The Inclusive-Language Debate: A Plea for Realism

Rating:
Summary: Cool-headed Book on a Hot Topic
Review: Aside from political correctness (which is not a good enough reason), are there credible linguistic reasons for producing a gender inclusive translation of the Bible? The answer to that question is hotly debated within evangelical circles of Christianity. This book was written five years ago, but the issue hasn't died. In fact, I read this book because my pastor alluded to the debate over the recent release of the TNIV New Testament.

This book by Carson is a great starting point if you would like to know what the fuss is all about. The reader can follow up the more current developments on either side by reading an abundance of articles posted on two websites: www.tniv.info & www.cbmw.org/tniv. (The former is pro-TNIV and the latter is not.)

But back to this book. The book is academic level reading. The reader will be much helped if he/she has already had exposure to foreign languages. As is to be expected of an author entering a debate, the pacing is methodical. Each chapter develops an aspect of the argument and covers the various fields of evidence. Carson deals with a large number of verse references, as do many of the books on this topic.

One of my favorite chapters is #3: `Translation and Treason'. I spent a year in Germany as a teen, so I had experiential understanding of what Carson refers to as `the impossible task of translation'. I know jokes in German that just don't work in English. One can't translate them and preserve the humor. (One can't translate American puns into French or German either; which is something Columbia clothing company needs to think about on their tags.) This is just a basic illustration of a more fundamental point: ANY translation of the Bible from its original languages doesn't live up to the original. Contrary to what people may expect, there are no one-to-one correspondences for every word in every language. So translators face innumerable difficult choices, including gender usage.

I believe this book lives up to its sub-title. It is a well-reasoned, cool-headed look at the issue. One of the reasons I would recommend this book to all sides is that the author is a `complementarian'. (In other words, he agrees with the conservative faction that there are different biblical roles for men and women.) However, he counters many complementarians who argue that inclusive language is of necessity a bad thing. A good, balanced look at the issue.

Rating:
Summary: Balanced and Comprehensive Analysis
Review: Carson does a great job covering all the issues surrounding this evangelical Christian debate. He stays very balanced and gets high marks for his objective analysis. His flow is very well organized, first covering presupposions, then translation issues, evaluation of the presuppositions, specific text comparisons, English language concerns, and finally (and very important) ministry concerns. You will see that the reason for this debate is not differences of opinion in translation, but right at the beginning in the principles that govern translation.

The most powerful aspect of this book is that Carson is considered to be personally on the conservative side of this issue, yet makes a convincing case FOR inclusive language. He makes 2 really persuave points: words in the original language do not always MEAN the same thing as their cooresponding words in the translated language, and the English language IS ALWAYS changing. (Also see the website for Christians for Biblical Equality.)

Unfortunately Carson doesn't address the point that masculine language for generic people dehumanizes women. But in his defense the main combatants in this debate don't, and most evangelicals don't think this far anyway. Read feminist works to get this important take.

This is an unfortunate controversy in the Christian church, one that keeps many from the far more important task of minstering Jesus' love to ALL people. If we can't include everyone in the language of our Scripture, how do we expect to include them in the life of our church?

Rating:
Summary: Much needed
Review: D. A. Carson has rendered the church a much needed service by writing this book. Although I believe there are Bible translations that promote the feminist agenda, I believe Mr. Carson has suceeded in demonstrating that gender accurate translations such as the NIVI are not among them.

Mr. Carson discusses the complexity of dealing with gender in translating the Bible from one languare to another. This is often ignored by those who want to deal simplisticly with this issue in the arena of public opinion. Mr. Carson shows how different languages handle gender in different ways. It was conforting to know that this issue is not new to our time and to know of examples of how it was handled in the past. In fact, even the KJV resorted to gender accurate terminology in some limited instances.

I believe Mr. Carson has suceeded in showing that the NIVI translators were trying to deal with changes in the English language, not promote or condone the feminist agenda. Such a translation has a purpose in keeping the Bible in the common language of the people and should be of special benefit to new believers and for those reading the Bible in public settings where the language of older translations might give the wrong impression.

