Scholar says new translation of Bible lacks ‘liberation’ theme
The Layman Online, November 11, 1999
CLEVELAND – The National Council of Churches in Christ issued a press release this week quoting a theologian who said the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible overemphasizes patriarchy and fails to reflect ethic/minority perspectives and liberation themes.
“The difficulty of the NRSV is that all the translators were white,” said Dr. Randall Bailey of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, a member of the executive board of the National Council of Churches.
Bailey said the failure of the translation committee to include people of color meant that biblical emphases on liberation and empowerment of the oppressed were omitted in the translation process.
He also said that concepts such as patriarchy are still prevalent in the New Revised Standard Version and understandings of Jesus as liberator are underplayed.
Previous criticism of the New Revised Standard Version, which was a project of the National Council of Churches, had focused on its frequent use of gender-neutral translation.
“Those who have been silenced must be given voice and the fact that Jesus was a liberator must be understood, even if we lose sight of it now and then,” he said.
Another theologian, Dr. Bruce Metzer, a Greek scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary, commended the new translation, which was first published in 1990.
“We now have a translation that can be used by Protestants, Roman Catholics and our Orthodox brothers and sisters,” Metzger told worshipers at the opening of the 50th anniversary of the National Council of Churches.
“We believe we have fulfilled the mandates with which we were charged,” Metzger added, “to improve accuracy, clarity and euphony – how the text sounds when spoken aloud – and to make the language more inclusive in its references to gender.”
Metzger, noting that the committee that produced the NRSV is called Bible Translation and Utilization, said the new translation helps churches and Christians “be carried through difficult times by Scripture.” Utilization, he continued, means “applying yourself to the text and applying the text to yourself.”
Bailey said some of the royalties from the NRSV are being used to fund consultations on how patriarchy is still overemphasized in the new translation and on how the ideological beliefs of translators slant their translations.
He said some of the royalty money is also being used to fund theological education scholarships for people of color so there will be adequate racial/ethnic biblical translators to work on future translations of the Bible.