Translation Inaccuracies in the TNIV: A Categorized List of 901 Examples

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It seems to us that in every case listed here the change eliminates masculine meaning or masculine nuances that are present in the underlying Greek terms, and also that these changes frequently go beyond the legitimate bounds of ordinary, well-established meanings for the common Greek words being translated (though in some cases there are differences among the lexicons, as noted in the individual categories below). These examples therefore seem to us to be "translation inaccuracies" that were included in the TNIV for the sake of producing a more "gender neutral" or "inclusive language" version.

This list was prepared under general oversight of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and has been compared for accuracy against the Greek New Testament. In the event that readers may find any corrections or additions that may need to be made, we would welcome your input sent to us at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

All the changes noted are from the 1984 NIV to the 2002 TNIV.

A. Changes from singular to plural to avoid the use of he/him/his

he/him/his/himself changed to they/them/their/themselves (where Greek has singular verb and/or masculine singular 3rd person pronoun) (232)

MATT. 10:10, 24 (2x), 25 (2x), 38, 39 (2x); 12:35 (2x); 13:12 (3x), 19, 21 (3x), 23, 57 (2x); 16:24, 25 (2x); 18:15 (2x) 23:12 (2x); 25:29 (3x);

MARK 2:22 (2x); 4:25 (2x); 6:4 (3x); 8:34 (2x), 35 (2x); 13:13;

LUKE 4:24; 5:37; 6:40 (2x), 45 (2x), 47, 48; 8:18 (3x); 9:23 (3x), 24 (2x); 10:7; 12:21; 14:11 (2x); 14:27; 16:16; 17:33 (2x); 18:14 (2x); 19:26;

JOHN 3:20 (2x), 21; 4:14 (3x), 36 (2x), 44; 7:18 (2x), 53; 11:9, 10 (2x); 12:25 (2x), 35, 45 (2x), 47, 48; 13:10 (2x), 16 (2x); 14:12; 15:15, 20; 16:2;

ROM. 4:8; 14:4 (4x), 6, 22, 23 (2x); 15:2;

1 COR. 4:5; 6:18 (2x); 8:2 (2x); 11:29; 14:2 (2x), 4, 5, 13 (2x), 16, 37, 38;

2 COR. 9:9 (3x); 10:7 (3x), 18; 11:20;

GAL. 4:1 (2x), 2 (2x); 6:6, 7, 8;

EPH. 4:28 (2x); 5:29 (3x);

PHIL. 3:4;

COL. 2:18 (3x), 19; 3:25;

2 THESS. 3:14 (2x), 15 (2x);

1 TIM. 5:18;

2 TIM. 2:21;

TITUS 3:10 (2x), 11;

HEB. 2:6 (2x), 7 (2x), 8 (4x); 4:10;

JAS. 1:7, 8, 9, 10 (2x), 11 (2x), 12 (2x), 23, 24 (2x), 25 (3x), 26 (4x); 2:14, 24; 5:19

2 PET. 2:19;

1 JOHN 2:4, 5, 10 (2x), 11 (3x); 3:3 (2x), 9 (3x), 10; 4:15 (2x), 16; 5:12 (2x), 16, 18 (2x);

REV. 2:27, 28; 3:5 (2x), 12 (3x); 13:10 (2x); 14:10 (2x); 16:15 (2x); 21:7 (2x);

he/him/his/himself (with singular Greek verb and/or masculine 3rd person singular Greek pronoun) changed to they/them/their/themselves (with singular antecedent in English; these are examples of the so-called "singular they") (112)

MATT. 5:39, 41; 11:15; 13:9, 43; 15:4, 5, 6 (2x); 16:27; 18:6 (3x), 15 (2x), 16, 17 (3x); 24:18;

MARK 2:21; 4:9, 23; 7:10, 11, 12 (2x); 9:42 (3x); 11:25; 13:16;

LUKE 2:3; 5:36 (2x); 8:8, 16; 14:35; 17:3 (2x), 4 (2x);

