Review of 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture
A documentary about LGBTQ in the church and modern Bible version issues.
The documentary is one that supports homosexuals in ministry and shoots down many modern translations for the price of an Amazon documentary https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0D6F6XVQN/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
In 1946 the word “homosexual” was used in 1 Corinthians 6:9 in the Revised Standard Version. The film explains that this is an error that directly influenced The Living Bible (TLB), the NIV, and the NASB. They also talk further on how TLB was well marketed, popular, and a “dumbed down” version. According to the documentary Billy Graham picked it up, even though TLB was really a paraphrase, and made it even more popular.
The film appears to be produced by those who are favorable to the LGBTQ community. They refer to verses used against the LGBTQ as “clobber passages.” There is obviously an arsenal of reasoning’s and re-translations to make the Bible more LGBTQ friendly presented by or alluded to in the documentary. In fact there is an indication that there is a whole body of LGBTQ church friendly literature. It has modern ideas of power and systemic bias worked into the narrative. One person in the documentary says, “I’m actually saving people from oppression from the church.” Thus, you can use verses and refer to Sodom but those who have watched this film will have a filter in place to transform the passages so that what they are understanding may be different from what you think they have said.
The effect of the controversy over translation choices has alerted people to translation differences. For example you can see a person in this reddit suggesting “Examine 1 Corinthians 6:9 in any Bible you find. If it uses the word "homosexual" it's probably not a great translation.” (see photo near the start) https://www.reddit.com/r/Episcopalian/comments/1gehh9v/how_do_you_choose_a_bible_to_purchase/
The documentary is interesting and imo worth watching. Be aware it is pro-LGBTQ but does well to show there are translation issues with modern versions. It got a little tiring near the middle/end but was reasonably entertaining, for a documentary. Thank you for reading.