Changing God's words

Religion: In trying to make the Bible more accessible to today's young readers, the TNIV toys with Scripture's meaning and accuracy | Wayne Grudem

Purportedly “sexist” language has become taboo in some circles today. “Mankind” must be changed to “humankind,” “he” must be changed to “he or she,” and words like “businessmen” or “mailman” are taboo.

Bible translations such as the New Revised Standard, the Good News Bible, and the New Living Translation have also adopted regendered language, and now the most widely used contemporary translation, the New International Version (NIV), is imitating them with Today’s New International Version (TNIV).

Some Bible scholars think that’s great. Craig Blomberg, a Bible scholar at Denver Seminary, tells of young people and new Christians asking “Why are the Proverbs written only to men?” because of all the language of “fathers,” “sons,” and that generic “he.” Mr. Blomberg says, “It is still hard for them to get it out of their heads that the Bible isn’t outdated or biased against women in ways that it never intended to be.”