Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve: How the TNIV Cuts Off the Ancient Conversation

Introduction

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Gen 1:27 ESV).

The "conversation" we address in the present essay is as old as God's creation of "man" ('adam), for "male and female he created them." Christian theology rightly invests everything in the fact that God has spoken and that he has done so perfectly and authoritatively. The ancient conversation begins in God's word before man fell into sin, and it continues to this day. Sin distorts the conversation, but it does not negate or abrogate it. Unfortunately, the ancient discourse has been hindered recently in an unexpected manner. Some have chosen to cut it off intentionally because its language is said to be no longer an effective means of communication. Indeed, the translators of Today's New International Version (TNIV) have cut off the ancient conversation.

In order to sustain the ancient conversation about the "Sons of Adam" and "Daughters of Eve," we offer this essay. In it we hope to (1) introduce the reader to C. S. Lewis as one who tutors us in the conversation; (2) suggest the importance of the conversation in the great literature of the ages; and (3) argue for the value of retaining such language in the English Bible today.

Lewis as a Tutor in the Conversation

We take our title from The Chronicles of Narnia. The "Sons of Adam" and "Daughters of Eve" are the human children who enter C. S. Lewis's imaginary world of Narnia. The terminology Lewis chooses to describe the humans in the stories is significant, for it points to gender and heritage. Sons and daughters become husbands and wives, and, in these stories, kings and queens. They are the only characters in the Narnia stories who are "man" ('adam) and as such the only ones descended from Adam and Eve.

The Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve are present at all the important events in Narnian history. In The Magician's Nephew, they witness the creation of Narnia. In this story, Aslan calls Digory a "Son of Adam" and a few pages later addresses him as "My son, my son," relating him first to Adam and Eve and secondly to himself.¹The Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve participate in the important points in Narnian history, always anticipating Aslan's return. And they are present in The Last Battle at the consummation of time when Narnia is destroyed and they enter "heaven" with Aslan. Throughout The Chronicles of Narnia, there is an inherent irony in the titles the children are given, for the White Witch (Aslan's sworn enemy and emissary of Satan, if you will) has no way to refer to them other than by the terms "Sons of Adam" and "Daughters of Eve;" she too is under Aslan's dominion. In subtle ways like this, Lewis shows that "man"('adam) is grounded in the fabric of nature and "super-nature" in Narnia.

The Conversation in Literature 

When we turn to the great literature of the ages, we discover the ancient conversation of man and woman in all but the sagas of early Germanic culture. In the classical epics, we find the relationship of men and women to be important, as we do throughout the later literature of the West. How could it be otherwise? Helen's face may have launched a thousand ships, but it was the treacherous betrayal of Menelaus and Helen's marriage by Paris of Troy that demanded retribution. One does not accept a man's hospitality and then leave with his wife.

One of the great scenes in ancient literature is the reunion of Odysseus and his wife Penelope in Book XXIII of The Odyssey. Odysseus has been fighting the battle of Troy and has labored hard and long to return home to Ithaca. (To be sure, he has been unfaithful to his wife in the forced relationship with the goddess, Calypso.²) For twenty years, his wife has been queen of Ithaca, and "Nobody's" wife. The reunion scene, following Odysseus's defeat of the suitors, is one of the tender scenes of ancient literature. Penelope, worried that a god might be impersonating Odysseus, goads him into telling the tale of their marriage bed which he had carved from a live olive tree. When she is convinced that this man is Odysseus, she joyously runs to him and throws her arms around his neck. Penelope is a masterpiece of characterization, a fully-developed person-"valiant" and "faithful," as she is described in Book XXIV-and a loving wife. Homer understood the conversation and made it the climax of his last epic.

Much of the world's literature tells the tales of the dysfunctional relationships of men and women. Chaucer's famous gallery of characters in The Canterbury Tales includes only two women-the prioress and the Wife of Bath, both of whom have failed to be all they were made to be. The two women are diametrical opposites. The prioress has chosen the cloister over marriage, and the Wife of Bath has buried five husbands and lived wantonly. The important point is that neither woman is happy. The prioress attempts to satisfy her desire to be a woman of the world in social niceties inappropriate to her office, and the Wife of Bath flaunts herself, looking for husband number six.

Jumping three centuries, we turn to John Milton's Paradise Lost, that great epic on the fall of man. Milton's presentation of the first married pair in their prelapsarian state emphasizes the complementary, respective functions of the man and woman in marriage,³and his portrait of the fall in the Garden of Eden shows Adam uxoriously forsaking his God-given role as head to a wife who has already decided to bring him down with her in sin.⁴The contrast could not be greater. Still, at the end of the poem, Adam and Eve leave Eden "hand in hand"⁵committed to their roles as husband and wife in a world of woe, the result of their own sin. In Paradise Lost, Milton shows the ideal conversation and the damage done to it by sin.

Fast forward three centuries again, this time to F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel, The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatz loves a married woman, Daisy Buchanan. He has loved her since before she was married, and, to be sure, her marriage to Tom Buchanan is not happy. Throughout the poignant and at times painful novel, Fitzgerald anatomizes the disaster Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy creates: Tom Buchanan has an aair with Myrtle Wilson; in a freak accident, Daisy kills Myrtle, and Gatsby takes the blame; George Wilson, Myrtle's husband, shoots Gatsby and then kills himself. The principal actors flaunt the conversation and pay with their lives.

The examples are legion-virtually unanimous. The conversation of men and women in their gender roles is rarely pretty in the world's literature, and is to be expected, is it not? We live in a fallen world, and marriage is one of the stress points in human relations.