JOHN 3:2 (Jesus), 4 (3x), 18, 36; 6:40, 44, 65 (2x); 7:38; 10:9; 11:25; 14:21 (3x), 23 (3x);

ACTS 2:6; 4:32 (2x); 25:16 (3x);

ROM. 2:6; 4:4 (2x), 5; 8:9, 24; 11:35 ("who"?); 14:5;

1 COR. 3:8 (2x); 8:10; 10:24; 14:24, 25 (2x);

2 COR. 5:10;

1 TIM. 5:8 (2x); 6:4 (2x);

2 TIM. 2:4; JAS. 3:13 (2x); 4:11; 5:20 (2x);

1 JOHN 2:5; 3:15, 17;

2 JOHN 1:10 (2x), 11 (2x);

REV. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 12, 13, 20 (2x), 22; 13:9; 22:12

he/him/his/himself (singular verb and/or masculine singular 3rd person pronoun in Greek) changed to those (often "those who") (39)

MATT. 7:8 (2x), 21; 10:22;

LUKE 6:47*; 11:10 (2x);

JOHN 7:18; 15:23;

ROM. 14:1, 6 (3x);

1 COR. 1:31; 7:22 (2x); 14:4 (2x), 5, 38;

2 COR. 10:17;

EPH. 4:28;

2 THESS. 3:14;

1 PET. 4:1;

1 JOHN 5:12 (2x);

REV. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 22:7, 11 (4x), 17

he/him/his/himself changed to you/your/yourself (90)

MATT. 6:24 (2x); 6:27; 7:9; 10:36; 16:26 (2x);

MARK 7:15 (3x), 18, 19 (3x), 20; 8:36, 37, 38; 11:23 (3x);

LUKE 5:39; 9:25, 26; 11:8 (4x); 12:25; 14:28 (2x), 29 (2x), 33; 16:13 (2x);

JOHN 15:5 (2x), 6; 16:32;

1 COR. 3:18 (3x); 6:1; 7:17 (2x), 20 (2x), 24; 16:2;

2 COR. 9:7 (2x);

GAL. 6:3 (4x), 4 (4x), 5;

EPH. 4:25; 6:8 (2x);

1 THESS. 4:4;

JAS. 1:5 (2x), 6 (2x), 14 (2x); 4:17; 5:13, 14 (2x),

15 (3x);

1 PET. 3:10 (2x);

2 PET. 1:9 (3x);

1 JOHN 2:15; 3:17; 5:16 (2x);

REV. 22:18, 19 (2x)

he/him/his/himself changed to we/our/ourselves (9)

ROM. 14:7 (2x-ourselves); 12 (ourselves); 15:2 (ourselves);

1 JOHN 4:20 (5x-we)

he/him/his/himself changed to no pronoun (sentence changed to other wording) (16)

MATT. 5:22; 18:4;

LUKE 6:45; 9:62; 12:8, 15, 47 (2x); 14:26;

1 THESS. 4:6;

1 JOHN 2:9, 11; 3:15, 17; 4:20; 5:10

he/him/his/himself is omitted (29)

MATT. 5:40; 10:32, 33, 42; 12:29 (2x); 16:26; 18:15;

MARK 8:34; 9:35, 41; 10:28; 13:34;

LUKE 9:48; 10:6; 11:8;

JOHN 3:27; 7:17;

1 COR. 2:14; 14:28;

1 THESS. 4:6;

2 TIM. 2:5, 21;

HEB. 10:38;

JAS. 4:11; 5:13, 14;

1 PET. 3:11 (2x);

he/him/his/himself changed to other (3)

MATT. 18:15 (omit "your" and "you");

1 COR. 14:28 (when alone);

1 JOHN 5:16 (any)

"whoever" (singular) changed to those (often "those who") (22)

MATT. 10:39 (2x); 13:12 (2x); 16:25 (2x); 23:12 (2x);

MARK 4:25 (2x); 8:35 (2x);

