July 5, 2013

The New NIV Bible Bugs Me

This year, I am reading through the New Testament in a few different translations. Now I am in the NIV, and because I'm traveling, I didn't bring my paper 1984 NIV with me. I'm reading the new (2010) NIV online at Bible Gateway.

I had heard that there were certain liberties taken to make the new NIV gender neutral and that some scholars and pastors didn't like what some of those changes implied theologically. I haven't been bothered by the theology so far, but to me the changes destroy readability. Here's one example from this morning's reading (Matthew 15).

16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
 What are the antecedents to the two "thems?" Plural pronouns, plural antecedents, right? But then verses 18 and 20 would read like this:

 18 "But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile the things that come out of a person's mouth.

20 "These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile the unwashed hands.”
Arrrrrgh!

Thankfully there's the ESV, which I'll stick with at least until the NIV comes up with a more elegant way to be gender neutral.