The Conversation in the English Bible

It is precisely because of the dysfunction in gender roles in a fallen world that the Bible ought to be afforded the proper place in the ancient conversation. Scripture is the authoritative source of the "ancient conversation" of which we speak and, as such, it speaks to the man-woman relationship as it should be. The early chapters of Genesis begin the conversation of "man" ('adam) as male and female (Gen 1:26-28; 2:18-25; 5:1-2). In order for this conversation to continue in a meaningful way, English translations of the Bible must be reliable. The problem with the TNIV is that it does not sustain what reliable English translations have passed down to it as part of the ancient conversation. Simply put, it neuters the language of "man" introduced in Genesis (cf. 1:26-27; 5:2)-the language we are identifying with the terms "Sons of Adam" and "Daughters of Eve." But "man" ought to be retained because it is an indispensable canonical thread interwoven throughout the language of creation, anticipation, and consummation.

Creation 

When the TNIV replaces "man" with "human beings" in Gen 1:26-27 and Gen 5:2 it obscures the unity of the race created as "man."⁶In the absence of this textual link, humanity is no longer seen as a race directly related to Adam, the first man. Without unity individual men and women are disconnected from Adam and Eve. The creation story reads more like an encyclopedia than a well-written narrative. The new story is built on individual beings that are distantly related. Without unity the ancient creation story-including its understanding of gender roles-does not connect to those in the rest of history, those throughout the literary conversation, and those today.

Anticipation

Psalm 8 is another troubling example where the TNIV cuts the linguistic thread. It is troubling because the absence of "man" does not prompt the reader to anticipate the full humanity and perfect dominion of the last Adam, which was lost by the first Adam. The psalmist, though reflecting on creation, speaks of a glorious dominion of man (8:5-8) that is presently not "strictly true," to borrow the words of C. S. Lewis.⁷Man in his fallen condition is often anything but glorious and honorable and exercising godly dominion. It is most fitting, therefore, to render 'enôsh "man"(8:4) in order to indicate the frailty of mankind-an imperfection that will only be fully and finally perfected in the ultimate man.

In the TNIV 'enôsh is translated as "mere mortals" (8:4) replacing the singular "man," again removing the sense of the unity of mankind. Perhaps even more disturbing, however, is the removal of the phrase "son of man" (8:4).⁸It has been replaced with the plural "human beings," a somewhat amorphous term that does not convey the individuality and personality found in "son of man." It is more precise to render ben-adam "son of man," not "human being"(even in the singular), because the former conveys a sense of origin and continuity that the latter does not. Indeed, all of mankind is related to Adam. Both the origin and continuity of this relation are seen on two levels: (1) the original life God gave to Adam and (2) the image of God in man, both of which are passed on in the son (Gen 5:3; 9:6).⁹In this sense, we are all sons of Adam, and we all await-with great anticipation-ultimate conformity to the image of the last Adam. It is the Genesis language extended in Psalm 8 and woven throughout Scripture that promotes anticipation in the reader, an anticipation the author of Hebrews had, as seen below.

Consummation

Finally, the TNIV obscures the restoration and consummation of man in the last Adam. It replaces "man" with "mere mortals" and "son of man" with "human beings" in Heb 2:6. This replacement disconnects the created and fallen man from the perfect man by removing the language that demonstrates the unity of the race. Yet this is precisely the connection that the writer of Hebrews intends to make. The author would enter the "ancient conversation" saying that man, created for dominion, glory, and honor, but fallen from that lofty place, has been restored through his unity with the consummate man. But by changing the inspired language of Scripture to meet modern sensibilities, the TNIV cuts him off.

The glory and honor that the created man lost has already been restored in Jesus Christ, though it is not yet fully realized in a cosmic sense. We read in the NT of the full and perfect display of the glory of God in man-the man Christ Jesus. Indeed, the writer of Hebrews says, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature"(1:3). The author goes on to explain that he is the Son of God (1:5ff) and the Son of Man (2:5ff); all the fullness of deity and humanity dwells in Jesus Christ. Looking to Psalm 8, the author explains that the Son became man to taste death for everyone so that in him the dominion, glory, and honor might be "strictly true" for man. In Jesus we see man crowned with glory and honor; through his victorious death we see man fully restored; in the world to come we see the consummation of man-he was made like us that we might reign with him.

Conclusion

The instances in which the TNIV abrogates or negates the language of "man" ('adam) are simply inaccurate translations which cut counter to the weight of Scripture and the realities of human gender distinctions. The literature of the ages participates in the great conversation by expressing the reality of gender inscribed by God on the created order. C. S. Lewis addressed the fundamental issue of gender in all of his fiction, not just The Chronicles of Narnia, and developed a worldview that sees gender emblazoned in all of created nature.¹⁰Modern attempts to neutralize gender language have not removed the issue; they have only obscured it.

When we turn to Bible translations, we find the same dilemma. In an attempt to reduce or remove the "problem" of gender in Scripture, the translators of the TNIV have ironically neutralized the effectiveness of their translation in addressing one of the earliest and most important issues in God's self-revelation-"man," a radical unity, yet created as male and female. In retaining the language of "man," other reliable translations of the Bible have not bowed to modern social and linguistic conventions; rather, in keeping the dynamic of gender relations in their language they have retained one of the central tensions of nature and the supernatural-unity in diversity. Such is man because such is God. In regard to the ultimate realities to which gender points, the TNIV is simply out of step and inaccurate.