Perhaps we should discuss how our language is being affected by our post-modern culture and what the Christian's response should be before we discuss Bible translations. That is a much broader issue that needs to be addressed by the church. Once addressed, we would be in a much better position to determine the style of English appropriate to a new Bible translation.

Rating:
Summary: Linguist's helpful discussion of translation issues
Review: Don Carson's book on the use of inclusive language is sane and balanced. It is pleasing that he has been prepared to show some of those in his theological neck of the woods where their understanding of translation issues could be improved.

The book is at times rather technical, but even in those challenging sections, there is much to gain, if you can plough through Carson's sometimes less than user-friendly writing style. You will also find Mark Strauss' book "Distorting Scripture" well worth reading.

(Both books also deal with the issue of dynamic equivalent versus literal translations in an engaging and helpful fashion.)

Carson's introduction about the passions aroused by new Bible translations is entertaining. I liked the quote from Bruce Metzger: "Though in previous centuries Bible translators were sometimes burned, today happily it is only a copy of the translation which meets such a fate."

A highlight is Carson's account of his bilingual childhood, and his discovery of the peculiarities inherent in a particular Bible version, when he tried to preach a sermon in French, having prepared it with an English Bible, and vice versa.

I also enjoyed Carson's sometimes cheeky ways of showing that our language has changed.

It would be helpful if Strauss and Carson could update their books to evaluate the TNIV and other versions completed since their books appeared in 1998.

Rating:
Summary: Bilingual linguist's helpful discussion of translation
Review: Don Carson's book on the use of inclusive language is sane and balanced. It is pleasing that he has been prepared to show some of those in his theological neck of the woods where their understanding of translation issues could be improved.

The book is at times rather technical, but even in those challenging sections, there is much to gain, if you can plough through Carson's sometimes less than user-friendly writing style. You will also find Mark Strauss' book "Distorting Scripture" well worth reading.

(Both books also deal with the issue of dynamic equivalent versus literal translations in an engaging and helpful fashion.)

Carson's introduction about the passions aroused by new Bible translations is entertaining. I liked the quote from Bruce Metzger: "Though in previous centuries Bible translators were sometimes burned, today happily it is only a copy of the translation which meets such a fate."

A highlight is Carson's account of his bilingual childhood, and his discovery of the peculiarities inherent in a particular Bible version, when he tried to preach a sermon in French, having prepared it with an English Bible, and vice versa.

I also enjoyed Carson's sometimes cheeky ways of showing that our language has changed.

Carson has a helpful article in a new book called The Challenge of Bible Translation, in which there are lots of other helpful articles on the issue of translating with a view to firstly preserving the form of the original, or its meaning.

Here he refers to presuppositions guiding the production of the ESV and TNIV translations, and gives very helpful guidelines for thinking about issues of bible translation. Well worth investigating that book, too.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent treatment
Review: I always get nervous when one voice in a multilayered debate stakes a claim to "realism," as in this book's subtitle. In the case of this book, that nervousness proves unfounded. Once you get past the first chapter or two, which mainly chronicle infighting between various evangelicals over the New International Version, inclusive language edition, you will be treated to a careful and well-presented treatment of the handling of gender (grammatical and otherwise) in translation generally and in Bible translation in particular. Carson has a very good handle on the semantic challenges of Bible translation, of course, but even more than that he has the ability to communicate those challenges for a wide audience. No one, after reading this book, can think that the handling of grammatical gender in Bible translation is a simple issue. Carson wisely maintains his focus on semantics and studiously avoids clouding semantic judgments with larger-scale issues about Christian interpretation and appropriation of the various biblical constructions of maleness and femaleness. The book does have a bit of specialized evangelical jargon in it (e.g., "complementarian") but nonevangelical readers (and evangelical readers who have never used this jargon!) can easily adapt. Simply put, anyone who reads this book will understand Bible translation a little better, especially those aspects of Bible translation that have to do with rendering grammatically gendered pronouns.

