One of my favorite segments in all of sports journalism is ESPN’s C’mon Man before Monday Night Football. They go back over Sunday’s games and pick out the funniest moments. These hilarious incidents often involve a player doing something that leaves commentators and viewers wondering what he was thinking. Hence the name.
The debate over the NIV update has had some c’mon man moments lately. My purpose here is to plead with NIV 2011 critics to be fair in your criticism of the translation: not to demagogue, not to oversimplify, not to accuse translators of ulterior motives.
I want people to criticize when they find problematic passages in the NIV 2011. I hope people will publish, blog, and tweet when they see ways that we can better understand the Bible. I don’t believe any translation is above question. Every translation can be improved, even if only in slight ways here and there.
What kind of criticisms am I talking about? What should be out of bounds? Here’s a sampling: