TNIVTwo

Only about 7% of the TNIV's text is different from the NIV's text. I have reviewed some
altered passages to demonstrate the TNIV's unusual treatment of the Greek words for
woman, father, fathers, man, men, son, sons, and brothers. Other passages are examined
because they may affect one's view of the TNIV's usefulness and/or its susceptibility to
misapplication. The passages on this page are from the Gospels and Acts.

Matthew 18:15-16a ~ "If a brother or sister sins, go and point out the fault, just between the two
of you alone. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen …"

The TNIV's replacement of "he" with "they" has resulted in one individual abruptly becoming
"they." Not only is the TNIV translating a singular Greek pronoun as if it were plural, and
translating "adelphon sou" (literally, "your brother") as "they," but it blurs the clear depiction
of one-on-one consultation, as if suddenly more than one brother or sister is involved. This
is one of dozens of passages where "and sister" or "and sisters" has been inserted on the
grounds that the Greek words for "brother" and "brothers" were intended to describe
females. The same sort of abrupt shift from a singular subject to a plural pronoun occurs in
Luke 17:3-4.

Mark 1:1 ~ "The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah," (with two footnotes, one
explaining the meaning of "Messiah" and one stating, "Many manuscripts Messiah, the Son of
God.")

What happened to the words, "the Son of God?" This is one of the many points at which a
footnote in the NIV has become the TNIV's text, and the NIV's text has become a footnote.
This new text (or, rather, non-text) may draw into question the TNIV-preface's statement that
"the translators have made their choices of readings in accordance with widely accepted
principles of New Testament textual criticism," especially since the NASB and NKJV fully
include the words "the Son of God" without a footnote, and since the NIV, NRSV, ASV,
Revised Version, Jerusalem Bible, NEB, and CEV point out the variant but retain the phrase
in the text.

Mark 1:41 ~ "Jesus was indignant." (with a footnote saying, "Many manuscripts Filled with
compassion, Jesus")

The manuscript support for the TNIV's new text is extreeemely thin. The NIV did not have a
footnote indicating that the textual variant used for the TNIV even existed. It's much easier
to accept language-updates such as Matthew 1:18's shift from "with child" to "pregnant"
than it is to accept drastic meaning-changing revisions such as this one.

A footnote at Mark 6:22 says, "b22 Some early manuscripts When his daughter."

Though this may first appear to be small and trivial, it isn't. This footnote seems to suggest
that the original text might have called the girl (who danced in Herod's presence) Herodias,
and that the original text calls her the daughter of Herod. However, the surrounding verses
make it clear that Herodias is wed to Herod, and that the girl who dances in Herod's
presence is the daughter of Herodias.

The only way to include this footnote without admitting that it is an error, as far as I can tell,
is to suppose that Herodias' daughter was also named Herodias, and that Mark considered it
acceptable to call her Herod's daughter (despite the unlawful nature of the marriage-union
of Herod and Herodias), since Herodias' daughter was also Herod's grand-niece. (The
Herodian family was pretty complicated.) However, Josephus (a Jewish-Roman historian in
the first century) states that the name of this individual was Salome. Matthew 14:6 calls her
"the daughter of Herodias."

Without delving into the manuscript-evidence, I would simply note here that the TNIV
presents a variant in the footnote at Mark 6:22 which is likely to give readers the impression
that a disagreement between Matthew and Mark regarding the legitimacy of the marriage of
Herod and Herodias might be reflected in the Biblical text.

Luke 1:36 ~ "Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who
was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month."

The Greek word huion is translated as "child" even though it clearly refers to John the
Baptist, a male. Also, the first part of Luke 1:36 actually says that Elizabeth has conceived
a son (aute suneilephen huion). Gabriel did not say that a child was on the way; as far as
Gabriel was concerned, John the Baptist was Elizabeth's son when he was conceived. The
TNIV mistranslates this important phrase -- while, at the same time, elsewhere, it replaces
the NIV's phrase "with child" with the word "pregnant."

