competitor for the NIV has been the venerable King
James Version. But the international versions will now also have to compete
with two evangelical translations that appeared last year:
ï "English Standard Version" from Crossway, a slight update
of the 1952 Revised Standard Version that makes modest use of gender-free
terminology.
ï "Holman Christian Standard Bible" from Broadman &
Holman, the Southern Baptist book house, which rejects gender-neutral wording.
It is currently available only in the New Testament, with the full Bible
due in 2004.
The new translation has cost $2 million to date. Zondervan of Grand Rapids,
Mich., which is owned by HarperCollins and holds North American rights
for both versions, did not disclose other financial terms.
All or part of the Bible is currently available in some 70 English translations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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