LUKE 8:18 (2x); 9:24 (2x); 17:33 (2x);

JOHN 3:21; 4:14;

1 JOHN 3:11;

REV. 22:17
"anyone" (singular) changed to those (often "those who") (9)

MATT. 10:38; 16:24

MARK 8:34;

JOHN 16:2;

1 COR. 14:2;

JAMES 1:23; 3:2;

1 JOHN 3:10;

REV. 13:18

"one" (singular) changed to those (often "those who") (8)

LUKE 6:49;

JOHN 12:48;

1 COR. 14:5;

2 COR 10:18 (2x);

GAL. 6:8 (2x);

1 JOHN 3:9

"everyone" (singular) changed to those (often "those who") (7)

MATT. 25:29 (2x)

LUKE 14:11 (2x); 18:14;

JOHN 3:20;

1 COR. 14:3

Other changes from singular to plural for the whole sentence (20)

MATT. 10:10, 24 (2x); 13:19, 20, 57; 19:23, 24;

MARK 2:22;

JOHN 11:9, 10; 12:25 (2X), 35, 44, 47; 13:10

ROM. 13:4; 14:23

GAL. 4:7;

2 TIM. 2:21;

1 JOHN 2:4; 3:10

REV. 21:7; 22:7

B. Changes to avoid the word "father" and related words

father (pater, singular) changed to parents (2)

ACTS 7:20;

HEB. 12:7

fathers (pater, plural) changed to parents or people (3)

ACTS 7:11

HEB. 12:9 (Though "parents" is sometimes acceptable as a meaning for the plural of pater, in this case the context is speaking of fatherly discipline. The TNIV continues the problem in vs. 10, where it repeats the word "parents," but the Greek has only a pronoun which in this construction would ordinarily be translated "they.")

fathers/forefathers (pater, plural) changed to ancestors (34)

(The BDAG Lexicon, p. 786-787, gives "ancestors" as a possible meaning, but the LSJ Lexicon (p. 1348) only gives the meaning of "forefathers." We have included these verses in this list because they seem to us to fit the general pattern of excluding male nuances in the TNIV, and because the male nuance or connotation of the plural word pateres would have been evident to the original Greek readers, but "ancestors" has no evident relationship to the word "father" and no male connotation in English.)

MATT. 23:30, 32;

LUKE 1:55, 72; 6:23, 26; 11:47, 48;

JOHN 4:20; 6:31, 49, 58;

ACTS 5:30; 7:12, 15, 19, 38, 39, 44, 45, 51, 52; 13:17, 32, 36; 15:10; 22:14; 26:6; 28:25;

1 COR. 10:1;

HEB. 1:1; 3:9; 8:9;

2 PET. 3:4

C. CHANGES TO AVOID THE WORD "BROTHER" (OR TO ADD THE WORD "SISTER")

brother (adelphos, singular) changed to brother or sister (19)

MATT. 5:22 (2x), 23; 18:15, 35;

LUKE 17:3;

ROM. 14:10 (2x), 13, 15, 21;

1 COR. 8:11, 13;

1 THESS. 4:6;

JAS. 4:11;

1 JOHN 3:10, 17; 4:20; 5:16

brother (adelphos, singular) changed to (fellow) believer (5)

(The BDAG Lexicon, p. 18, lists "brother, fellow member, member, associate" as possible meanings for adelphos, but all the singular examples listed refer to male human beings. The earlier BAGD Lexicon, p. 16, did not give these meanings, and the new BDAG Lexicon (2000) gives no new examples or new arguments to justify these new meanings that it proposes. Neither BDAG nor BAGD gives "believer" as a possible meaning.The LSJ Lexicon (p. 20) gives the meaning "brother (as a fellow Christian)", but does not give the meaning "believer" either.)

