I found a blog pushing the TNIV, and added a comment to a post or two before I realised that the blog title “Better bibles” was really just Newspeak for “Use the TNIV.”
The TNIV is the version of the New International Version which was revised in accordance with the principles of political correctness. If the bible said “brothers”, it changed it to say “brothers and sisters.” And so on, sometimes with farcical consequences. Fortunately US Christians treated it with the contempt it deserved, and it sounds as if it is dead (praise God). But the damage is severe; the NIV was well on the way to being the standard Christian English translation. Now few will trust it, or its owners.
It is hard to imagine what was going through the minds of the people who did this deed — although judging from the commenters on that blog, indifference to the idea that this is the Word of God is pretty evident, as is a determination to use the bible to promote political correctness.
But just imagine if we did the same to other texts! Das Kapital, revised to say what Ronald Reagan thinks it should have said. Mein Kampf, as translated by an Israeli extremist (a version in which the word “Jew” is replaced by the word “Arab”, “in order to situate it better in modern society” or some form of words which would walk the streets for any vice). Robert Mugabe translating Jefferson. It’s almost funny, isn’t it?
I do a bit of translating from time to time, and I tend to favour reader comprehension over literal incomprehensibility. But if I have to paraphrase, I’d put the original in a note. If I felt the meaning was unclear, I wouldn’t paraphrase; I would stick the meaning in a note. To fail to know where to draw the line between a translation and a note is the nadir of incapacity in a translator.