This is why men don't go to church anymore

 

Men don't go to church anymore because the church is out to cancel them. That's part of it, anyway. Why go where you're not wanted or respected?

The Acts of the Apostles in The New International Version of the Bible is a good example of this.

The NIV, perhaps the best selling Bible in America, especially among Evangelicals, wants its translation to reflect gender equality, so, for example, whenever brothers appears it often adds "sisters" even though "sisters" is not even there. The NIV's gender equality ideology actually trumps the text by adding "sisters" in 124 places where the Greek New Testament doesn't have it. It also adds the singular "sister" about 26 times. I guess the feeling on the part of the women is that the sisters have been canceled long enough, but the fact is they were never there to be canceled in the first place.  

We meet up with this even more acutely, however, in Acts, which is famous for its many orations by individuals which begin "Men, brothers" or "Men and brothers" (ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί), but "men" in these cases are actively canceled by the NIV.

An NIV footnote to the first of these at Acts 1:16 informs us that 

The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 6:3; 11:29; 12:17; 16:40; 18:18, 27; 21:7, 17; 28:14, 15.

Yes, Inigo, they keep using that word but it does not mean what they think it means. If the text had meant to add "sisters" (ἀδελφαὶ) it would have. Unfortunately for the NIV, "sisters" appears just nine times (or eight) in the Greek New Testament, and this ain't one of 'em. It goes without saying that "sisters" is missing also in 6:3; 11:29; kai ta loipa (the funniest of these being Acts 6:3 where the NIV with a straight face wants us to imagine that The Twelve tell the brothers and sisters to choose seven "men").

The tell though is that the NIV manages to never translate ἄνδρες in these instances in Acts, except where it absolutely had no other choice in Acts 7:26. Otherwise the "men-ness" of the brothers is simply ignored, because it is counter evidence to the NIV's assertion that adelphoi means "brothers and sisters".

Here are all the instances of canceling ἄνδρες before ἀδελφοί in the NIV of Acts: 

The NIV has "brothers and sisters" at Acts 1:16;

"fellow Israelites" (not there at all!) at Acts 2:29;

"brothers" at Acts 2:37;

"brothers and fathers" (fathers is there) at Acts 7:2, even though it had to translate "Men you are brothers" at Acts 7:26 (the NIV shows by this that it knows it is up to no good); 

"brothers" at Acts 13:15;

"fellow children" at Acts 13:26 (ROFLMAO);

"my friends" at Acts 13:38 (even more ROFLMAO);

"brothers" at Acts 15:7, 13;

"brothers and fathers" at Acts 22:1;

and "my brothers" (!) at Acts 23:1, 6; and Acts 28:17, ending on a chummy note that isn't there either.

This is a completely disgraceful business, an indefensible slaughterhouse of "men" and the maleness of ἀδελφοί.

No wonder men don't go anymore.

The King James Version (observe "Men, brethren" as opposed to "Men and brethren" at Acts 7:2, 26 and Acts 22:1), and Young's Literal Translation both are among the translations which retain the forms of address which preserve the maleness and the dignity of the brothers as men.

The RSV was the Bible of my youth, and the KJV has been the Bible of my old age. But the NIV will never even be a Bible to me. It is literally an abomination. 

 

KJV

 

YLT

O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

George C. Scott as Shylock, Bob Lerner, 1962

  Mark you this, Bassanio,

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose!
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3 

When are Evangelicals going to get upset about their Orwellian woke NIV?

 

 

Maybe not until this generation passes away.

 

Evangelicals think they embrace gender equality in obedience to their god. I say they do it in obedience to the spirit of the age. They most certainly do not do it in obedience to the meaning of words, and have assembled scholars for themselves who will defend this absurdity to their last breath. They are in thrall to an ideology. 

 

For example, ἀδελφή and ἀδελφαὶ, the Greek words for "sister" and "sisters", occur about 26-times in the Greek New Testament.

 

But Evangelicals' favorite Bible, The New International Version, has "sister" about 42-times in the New Testament, and "sisters" a whopping 133-times in the New Testament, supplied completely out of thin air alongside "brothers" in order to be gender-inclusive, even for example alongside ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί ("men, brothers") in Acts 1:16, where the footnote says "The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family".

 

 ROFLMAO.

 

Compare the much-maligned "liberal" translation of yesteryear, the old RSV. It has "sister(s)" 24-times in the New Testament. It follows the manuscript evidence, unlike the woke NIV.

 

"The NIV relies on recently published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts", Wikipedia assures us, except for the 149 instances of sister and sisters in the New Testament for which there isn't a shred of evidence, and who knows what else. 

 

If you ever wondered how variant readings popped up in the Bible in the first place, the human capacity for dishonesty, pride, and self-deception on display here explains it pretty well.

 

The NIV translation project began in earnest in 1967, with origins in the liberal Christian Reformed Church headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI. Psychoanalyst Robert Stoller of UCLA was the first to formalize the split between biological sex and gender identity in 1968.

Not so family friendly Christianity leaves the old man and the family business behind in the boat

Woodcut from the UK Wellcome Trust

And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zeb'edee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them; and they left their father Zeb'edee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him.

-- Mark 1:19f. 

And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zeb'edee and John his brother, in the boat with Zeb'edee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

-- Matthew 4:21f. 

J.D. John Kerry Vance hated on the end times before they ended up fascinating him his entire life

 He was against them before he was for them.

 

Your enemies were the members of your own household, and the world was going to end in like a week

 

I got your Antichrist right here, J. D.

Vance suspects Antichrist 'among us'... 

... like I'd be not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us ... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.

-- Luke 6:35