09/05/2026
ASK THE PREACHER
Submit questions in the fishbowl on the Members Table.
Why does the newer revision of the New International Version use gender-neutral language (“they/them” instead of “he/him”), when the earlier revision did not? (submitted September 4)
The New International Version (NIV) was first completed in 1978, then was revised in 1984, again in 2005 (as the Today’s NIV), and most recently in 2011 (returning to the original name, NIV). Revisions of major Bible translations are common for at least three reasons: to improve translation accuracy, to incorporate new insights gleaned from archaeology and the study of ancient writings, and to adapt the translation to changes in the target language (for the NIV, English).
The 2011 NIV, unlike the popular 1984 revision, does indeed substitute the gender-neutral pronouns they/their/them for the masculine pronouns he/his/him in certain situations, particularly when the masculine actually refers to both men and women equally. Here is what the translators say about this change in the preface to the 2011 revision:
[T]he meaning of words is determined by the way that users of the language actually use them at any given time… [T]he [translation] Committee carefully studies the state of modern English. Good translation is like good communication: one must know the target audience so that the appropriate choices can be made about which English words to use to represent the original words of Scripture…
An area of especially rapid and significant change in English is the way certain nouns and pronouns are used to refer to human beings. The Committee therefore requested experts in computational linguistics at Collins Dictionaries to pose some key questions about this usage to its database of English—the largest in the world, with over 4.4 billion words, gathered from several English-speaking countries and including both spoken and written English… The study revealed that the most popular words to describe the human race in modern U.S. English were “humanity,” “man” and “mankind.” The Committee then used this data in the updated NIV, choosing from among these three words (and occasionally others also) depending on the context.
A related issue creates a larger problem for modern translations: the move away from using the third-person masculine singular pronouns—“he/him/his”—to refer to men and women equally. This usage does persist in some forms of English, and this revision therefore occasionally uses these pronouns in a generic sense. But the tendency, recognized in day-to-day usage and confirmed by the Collins study, is away from the generic use of “he,” “him” and “his.” In recognition of this shift in language and in an effort to translate into the natural English that people are actually using, this revision of the NIV generally uses other constructions when the biblical text is plainly addressed to men and women equally. The reader will encounter especially frequently a “they,” “their” or “them” to express a generic singular idea. Thus, for instance, Mark 8:36 reads: “What good is it for someone [rather than “a man”] to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their [rather than “his”] soul?” This generic use of the “distributive” or “singular” “they/them/their” has been used for many centuries by respected writers of English and has now become established as standard English, spoken and written, all over the world.
To summarize, the NIV translators have chosen to reflect what is now common English usage of they/their/them for gender-neutral, grammatically singular references to people, both men and women, in general. They do this for clarity, so that we as readers may understand when the text in its original languages is referring specifically to men or to women or generically to both together.
We’re caught up and ready for more questions! Drop them in the fishbowl on the Members Table or send them to Kevin Jensen.