Rating:
Summary: Even better than my high expectations
Review: I use to tell people that unless one speaks a foreign language and has read other Koine Greek material besides the New Testament, they shouldn't offer an opinion on Bible translations.
Far too many people who speak un poco Spanish and work from an Interlinear weigh in on this subject.
After reading this book, I am going to tell people that unless they have done expository preaching in a foreign language they shouldn't weigh in on this subject. DA Carson has (I haven't but I'll finish this review)
There is an irony in this book, open it in the middle and you will find a very good survey of grammatical gender across languages. Yet in the end, Prof. Carson focuses in on the real key.
It comes down to modern English and not Greek. The question is, "Do millions of English speakers when they hear the word `he' understand it to mean `he, not she'?
The answer is yes.

This book offers
a truly insightful discussion of translation
a survey of grammatical gender
discussion of many verses
discussion of gender in modern English
a willingness to speak the truth

bravo Dr. Carson, molto bene

Rating:
Summary: Even better than my high expectations
Review: I use to tell people that unless one speaks a foreign language and has read other Koine Greek material besides the New Testament, they shouldn't offer an opinion on Bible translations.
Far too many people who speak un poco Spanish and work from an Interlinear weigh in on this subject.
After reading this book, I am going to tell people that unless they have done expository preaching in a foreign language they shouldn't weigh in on this subject. DA Carson has (I haven't but I'll finish this review)
There is an irony in this book, open it in the middle and you will find a very good survey of grammatical gender across languages. Yet in the end, Prof. Carson focuses in on the real key.
It comes down to modern English and not Greek. The question is, "Do millions of English speakers when they hear the word 'he' understand it to mean 'he, not she'?
The answer is yes.

This book offers
a truly insightful discussion of translation
a survey of grammatical gender
discussion of many verses
discussion of gender in modern English
a willingness to speak the truth

bravo Dr. Carson, molto bene

Rating:
Summary: Cool-Headed Treatment of a Hot-Button Issue
Review: Since the news of the release of the TNIV by the International Bible Society and Zondervan, conservative Christians have been inflamed once again over their staunch convictions on this polarizing issue. One camp believes that modern scholars are being motivated by a feminist agenda to re-write the Word of God. Another camp believes that complementarian Christians are promoting their own specialized agenda in their opposition to "gender accurate" translations. Carson does a fine job of diffusing the issue by allowing persons in both camps to understand one another better.

This book basically has three sections. The first section describes the crisis that occurred in 1997 when the IBS and Zondervan initially announced plans for a "gender-accurate" update of the NIV. It details the positions of both sides with fairness, including the hasty compromise agreement reached in Colorado Springs. The second section is difficult reading, for Carson describes extensively the painstaking process of Biblical translation from Hebrew/Greek into English. The third section is a rather brief but extremely beneficial summary of the ongoing controversy regarding gender-accurate translations.

Carson, as a complementarian, does not endorse all gender-neutral translations, but neither does he condemn them all. Rather, he sees benefit in judicious use of gender-accurate translation when necessary to communicate the initial meaning of the ancient text. He sees value to the NIVI (Gender-neutral translation of the NIV in Great Britain), but highlights instances in which gender translation has been done poorly.

I recommend this work highly to anyone, particularly a pastor or a Bible teacher, who is struggling with the recent flood of gender-accurate translations. Carson's goal is to bring understanding and reconciliation to Bible-believing Christians who are divided over this issue of Scriptural semantics. He has assisted me in my own struggle, and will likely do the same for many other believers.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly Work on Inclusive version of NIV
Review: This book is excellant but in places a bit lengthy. It approaches the subject without emotional rationalism and addresses the real issues that have been missed in the current verbal and written debate. Few have responded to Dr. Carson's carefully thought through points.

The book does need to be updated and the author needs to speak out publicly.