ZONDERVAN'S RESPONSE TO THE WORLD ARTICLE

Tom Mockabee, Vice-President of Zondervan, wrote the following letter on March 27, 1997, to Joel Belz, the Publisher of World Magazine, in response to their article about the Inclusive Language Edition of the NIV.

Dear Joel:

We are writing in response to the March 29, 1997 World cover story "The Stealth Bible," alternately titled "The Feminist Seduction of the Evangelical Church: Femme fatale" by Assistant Editor Susan Olasky.

We are sharply disappointed that, although Zondervan Publishing House is mentioned frequently throughout the article, we were not approached for comment or even factual confirmation as the story was being written. This is simply the most rudimentary of all professional journalism principles and it was not practiced in our case. This, alone, causes us to question the credibility of the entire article.

Beyond that, the tone of the piece is one of a predetermined agenda, rather than a fact-based report which would have lead to natural conclusions. It attempts to convey a conspiracy of evangelical Bible translation with radical social feminism. As far as Zondervan is concerned as the publisher of the NIV, and International Bible Society as the copyright owner of the NIV, nothing could be further from the truth. For 188 years IBS, and for 66 years Zondervan, have faithfully communicated the richness of God's revelation. Our proven commitment and time-tested dedication should be considered in any discussion on the matter. Casting wild aspersions on the NIV and its scrupulous, scholarly, and accurate translation process is misleading and downright dishonest.

The NIV is based on the most reliable Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. A translation team of more than 100 evangelical Bible scholars from many different denominations, using four levels of committee review, worked for 13 years before the complete Bible was released in 1978. These scholars came from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

Operating from the conviction that the Bible is the inspired and wholly reliable Word of God, the translators wanted to faithfully reproduce what the original Scripture writers wrote, in language that people could read and understand without difficulty. They were - and are - committed to the authority and infallibility of the Bible. The NIV has become the bestselling translation of the Bible, with more than 100 million copies in print.

Maximum care has been taken throughout the NIV translation process to produce a thorough, precise, accurate, reliable, and reverent translation.

God's blessing on this translation has exceeded our expectations and dreams. From the very beginning International Bible Society (IBS), The Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), and Zondervan Publishing House have used accuracy, beauty, and clarity as our standard in presenting the Holy Bible in the New International Version. Biblical accuracy always takes priority and we are unwavering in our standards.

Since 1978, the NIV has been revised twice, reflecting new archeological findings and current biblical scholarship. Those revisions never have, and future ones never will, reflect any social or political protocol. All revisions, past and future, are done for the sole purpose of increasing the accuracy of the English rendering of what the original text says.

Terms such as "inclusive language," "unisex language," and "gender-neutral" can be seen as negative and politically-charged. We object to being put in these camps in the World article; we intend in no way to advance a particular social agenda or stray from the original biblical texts. We have never identified with these phrases nor will we ever.

Joel, this article has wronged Zondervan and damaged its reputation as a trusted evangelical publisher committed to communicating God's revelation as accurately and reliably as possible. We trust that your commitment to fairness, truth, and journalistic integrity will convince you to publish what is right. We expect to see either this letter in print or to have the opportunity to write a follow-up article. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Zondervan Publishing House