2 THESS. 3:6;

1 JOHN 2:9, 11; 3:15; 4:20
brother (adelphos, singular) changed to (fellow) believers (4)

1 COR. 5:11;

2 THESS. 3:15;

JAS. 1:9;

1 JOHN 2:10

brother (adelphos, singular) changed to other (15)

MATT. 5:24 (that person); 7:3 (someone else), 4 (omitted), 5 (other person); 18:15 (them), 21 (someone)

LUKE 6:41 (someone else), 42 (friend, other person);

1 COR. 8:13 (them);

1 THESS. 4:9 ("brotherly love" to "your love for one another");

HEB. 8:11 (one another);

JAMES 4:11 (them)

2 PET. 1:7 (mutual affection-2x);

1 JOHN 4:21 (one another)

brothers (adelphos, plural) changed to brothers and sisters (where sisters is uncertain or doubtful) (8)

ACTS 1:16; 2:29; 13:26, 38;

2 COR. 11:9;

HEB. 2:17;

JAS. 3:1;

REV. 19:10

brothers/brotherhood (adelphos, plural) changed to fellow believers (4)

ACTS 15:22

1 TIM. 6:2;

1 PET. 2:17; 5:9

brothers (adelphos, plural) changed to believers (27)

JOHN 21:23;

ACTS 9:30; 10:23; 11:1, 29; 15:1, 3, 22, 32, 33, 36, 40; 16:2, 40; 17:6, 10, 14; 18:18, 27; 21:7, 17; 28:14, 15;

2 COR. 11:26;

GAL. 2:4;

3 JOHN 1:3, 10

brothers (adelphos, plural) changed to other (9)

MATT. 5:47 (own people); 22:5 (associates); 28:21 (our people); 1 COR. 8:12 (them);

1 THESS. 4:10 (dear friends); 5:26 (God's people);

1 JOHN 3:14 (each other), 16 (one another);

REV. 22:9 (fellow prophets)

brothers (adelphos, plural) omitted (2)

MATT. 7:4;

1 COR. 15:31 (TNIV uses less likely variant reading)

D. CHANGES TO AVOID THE WORD "MAN"

man or husband (aner, singular) changed to other (7)

(The BDAG Lexicon (p. 79) gives as the general definition of aner the meaning, "a male person," and under that general definition it gives as meaning 2, "equivalent to tis, someone, a person." All the examples they list under meaning 2 either clearly refer to a male human being (as Luke 19:2, for example, "and there was a man named Zacchaeus"), or the context is not determinative but the meaning "man" makes good sense and the meaning "person" is not required. BDAG at the end of this entry also notes an idiom, kat'andra, which means "man for man, individually," and clearly includes women in some instances, but that idiom does not occur in the New Testament. The LSJ Lexicon (p. 138) also notes the idiom kat'andra, with a similar meaning. The LSJ Lexicon does not give the meaning "person" for aner, but rather, "man, opposed to women," "man, opposed to god," "man, opposed to youth," "man emphatically, man indeed," "husband," and some special usages. For further discussion on the word aner, "man" see Vern Poythress and Wayne Grudem, The Gender Neutral Bible Controversy (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2000), p. 101, note 2, and pages 321-333; see also, "Can Greek aner ("man") sometimes mean "person"? at www.cbmw.org/tniv/aner.html.)

ROM. 4:8 (those);

1 TIM. 3:2, 12 ("husband" to "faithful" on both)

JAS. 1:12 (those), 20 (our), 23 (people); 2:2 (someone);

man (aner, singular) omitted (2)

JAS. 1:8; 3:2

men (aner, plural) changed to people (10)

MATT. 12:41;

LUKE 11:31, 32;

ACTS 2:22; 3:12; 13:16; 17:22, 34; 19:35; 21:28

men (aner, plural) changed to other (5)

ACTS 4:4 (believers); 14:15 (friends); 17:34 (people); 19:25 (friends); 20:30 (some)

men (aner, plural) omitted (2)

LUKE 14:24;

ACTS 15:22 (Judas Barsabbas & Silas);
man (anthropos, singular) changed to people or other plural nouns (9)

