The TNIV of Romans 16

Some of you will be happy the previous post was only up a few hours... I promise I'm only moving on because I'm ADHD and have had other idle thoughts that quickly... With my personality, my emotions flash and then are gone. Once expressed, I'm thinking, "Hey, what's for supper?"

Some might remember I started a Paul novel last summer. I got to page 31 and then the flash ran out or something. A year and the novel that is my understanding of Paul has grown a little--or perhaps just changed :-)

So I posted sometime in the meantime that Colossians 1:23 (the gospel already preached to every creature under heaven) had convinced me that Colossians wasn't written from Ephesus, like I had schemed. I'm still holding out for Philemon and Philippians from Ephesus. But another year, who knows where I'll be.

And I felt particularly "convicted" as Roger McKenzie from SWU spoke at the Truth Conference about how he reacted to various blogs. I don't know whether he's ever looked at my blog or not, but perhaps my theology/Bible posts fit in the category he termed "who cares."

Well, all of that is preface. You can stop reading now.

But if you didn't stop reading, I have consistently been impressed with the translations of the TNIV. You'll remember that the TNIV is the version Dobson's group and others (e.g., World Magazine, which actually posted a response I sent them on their article) were up in arms about because it uses "brothers and sisters" where Paul only had "brothers" (see my blather elsewhere and on my archive site if you're interested in more about this).

I've been looking at Romans 16 because I currently think it was directed at Ephesus rather than Rome, and my novel starts near the end of Paul's stay in Ephesus.

(a change of mind I had last summer; this is of course a position that's been around for a long time. But I generally take a "what you see is what you get" approach to things like this so it was only after some time that I became persuaded that chapter 16 was only written at the same time as Romans, not to the same destination. The reasons are things like Priscilla and Aquila being so prominent--we know of them primarily being in Ephesus. Epaenetus is mentioned as the firstfruits of Asia, which makes a whole lot more sense if Rom. 16 is written to Asia. A Paul mentions fellow prisoners which wouldn't make much sense if they are in Rome--where would he have been imprisoned with them, if that is what this means?)

Anyway, the TNIV did a good job of translating what is to most people a boring list of names. It renders Junia as a woman (interestingly, I noticed that the RSV inserts the word "men" into the verse to make it clear they think she is a male--Ha!). But particularly impressive to me was the way the TNIV translated "my kinsmen." I think rightly, it translates the phrase as "my fellow Jew." Right on the money.

By the way, there are women in this list beyond question! Who is Mary in 16:6 or the individuals in 16:12? Women! So don't be so hard on the TNIV for rendering "brothers" in 16:17 as "brothers and sisters." It's quite clear that Paul means to include everyone in this greeting by the word "brothers"! So you really have to admit, the TNIV isn't so evil really. It's very clear here that Paul really did mean "brothers and sisters" even though he just said "brothers."

It is vastly better than the NIV; it's less dynamic than the NLT; and it reads really nice!