Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor
of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Associated Baptist Press is reporting that The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is criticizing the new NIV (NIV 2011) for pandering to a feminist agenda and promoting an egalitarian view of the role of women in the church.

Below is an excerpt from the news report published by The Associated Baptist Press:

Wheaton College Bible scholar Doug Moo, head of the Committee on Bible Translation, told a reporter for The Tennessean the group tried to create an accurate English Bible while avoiding what were viewed as missteps in the TNIV.

Jay Phelan, senior professor of theological studies at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, said he worries that the translators buckled under pressure from conservatives.

“The whole idea that we want to make this constituency or that constituency unhappy is wrong,” he told The Tennessean “You don’t do a translation that way. You don’t say ‘this will make the liberals unhappy’ or ‘this will make conservatives unhappy.’ Your job is to produce the most accurate translation possible.”

The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood said in a blog Nov. 19 that it reviewed the new edition three weeks before rendering a verdict. While noting “significant improvements” over the TNIV, the group said it would still recommend other translations like the Holman Christian Standard Bible, New American Standard, New King James or the English Standard Version instead of the NIV.

“Though we are deeply appreciative of the very different process by which our friends at the CBT and Zondervan pursued and unveiled this new version, we still cannot commend the new NIV (2011) for most of the same reasons we could not commend the TNIV,” the council said. “Our initial analysis shows that the new NIV(2011) retains many of the problems that were present in the TNIV.”

Read the news report in its entirety here.

It seems that the revised NIV will be as controversial as the TNIV. Those who oppose egalitarianism will argue that the revised NIV goes too far. Those who support egalitarianism will argue that the new NIV does not go far enough.

It is hard to please people.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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