Whaddaya say we neutralize our gender, eh?
Does Bible translation matter all that much? People seem to make such a fuss over that question. After all, aren't the NIV, ESV, KJV, NASB, CEB, NLT, and others basically saying the same thing?
It depends.
Consider what we (Sun Valley Church, and the historical Church by-and-large) believe about the Bible:
"THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
We teach that the Bible is God's written revelation to man, and thus the 66 books of the Bible given to us by the Holy Spirit constitute the plenary (inspired equally in all parts) Word of God (‑14; ‑21).
We teach that the Word of God is an objective, propositional revelation (; ), verbally inspired in every word (), absolutely inerrant in the original documents, infallible, and God‑breathed. We teach the literal, grammatical‑historical interpretation of Scripture which affirms the belief that the opening chapters of Genesis present creation in six literal days (; ).
We teach that the Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice (; ;; ‑13; 17:17; ; ‑17; ; ‑21).
We teach that God spoke in His written Word by a process of dual authorship. The Holy Spirit so superintended the human authors that, through their individual personalities and different styles of writing, they composed and recorded God's Word to man (‑21) without error in the whole or in the part (; )...."
If it's true that God wrote down exactly what He meant to say when He penned the Bible through human authors in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, then the question stands for English Bible translators, How important is it to accurately translate these words into English, preserving as much of the precise wording while keeping it readable?
As you can probably see, it's crucial. This is why Sun Valley Church sticks with the English Standard Version of the Bible (you can check out their translation philosophy here). It's accurate and readable. Another highly commendable version is the New American Standard Bible, which is widely accepted as the most literal English version available. Moving down the line in translation to versions that are decent is the New International Version. This is arguably the most popluar and widely-used English translation of the Bible.
However, an updated version of the NIV has been released, and has gone the route of gender neutralization (no more gender-exclusive language, such as the word "men" to refer to humanity, or "sons of God" to refer to believers generally). Is this a big deal? Well, that depends on whether or not God knew about the up-and-coming changes in language that made it unpopular and politically incorrect to be gender exclusive in one's writing. The question essentially boils down to this: Did God mean what He wrote for all time and give us the tools to discern His meaning, or not?
Here is a link to a helpful and insightful article by Mary Kassian, a leading author and speaker on biblical womanhood; I highly commend it to you: 10 Reasons Why the New NIV is Bad for Women. May we ever seek to be discerning as we pursue the one true God!
image obtained from http://www.whnt.com/
