The global board of Biblica announced on Sept. 1 that an updated edition of the world's most popular Bible translation, the New International Version, will be published by evangelical Christian publisher Zondervan in 2011.
In a press release for the NIV 2011 Bible, Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, explained the purpose of a revised edition.
"As time passes and English changes, the NIV we have at present is becoming increasingly dated," Danby said. "If we want a Bible that English speakers around the world can understand, we have to listen to, and respect, the vocabulary they are using today."
The Committee on Bible Translation, an independent body of global biblical scholars, will finish the revision next year. The CBT is made up of the top biblical scholars from world-class religious institutions around the world.
There are currently 14 members of the CBT that are dedicated to providing the most accurate translation possible.
The NIV was first introduced in 1978 and was last revised in 1984. Since 1978, 300 million copies of the NIV have been distributed worldwide.
NIV Bible readers are wondering if the 2011 NIV will use gender-neutral language instead of masculine nouns and pronouns used in the 1984 NIV such as "dear brothers" or "sons of God".
The CBT has not given a definitive answer to the question of gender neutrality in the 2011 edition, but it has committed to review every gender-related change it has made since the publication of the 1984 edition.
In 2005, another version in the NIV family of Bibles, the Today's New International Version, was published.
The abbreviation TNIV stands for Today's New International Version Bible.
As written in the preface of the TNIV Bible, "(One of) the more programmatic changes in the TNIV (is) ... the elimination of most instances of the generic use of masculine nouns and pronouns."
Traditionalists and scholars disagreed with the CBT's decision to release the gender-neutral TNIV for a variety of reasons.
"I think it was a mistake to make the TNIV gender-neutral," said Josh Trowell, a junior in English. "From a scholarly standpoint, I don't believe the translators have to edit the words of the Bible to reflect our changing views, because our changing views should be predicated on our understanding of the Bible without the aid of translation changes."
Some people are in favor of gender-neutral language in the Bible and would like to see it used in the 2011 NIV because it does specify gender or race when making generalizations.
"I am in favor of language that is more inclusive, whether this is a matter of referring to 'brothers and sisters' or using an entirely different word, such as 'beloved,' to address a group of people with affection," said the Rev. Diana Allende, minister of Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
The controversy over gender neutrality is one that has been ongoing for years, even in 1895, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote "The Woman's Bible."
"The Woman's Bible" was one of the first attempts to clarify the roles of Judeo-Christian women, their legacies and the impact these texts have made.
To quell the controversy of the TNIV, Zondervan plans to stop printing the 2005 TNIV and the 1984 NIV after the 2011 NIV is published.
Several students weren't as concerned with the Bible being gender-neutral as they were with it being accurately translated.
"I don't really have a problem with gender-neutral translations, because I think if it says 'brothers and sisters' or just 'brothers' it is meant for both sexes either way," said Courtney Cooper, a junior in social work.
According to www.nivbible2011.com, in response to questions about the 2011 NIV in a press conference on Sept. 1, Professor Douglas Moo, chairman of the CBT, said, "We're looking for a translation that is above all accurate - that says what the original authors said in the way they would have said it had they been speaking in English to the global English-speaking audience today."
Despite the challenge of translating the Bible into modern English, Biblica, Zondervan and The CBT pledge to continue to fulfill the mandate of the NIV charter: to deliver a translation that is accurate enough for scholarly study of the Bible, yet understandable enough for someone with no Biblical knowledge to comprehend.
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