The Lord (no longer) our righteousness


(Cmon, WELS, even Bing knows the Lord our Righteousness is Christ!)

NIV11 is the translation of choice in the WELS.

The NIV11's rendering of Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16 belies an underlying concern in how the NIV11 weakens or removes OT messianic prophecy. Both passages call our Lord "The LORD Our Righteous Savior" in the NIV11, not "Our Righteousness". Jeremiah 23 is the OT reading for Christ the King Sunday in Year C, and Pentecost 9 in Year B for the 3-year lectionary. Jeremiah 33 is the OT reading for Advent 1 in the one-year lectionary. 

The NIV84 study Bible notes Jeremiah 23:6 as "One of the most important Messianic passages in Jeremiah; echoed in 33:15-16." The EHV study Bible notes "Jesus the Messiah is properly called the LORD Our Righteousness because our righteousness before God’s judgment is Jesus’ righteousness which is credited to us through faith (Romans 3:23–28 and Philippians 3:8–9). "

For Jeremiah 33:16, the EHV notes "The Righteous Branch (the Messiah, the Son of David) has already appeared in 23:5–6. The difference between that passage and this one is that in 23:5–6 it is the Messiah himself who receives the name the LORD our Righteousness, because he provides our righteousness (Romans 3:23–28 and Philippians 3:8–9)."

Compare with the rendering in the other major bibles:
The LORD Our Righteousness. [NIV84, EHV, KJV, NKJV]
The LORD is our righteousness. [ESV]

The NIV11 says something fundamentally different and removes the messianic title on which Scripture, our confessions, and our doctrine of Justification rely:
1 COR 1:30-31: And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” [ESV] also PHP 3:8-9, GE 15:6, GAL 3:6)

Our confessions state "Christ alone is our Righteousness, who is true God and man, because in Him the divine and human natures are personally united with each other" citing Jeremiah 23:6 [FC Ep III:1]

WELS dogmatician Adolf Hoenecke (Vol III, Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics, 326) uses both Jer 33:15-16 and Jer 23:5-6 to support his thesis "The essence of justification consists in the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ"

Justification being the doctrine on which the church stands or falls [SA II:I:5], translations like this should be highly concerning.

Of course, I'm treading old ground. When the NIV11 decision was being made, I belonged to a faithful church that opted to raid thrift stores and ebay to stock up on NIV84's. See the earlier discussion at Intrepid Lutherans: The LORD (no longer) Our Righteousness in NIV 2011

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