MATT. 12:35 (2x); 18:7;

LUKE 6:45 (2x);

ROM. 1:26; 4:6;

GAL. 6:7;

2 TIM. 3:17

man (anthropos, singular) changed to you/your (10)

MATT. 10:36; 15:11, 18, 20; 16:26 (2x);

MARK 7:23; 8:36, 37;

LUKE 9:25

man (anthropos, singular) changed to human being/human/mere mortal when referring to a specific historical man (6)

ACTS 10:26 (Peter);

ACTS 12:22 (Herod);

1 COR. 15:21 (Jesus);

PHIL. 2:8 (Jesus);

1 TIM. 2:5 (Jesus);

JAS. 5:17 (Elijah);

men (anthropos, plural) changed to people when referring to male human beings (1)

HEB 5:1 (high priests)

men (anthropos, plural) changed to other (9)

(Neither the meaning "man" nor the meaning "person," is represented in these verses.)

MATT. 5:9 (underfoot); 10:32 (publicly), 33 (publicly);

LUKE 12:8 (publicly), 9 (publicly), 36 (servants);

JOHN 8:17 (witnesses)

1COR. 7:7 (you)

men (anthropos, plural) omitted(6)

MATT. 10:17; 19:12;

LUKE 12:8

ACTS 4:12 (no other name under heaven); 17:26 (all nations);

1 TIM. 5:24 (sins of some)

"man" (anthropos, singular) meaning the human race changed to people/mortals/human (6)

MATT. 4:4;

MARK 2:27 (2x);

LUKE 4:4;

JOHN 2:25;

HEB. 2:6 (mere mortals); 13:6 (human beings)

E. CHANGES TO AVOID THE WORD "SON"

son (huios,, singular) changed to child (3)

MATT. 23:15;

LUKE 14:5;

HEB. 12:6

son (huios,, singular) changed to children (3)

GAL. 4:7 (2x-sentence plural);

REV. 21:7 (sentence plural)

sons (huios, plural) changed to children (16)

MATT. 5:9, 45; 17:25, 26;

LUKE 6:35;

JOHN 12:36;

ROM. 8:14, 19; 9:26;

GAL. 3:26;

1 THESS. 5:5 (2x);

HEB. 12:5, 7 (2x), 8

sons (huios, plural) changed to people (2)

MATT. 13:38 (2x)

sons (huios, plural) changed to sons and daughters (1)

HEB. 2:10

F. CHANGES TO AVOID THE PHRASE "THE JEWS"

(The 2000 BDAG Lexicon (pages 478-479) objects to translating hoi ioudaioi as "the Jews" because it claims that "many readers or auditors of Bible translations do not practice the historical judgment necessary to distinguish between circumstances and events of an ancient time and contemporary ethnic-religions-social realities, with the result that anti-Judaism in the modern sense of the term is needlessly fostered through biblical texts" (p. 478). In other words, we should no longer translate hoi ioudaioi as "the Jews" because many Bible readers today will not realize that the Bible is talking about ancient Judaism, not modern Judaism. So it favors the translation, "Judean."

However, we find this argument unpersuasive because we believe that the term "Judean" will wrongly imply a reference to people who simply live in a certain geographical area, whether Jews or not, and will not adequately convey the religious and ethnic identification with the ancient Jewish people that the term "the Jews" implies.

On the next page, the BDAG Lexicon discusses the phrase hoi ioudaioi when it is used of people who are opposed to Jesus, and says the following: "Those who are in opposition to Jesus, with special focus on hostility emanating from leaders in Jerusalem, center of Israelite belief and cult; there is no indication that John uses the term in the general ethnic sense suggested in modern use of the word Jew, which covers diversities of belief and practice that were not envisaged by biblical writers ..." (p. 479). In other words, John does not use the word "Jew" to speak of modern Judaism or anything like the diversity of modern Judaism.

