Grudem's TNIV presentation on Focus on the Family

A few days ago I blogged that Wayne Grudem would be a guest on the Focus on the Family radio program. Dr. Grudem strongly opposes some of the translation wordings within the TNIV. If you would like to hear today's FOTF program, click on the title of this post and then click on the provided link to whichever audio software, Windows Media Player or Real Player, you would like to use to hear the broadcast.

If you have MP3 capture/player software such as iPodder, you can download the broadcast in MP3 format, save it, and listen to it at another time.

Dr. Dobson, the host of the FOTF radio program, did not invite any guest on his program to counter any of Dr. Grudem's claims about the TNIV.

Tomorrow will be the second installment of Dr. Grudem's appearance on the FOTF radio program. You will be able to hear the second installment from the same URL linked to the title of this post, and will also be able to download the broadcast in MP3 format.

Oh, BTW, as I listened to Dr. Grudem, I heard him utter a sentence using a third person plural verb to agree with a preceding indefinite pronoun subject of the sentence. I didn't catch the entire sentence but you can, if you listen. I did transcribe this much of what he said:

"anybody in the world who have ..."

So his own speech contradicts his claims of the impropriety of having plural agreement with indefinite pronouns, something he repeatedly criticizes the TNIV translators for doing in Rev. 3:20:

... If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them and they with me.

Dr. Grudem, like many, perhaps a majority, of English speakers today, has within his own language usage at least some plural agreement with indefinite pronouns. This is parallel to the long historical usage of singular they (grammatically plural, but semantically singular) as one of the generic pronouns of the English language. And Dr. Dobson himself has used the singular they in the prose of one of his books on rearing children:

"Shaking a baby can cause brain damage that will affect them the rest of their lives."

So, it seems to me that some of the opposition to the TNIV's reflection of current (as well as longtime historical) natural usage of singular they or plurals agreeing with indefinite pronouns is not supported by the actual language usage of those who criticize the TNIV for the very speech forms which they, the critics, also use.

Categories: TNIV, Wayne Grudem, gender-inclusive, gender-accurate