SBC Says No to New NIV (and rightly so)

I am pleased to see the Southern Baptist Convention has said no to the new NIV Bible “translation” over taking liberties with gender tenses. The SBC has even asked (probably more directed) its Lifeway Bookstores not to carry the new NIV and has encouraged pastors to warn congregations of it.

But really the NIV has taken liberties with scripture for decades. The latest gender controversy has become a flashpoint, but sloppy, loose, and downright arrogant NIV “translation” in the name of “dynamic equivalence” is nothing new. This article, first posted in 1995, will give you a good sampling of that. Here is a critique from 2000. It is not for nothing that I have long held the NIV’s claim to be a translation in contempt. It is more a paraphrase and not a very worthy one.

Yes, I am well aware that the NIV has been very popular among evangelicals . . . which buttresses my view that evangelicals of recent decades have been far too sloppy about defending, preserving, and passing on the Faith. But at least now, more are getting around to telling the NIV “translators” what they can do with their “dynamic equivalence.”