The implication of this BDAG comment is, again, that modern readers will not understand that John is referring to ancient Jews in the first century and that these are different from modern Jews in the 21st century. While we agree that John did not use hoi ioudaioi to refer to modern Judaism, we believe that readers of the Bible are able to realize that they are reading about events that occurred in ancient history. To take another example, when Bible readers today read that "Jesus entered Peter's house" (Matt. 8:14), we don't avoid using the word "house" out of fear that people will think Matthew meant a modern house with electricity and air-conditioning and an automatic dishwasher. Readers automatically realize that they are reading an ancient document and that "house" refers to whatever kind of house people had in first century Palestine. Even if the BDAG Lexicon is correct in saying that hoi ioudaioi can be used "with special focus on hostility emanating from leaders in Jerusalem," that does not mean that only the leaders were involved in such opposition to Jesus, for no doubt many common people were involved as well. And there were some Jewish leaders, such as Nicodemus (see John 3) who did not join in the opposition to Jesus. In addition, the Gospel of John and other New Testament books have other Greek expressions that they use when they want to single out the leaders, such as "the chief priests and the Pharisees" (John 7:32 NIV), "the leaders" (John 12:42 NIV), "the chief priests and their officials" (John 18:6 NIV), "your leaders" (Acts 3:17 NIV), "the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders," and "the leaders of the Jews" (Acts 28:17 NIV).

So it seems to us that changing hoi ioudaioi from "the Jews" to "Jewish leaders" introduces an incorrect change of meaning into a translation.

The older BAGD Lexicon (1979) simply translates hoi ioudaioi as "the Jews" (p. 379). The LSJ Lexicon simply translates ho ioudaios (singular form) as "a Jew," and gives no special meaning for the plural form (p. 832).)

the Jew(s) (hoi ioudaioi) changed to Jewish leaders (16)

JOHN 1:19; 5:10, 15, 16; 7:1, 11, 13; 9:22; 18:14, 36; 19:12, 31, 38; 20:19;

ACTS 13:50; 21:11

the Jew(s) (hoi ioudaioi) changed to they or omitted (9)

JOHN 2:20; 5:18; 8:52, 57; 9:18, 22; 10:33; 18:31; 19:7

G. CHANGES THAT LOSE THE NUANCE OF HOLINESS IN "SAINTS"

"saints" (Greek hagios, plural) changed to "believers" (4)

ACTS 9:32; 26:10 (2)

ROM. 15:31; 16:15 (2)

"saints" (Greek hagios, plural) changed to "people" or "God's people" (31)

ROM. 8:27; 15:25; 16:2, 15 (4)

1 COR. 6:1, 2; 14:33; 16:15 (4)

2 COR. 8:4; 9:1; 13:13 (3)

EPH. 1:15, 19; 3:18; 6:18 (4)

PHIL. 4:22 (1)

COL. 1:4, 12, 26 (3)

1 TIM. 5:10 (1)

PHILEM. 1:5, 7 (2)

JUDE 1:3 (1)

REV. 5:8; 8:3; 11:18; 13:10; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24; 19:8 (8)

"saints" (Greek hagios, plural) changed to "those" (1)

ACTS 9:13 ("those") (1)

H. Other Gender Related Changes

Other gender related changes (11)

JOHN 2:4 ("woman" to "mother", also at 19:26); 21 ("woman" dropped, also at 20:13, 15);

ACTS 12:13 ("girl" dropped); 19:24 ("craftsmen" to "workers"), 25 ("workmen" to "workers"), 38 ("craftsmen" to "associates");

1 COR. 7:29 ("wives" to "husband or wife");

2 COR. 11:13 ("workmen" to "workers")

Other examples of unnecessary removal of masculine references to God or Christ (6)

JOHN 1:33 (the one who); 6:33 (that which; margin: he who); 10:2 (the one);

HEB. 2:6 (the "son of man," apparent Messianic prophecy or theme that the author of Hebrews sees fulfilled in Christ from Ps. 8:4, changed to "human beings")

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