Random Verses from the NIV

The Bayly Blog has been doing a series of posts on the latest version of the NIV (NIV 2010), but at Bible study last night, I noticed some horrible translation choices in the current NIV when one of the men there read from it for us. See below:

Acts 4:9 (NKJV)
If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well,

Acts 4:9 (NIV)
If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed,

Numbers 11:16 (NKJV)
So the LORD said to Moses: "Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you."

Number 11:16 (NIV)
The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you."

Note that the gender of both the helpless/crippled man in Acts 4, and the gender of the seventy elders of Israel in Numbers 11 is selectively omitted in the NIV. Note also that in Acts 4:9, both in the critical text and in the Textus Receptus the Greek word "anthropos" meaning "man" is present. This is not a textual variant issue; this is a conscientious translation choice to omit the word "man" in Acts 4:9. The same is true for Numbers 11:16 where the Hebrew word "eesh" meaning "man" is present in the text. Again, a conscientious translation choice to omit the word "man" from the text. Please, if you use the NIV as your every day Bible, get yourself a better translation.