Reasons to use the TNIV (and NIV) with caution: Muddied Meanings

Reason #213 why use great discretion when using the TNIV (Today’s New International Version): Though it may clarify some passages, it muddies up others, and attempts to draw a distinction where one need not be in the original Greek.

Specifically, see 1 Peter 1:2 and 1:20 in the TNIV (and NIV).

Christians are said to have “been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”  Fair enough translation.  Yet when the same meaning is conveyed to be speaking of Christ a few verses later, the translators opted to use “chosen” only, and leave out “foreknowledge“… even though the actual word in Greek both instances is explicitly foreknowledge!

Understand… I am not quibbling that the TNIV (or any other version) is taking words OUT of the Bible… as many KJV Onlyists do.  I recognize that difficulties in translating between Hebrew and English and Greek and English exist.  The problem is that the meaning of the text itself seems to be different than that of the original Greek.

Why has this been left out?  Why are the Christians said to have been “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God”, yet when speaking of Christ, the translators leave out any instance of foreknowledge of God?  While I cannot claim to know the exact reason, I think this poor translation on the part of the TNIV shows a stark theological bias away from the Reformed understanding of foreknowledge.

People like to think that foreknowledge implies God looks down the hallway of time and sees what you will do… so then he chooses you to do it!  This is the obvious Arminian perspective.  However… while such an understanding seems to work initially in verse 2… it is easy to see this would break down once verse 20 is reached.  Are we to understand then that Jesus is the Christ because the Father looked down the corridors of time, saw what Jesus would do, and then made him the Christ to redeem a people unto himself?
This understanding just doesn’t work.

I really have tried to like the TNIV … I really have.  It isn’t the worst translation available… and certainly it is more accurate than the NLT at least.  Still, in instances like this, I can’t bring myself to switch.  Not that I would ever switch away fully – but be more inclined to use it alongside my ESV as a more readable translation.  But I cannot do this if while it may clarify some language it creates a distinction between two instances of foreknowledge and choosing, when the original Greek implies actually a comparison, not a contrasting.

May the 2011 NIV keep the good of the TNIV… and lose the bad translations… and the political correctness.  (Seriously, whenever I run into “they” in the TNIV, I HAVE to consult either an ESV or NIV to see if the meaning is really plural or singular.)

*UPDATE*
I figured I should double check something… I just looked on BibleGateway.com @ the NIV rendering of 1Peter… and yes… they made the same error the TNIV did in drawing a distinction between “chosen according to the foreknowledge” and just “chosen”.

This may have come across as me just ranting against the TNIV itself… but this was because at the time I wrote this, I was reading from the TNIV rather than the NIV.  Still… the issue remains the same.  The bad translation choice used in 1 Peter by CBT muddies the truth of God’s foreknowledge, allowing for one to understand it as foresight rather than a sovereign and loving relationship with a specific group of people.