Luke 14:26 ~ ""If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters - yes, even life itself - such a person cannot be my disciple."

The Greek word heautou ("his") occurs twice in this verse; the TNIV has removed it
completely, even though these references clearly cannot be gender-inclusive, inasmuch as
the individual has a wife.

John 1:18 ~ "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in
closest relationship with the Father, has made him known." (with a footnote)

A number of comments could be made about this verse. My main concern is that the TNIV's
rendering appears to combine two textual variants which cannot both be original.

John 2:4a ~ "Mother, why do you involve me?" (with a footnote: "Or Woman; the Greek term
does not denote any disrespect.")

John 19:26b ~ "Mother, here is your son." (with the same footnote as 2:4)

The Greek word in both these passages is gunai, which means "Woman." It does not mean
"Mother." The Greek word for "mother" is meter. Angels use the term "gunai" in John 20:13
to address Mary Magdalene, and Jesus also addresses Mary Magdalene using the same term
in John 20:15.

A better approach would be to translate gunai in John 2:4 and 19:26 as "Woman" and add a
footnote saying, "This form of address meant no disrespect; see John 20:13-15." The
addition of such a footnote would have to be accompanied by an alteration of the text of
John 20:13-15 in order to make sense, though, because at John 20:13 and John 20:15, there
is nothing in the TNIV that gives any hint that the word gunai is in the Greek text! The
same thing happens at Matthew 15:28 ~ The Greek word gunai, translated as "Woman" in the
NIV, seems to have vanished from those three verses, and from Luke 13:12 and John 4:21.
(Yet, the words "women" and "woman" appear in Romans 16:12, although there gunai is not
in the Greek text.)

Acts 7:20b ~ "in his parents' house."

The Greek phrase "en to oiko tou patros" means "in the house of his father." To translate
"tou patros" as "his parents'" is not translation; it's replacement. The NIV, the NRSV, the
NASB, the KJV, the ASV, Revised Version, the NKJV, the NEB, NAB, the Jerusalem Bible,
Goodspeed's translation, Moffatt's translation – all translate this as a reference to the house
of Moses' father. The CBT's assumption that Moses' mother and father lived in the same
house may be true – but on the other hand, it might not be true. One does not need to
make any assumption to translate this phrase accurately as "in his father's house."

Acts 18:16 ~ "So he drove them off."

What happened to the phrase "from the court?" (A better rendering might be, "from the
judgment seat.") The Greek words Apo tou bematos are treated as if they do not exist.
Similarly, the phrase "to your brother" (to adelpho sou) seems to have disappeared from
Matthew 7:4, and the phrase "to men" (en anthropois) has disappeared from Acts 4:12. "And
he opened his mouth" (kai anoixas to stoma autou) is not in Matthew 5:2, and "in your
womb" (en gastri) is not in Luke 1:31.

Acts 20:30 (referring to the elders from Ephesus) ~ "Even from your own number some will arise
and distort the truth..."

The Greek word "andres" was translated in the NIV as "men." In the TNIV, though, the word
"men" is replaced, as if the Greek text contained some other word. With the word "some"
instead of "men," one can easily propose that Jezebel – a woman referred to in Revelation
2:20 – was a fulfillment of this verse. One could then figure that Jezebel was "from your
own number," that is, that Jezebel was an elder of the congregation in the city of Thyatira.

Thus this passage could be used to impact the question of male-female relationships in the
church. Although the TNIV website states that the phrase "from your own number" only
referred to the elders' congregation, the Greek words here (humon auton ~ you yourselves)
are completely capable of referring to the elders (the elders on hand in Acts 20, and future
elders). Working from that premise, one could propose that the office of elder was originally
available to women and that the male-only qualification for eldership in First Timothy and
Titus was intended to be a temporary reaction to the prevalence of heresy among some
women who had been elders in the churches in the area near Ephesus.