First Looks: Holy Bible (NIV)
August 24th, 2011 Filed under: sample wills — Estate Planning Author
The Bible is the bestselling book in history, and the New International Version (NIV) Bible is the bestselling version year after year.This bestselling modern English Bible has sold more than 400 million copies since its first full publication in 1978. It is also the bestselling modern English Bible eBook, and now it’s completely redesigned for an intuitive user experience.The font is crisp and clear, and readability is great on both E-Ink screens and color screens. With quicker page turns and a numbered footnoting system that allows you to easily jump from Bible text to footnote and back again, this NIV eBook is faster and more robust than ever before. And with a new ‘How to Use This Bible’ page included, navigating the Bible has never been easier.Read the Bible on your device just as if you were reading a physical book. Make the NIV eBook one of your favorite reads today.NIV 2011 The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible is the world’s most popular modern English Bible — easy to understand, yet rich with the detail found in the original languages.
The Bible is the bestselling book in history, and the New International Version (NIV) Bible is the bestselling version year after year.This bestselling modern English Bible has sold more than 400 million copies since its first full publication in 1978. It is also the bestselling modern English Bible eBook, and now it’s completely redesigned for an intuitive user experience.The font is crisp and clear, and readability is great on both E-Ink screens and color screens. With quicker page turns and a numbered footnoting system that allows you to easily jump from Bible text to footnote and back again, this NIV eBook is faster and more robust than ever before. And with a new ‘How to Use This Bible’ page included, navigating the Bible has never been easier.Read the Bible on your device just as if you were reading a physical book. Make the NIV eBook one of your favorite reads today.NIV 2011 The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible is the world’s most popular modern English Bible — easy to understand, yet rich with the detail found in the original languages.
Review:
In March 2011, the copyright owners of the most popular modern translation of the Bible in English, the New International Version (NIV), published the first revision of the NIV since 1984.
As a pastor who did not like the over-reaching political correctness of the Today’s New International Version (TNIV, copyright 2002), I was concerned when I heard that the NIV itself was going to be revised. But after studying the digital early release version in numerous passages, I have been pleasantly surprised at its accuracy, but I’m growing more concerned about its controversy. The revision is more accurate than the 1984 NIV, while maintaining the readability that has made the NIV the most popular modern translation of the Bible. However, its use of gender-neutral language has become so controversial that the Southern Baptist Convention recently passed a resolution saying they “cannot commend” the 2011 NIV.
The new NIV retains 95% of the words of the 1984 edition, but where there are changes, it communicates the original meaning better to modern readers and more accurately than before.
Let me address several issues: gender-neutral language, omission of words, and accurate translation of words.
First, the most controversial issue of the TNIV (the earlier failed attempt to revise the NIV) was its gender-neutral language. Where the text often used the male plural “brothers” to refer to all Christians, the TNIV had “brothers and sisters.” But it went even farther in Hebrews 12, where scripture speaks of God disciplining us like a father. The TNIV changed “father” to “parent.” This was highly controversial, as it implied that God was a gender-neutral “parent” rather than our “heavenly Father.” I’m glad to report that the new NIV has “father,” just as the 1984 edition had. However, the new NIV, like the TNIV, does use gender-neutral “brothers and sisters” when the context clearly means all believers. Since modern English speakers use both genders, “brothers and sisters,” when addressing all believers, not just the masculine “brothers,” it makes sense that the Bible they are reading do the same. However, this may not be acceptable to all readers, particularly in passages like Psalm 1, where the masculine pronoun is often associated with a reference to manhood. In the 1984 NIV, Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked… He is like a tree planted by streams of water…” but the 2011 NIV renders it, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked…That person is like a tree planted by steams of water…”
The 2011 NIV changes “fathers” to “parents” in Malachi 4:6, although the Hebrew word is ab, fathers. Also, Ezekiel 22:30, the famous “stand in the gap” passage used by Promise Keepers to challenge men, has been changed from “man” to “someone.”
The revised NIV also continues to say “sons” in Romans 8:14 and “sonship” in Romans 8:15 in a discussion of spiritual adoption which refers to the male heir. Thus it does not use gender-neutral language in places where it would impact theology, but it does use gender-neutral language in some places that have traditionally been interpreted as references to manhood. The revised NIV also continues to maintain clear sexual distinctions between the genders in passages like Genesis 1:27, which reads, “So God created mankind in his own image…male and female he created them.”
The second translation issue is the omission of words. One of the biggest criticisms of the 1984 NIV was that sometimes words in the Greek text simply were not translated. The most notorious example was the Gospel of Mark, which makes frequent use of the Greek word euthus, “immediately.” For some reason, there were many verses in the 1984 NIV that simply ignored this word. But the 2011 NIV is careful to translate it as “immediately” or “as soon” etc. in every place where it is used. I have been doing a verse-by-verse study of Romans in the Greek, and comparing the old and new versions of the NIV, I found that where the old NIV omitted the word “or” at the beginning of Romans 3:29, the new NIV restored the word. And in Romans 4:1, the old NIV omitted the words “according to the flesh,” but the new NIV put the phrase back in.
The third translation issue is the accurate translation of words. In an attempt to be easy to read, the NIV has been less precise in translating words and phrases. It’s a difficult balance for any translation, but sometimes the NIV went too far, by paraphrasing in places that caused the reader to miss the technical point that the Biblical writer was making. For example, the 1984 NIV translates Romans 3:28, “observing the law.” But the 2011 NIV translates it, “works of the law.” The Greek phrase is literally, “works of the law.”
In Romans chapter 8, Paul uses the word “flesh” as a metaphor for the sinful nature. The 1984 NIV translates it “sinful nature,” which gets the idea across, but thereby obscures the deliberate play on words in Romans 8:3 when Paul says that when we were weakened by the flesh, God sent Jesus in the flesh. The 1984 NIV has “sinful nature” in these verses, but the 2011 NIV uses the literal word “flesh.”
In Romans 8:4, the 1984 NIV says that Jesus’ sacrifice satisfied the “righteous requirements” of the law. However, the Greek word translated “requirements” is singular. The 2011 NIV changes it to the singular “requirement.” This might seem a minor distinction, but theologically the singular implies that God covers the entirety of our sin, not just some sins.
In Romans 10:4, the 1984 NIV reads, “Christ is the end of the law…” The Greek word translated “end” is telos, which means completion. Paul does not mean the law will stop, but that it will be fulfilled. Thus the 2011 NIV reads,”Christ is the culmination of the law…”
Another example is Galatians 5:22, where the 1984 NIV lists “patience” among the fruit of the Spirit. The problem is, that there are two Greek words for patience: one word means patience with circumstances, and one word means patience with people. The word used in Galatians 5:22 means patience with people, so the 2011 NIV translates it “forbearance.”
Different readers will have different opinions about the appropriateness of gender-neutral language in the revised NIV. Some will like it, and others will not. It is unfortunate that this issue may cloud the discussion of this revision, which is otherwise more accurate than before. People who love the NIV and do not object to saying “brothers and sisters” should embrace this revision with even more confidence in its accuracy, and people who have preferred more literal translations like the NASB and ESV may want to give the revised NIV a new look.
NOTE ON THE KINDLE EDITION: Navigating to the books of the Bible may seem slow in the Kindle edition, but I have found a faster way than going back to the Table of Contents. If you click on the Menu button and then click on “Search this Book,” you can enter the title of the book, followed by the chapter number, and when you hit “find” you can go directly to the beginning of that chapter.
