A new "gender accurate" translation of the New Testament is creating a furor among believers who see every sacred word as a cobblestone on the path to Jesus and salvation.
Today's New International Version (Zondervan, $16.99) is threaded with revisions that swap they for he and children for sons from Matthew to Revelation. Zondervan president Scott Bolinder claims it "honors biblical principles" yet shows today's readers "the Bible isn't only for boys."
But critics such as James Dobson, founder of the conservative Focus on the Family ministry, say muting "the masculinity intended by the authors of Scripture" violates the Gospel by "obscuring the fatherhood of God" ... "andthe true identity of Jesus Christ."
Mess with the Bible and you're messing with God, they say. The crossfire started at the Christian booksellers January trade show when Zondervan, publisher of the best-selling New International Version, announced Today's New International Version would go on sale just before Easter, this coming Sunday.
Nine in 10 American households have at least one Christian Bible, 42% of people say reading it is very important, and 37% say they read it weekly, according to Christian trends tracker George Barna. To some of them, the Bible brouhaha is merely a skirmish in years of battles over inclusive language.
For evangelicals and traditional Southern Baptists, however, a Bible gone bad is a nuclear attack.
Compare them yourself
You can compare favorite verses or read the full text of Today's New International Version of the Bible, and compare it to earlier Bibles online. Zondervan's site at www .tniv.info/bible/index.php.
Other Bibles at www .Biblegateway.com.
Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood at www.cbmw.org.
Christians for Biblical Equality at cbeinternational .org.
They say it could throw innocent believers and new converts off the track to eternal life. The soul of Protestantism is that anyone with a Bible can find Jesus and the hope of heaven.
"Words matter. How you say what you believe matters," says sociologist Nancy Ammerman of Hartford Seminary's Institute for Religion Research.
Changing pronouns implies something was wrong, and among evangelicals, "you just don't say that the Bible is wrong," says Ammerman, who has studied theological battles among Baptists.
When father and brother, son and man are edited out, it alters the holiest of relationships in faith and family, say critics who slam Today's New International Version as "gender neutral."
Capitulating to the treacherous winds of popular culture would be an "insult to the very character of the Bible as the eternal, inerrant and authoritative word of God," says R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Supporters of Today's New International Version proclaim it "gender accurate" — inclusive where the Bible talks about humanity yet faithful to traditionally masculine language for God.
Here's how two key passages in the Easter story of Jesus' life and sacrificial death are translated in the leading Bibles in America. In John 11:25, Jesus speaks to Martha saying, "I am the resurrection and the life. ...
"He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." (New International Version)
"Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." (Today's New International Version)
"He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (King James Version, world's most popular English Bible)
"Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." (New American Bible, the English translation approved by the Roman Catholic Church)
Titus 2:11 elaborates on Paul's teachings. In the King James Version and the New International Version, the grace of God that brings salvation has "appeared to all men." Today's New International Version elaborates that grace "offers salvation to all people." (The New American Bible succinctly proclaims "saving all.")
"I personally asked two or three conservative evangelical Christian women who are not part of any feminist or egalitarian movement if they felt excluded by male nouns and pronouns in the Bible. To my surprise, they said yes, they do," says scholar Ken Barker, a member of the International Bible Society's translation committees for both the New International Version and Today's New International Version.
"We want to communicate clearly God's truth to people of the 21st century," says Barker. "The generic use of male nouns and pronouns is fast dropping from usage in modern society, in all other writing and speaking, in schools, colleges and universities."
This isn't the first time the International Bible Society, which holds the copyright for the New International Version, and Zondervan have been in the line of fire. A plan to join a British publisher in a new translation for English Bible buyers in 1997 was torpedoed immediately by outcries from traditionalists. So they were stunned when Zondervan unveiled the New Testament portion of Today's New International Version at the annual conference of top Christian booksellers and retailers in late January and said the Old Testament will be ready by 2005.
Bolinder assures that Today's New International Version is not a "new Coke," planned to replace a classic. He estimates 150 million New International Version Bibles are in circulation now, second only to the King James Version.
Only 7% of the New International text has been changed in Today's New International. And only 30% of the changes involve gender. Any percentage is a blow to biblical integrity, according to the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which cites numerous examples of theological tampering in Today's New International.
One example: In Revelation 3:20 in the New International, Jesus says if anyone who hears his voice opens the door, "I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." In Today's New International, the phrase becomes, "I will come and eat with them, and they with me."
Adding, subtracting or multiplying the pronouns undermines the Bible's treasured promise of an "individual relationship with God or Jesus," says Bruce Ware, president of the council. His group defends and promotes the idea that God has designed male and female for different roles. To say the Bible is wrong or outmoded in its "inherent patriarchy" would make all claims for truth fair game, he says.
"It's the slippery slope to perdition," says anthropologist Susan Harding of the University of California-Santa Cruz, who writes about fundamentalist language and politics. "Accuracy and fidelity to the word of God is always the moral high ground. ... You can't have a community of believers who literally don't agree on what the Bible says."
Today's New International Version doesn't change enough to suit Jim Sanders, president and founder of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center. Sanders served on the translation committee for the New Revised Standard Bible, sponsored by the liberal mainline National Council of Churches of Christ. "It's time to get rid of patriarchalism. God is God, neither male nor female. Pneuma is the word used for the Holy Spirit in all Greek manuscripts and it is neuter — not masculine or feminine," he says.
Others led the way years ago, says Mimi Haddad, president of the egalitarian non-denominational Christians for Biblical Equality. Its Web site lists 13 major gender-accurate translations in print, including the New American Standard Bible and New Jerusalem Bibles preferred by the Catholic Church.
"Today's New International Version is only news because it's Zondervan and the New International Version. It's the last translation to get on the gender-accuracy train," she says.
A Gallup survey for the American Bible Society in 2000 found 35% of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, but 61% say it should be easier to read.
Eugene Harris, 57, an engineer in Cincinnati, says his 16-year-old son has no trouble reading that same King James Version their family has always read. It's the pew Bible at the Seventh-day Adventist church where he worships weekly.
Tampering with grammar worries Harris, who says, "All these translations of translations are losing their authenticity. You're talking about expressions from thousands of years ago. Maybe they could be clarified, but I'd be worried about straying from the truth. Isaiah 28:10 says not to take words out of context by reading 'a little here, a little there.' "
When evangelical magazine Christianity Today conducted an unscientific poll on its Web site asking people which of several new Bible translations they were "most eager to read," the highest vote, 19%, went to Today's New International Version. Another 10% voted, "all translations are evil except the King James Version."
But 28% picked, "More translations? I already have enough!"