The TNIV and the church at the house of Numfan

There is a verse in the Pauline Epistles that has been the focus of gender-sensitive language for at least sixteen centuries: Colossians 4:15. I will quote it here in a variety of English versions, to give the idea of how it has been translated over the last couple of centuries:

The first part engenders no great controversy, but reads to the effect of:

"Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea . . ."

The latter part, however, has been translated as:

and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. KJV
and Nymphas, and the church that is in his house. Rheims
and Nymphas, and the assembly which is in his house. Darby

then:

and Nymphas, and the church that is in their house. ERV, ASV
especially to Nymphas, and to the Church that meets at their house. Weymouth

and finally:

and also Nympha and the church that is in her house. NASB
and to Nympha and the church in her house. NIV
and to Nympha and the church in her house. ESV

The reason for the differences are twofold:
1) Various manuscripts read 'his', 'her', or 'their' in relation to the house.
2) The householder is referred to in the accusative case as Numfan, which could refer either to a man named Nymphas or to a woman named Nympha.

The TNIV followed the latest critical Greek text, which identifies Numfan as a woman named Nympha. But not content with the change from 'his' to 'her', the Committee made the TNIV read:

Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Now, I don't so much as suspect that Paul, in saying 'brethren,' meant to exclude any women; he typically greets women along with men at the end of his epistles. But note, according to the TNIV, the four different classes to whom Paul is extending greetings:

Male believers at Laodicea
Female believers at Laodicea
A Female householder by the name of Nympha
Believers (presumably both males and females) who congregate at Nympha's house

The TNIV thus makes explicit the location of Nympha's house as being outside the city limits of Laodicea. And actually, given the text upon which the TNIV is based, this is to be expected in a dynamic translation.

So, for the record, I don't particularly dispute the TNIV's rendering of this verse. Given that in their text a female owns the edifice in which a church meets, it's entirely fitting to bring out the fact that females are among those who meet there. And it's certainly a big improvement over the Revised Version, which inevitably implies that Nymphas was a member of the only believing household in all of Laodicea.

But the Committee's policy of gender inclusion gets rather comical when we get over to 1 Corinthians 14, where they change 'brethren' to 'brothers and sisters' a total of four times:

6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction?
20 Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.

There's one more, but I'll save it for later. You see, in the TNIV Paul has set himself up to allow women to sing, preach, prophesy, and speak in tongues right along with the men. But imagine the shock of today's young person to find, right before the end of the chapter, this discordant note:

34 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Oops! Does this not flatly contradict the TNIV's reading of verse 26? Now, the TNIV has a note here that these verses are found at the end of the chapter in some manuscripts (actually, ALL manuscripts of the Western text, and virtually no others). But how does this help? Re-naming them vv. 41 and 42, the end of the chapter now reads:

39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. 41 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 42 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

So, it's OK for women to sing, preach, prophesy, and speak in tongues right along with the men, as long as they do so silently--in order to keep things orderly, as it would be a disgrace for them to actually be heard!

There actually is an ancient precedent for such a policy, in The Silent Cry of Susanna.

Update 12/16/2011
The textual variety of this passage is interesting. Here are some of the variants, according to my reading of LaParola:

TEXT: "Nymphas and the church in his house."
Νυμφᾶν καὶ τὴν κατ' οἶκον αὐτοῦ] D (F G τὴν οἱ κατ') K L Ψ 150 181 365 424* Byz Lect syr^p syr^h(mg) goth Chrysostom Theodoret John-Damascus ς

TEXT: "Nymphas and the church in her house."

Νυμφᾶν καὶ τὴν κατ' οἶκον αὐτῆς] 88 104 326 459 1175 1739* 1912 2464 l⁴²² 

TEXT: "Nympha and the church in his house."
Νύμφαν καὶ τὴν κατ' οἶκον αὐτοῦ] F G 330^c 1241  (330* 451 Νύμφας)

TEXT: "Nympha and the church in her house."
Νύμφαν καὶ τὴν κατ' οἶκον αὐτῆς] B 6 424^c 1739^c 1877 1881 syr^h syr^pal(ms) cop^sa Origen WH

TEXT: "Nympha/s and the church in their house."
Νυμφαν καὶ τὴν κατ' οἶκον αὐτῶν] ‭א A C P 33 1962 2492 syr^pal(ms) cop^bo slav Theodore^lat