New NIV

I was interested to learn yesterday that there will be a new NIV revision published in 2011, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

I look forward to this new update of the NIV and hope it will be better received than the TNIV of 2005 was.

I have enjoyed reading the NIV and the TNIV, but also appreciate many other contemporary translations, including the New Jerusalem Bible, the New Living Translation, 2nd edition, the Good News Bible [Australian edition] and the ESV.

It is unfortunate that some Christians feel they have to favour one version and then shout abuse at the translators of other versions.

We are privileged to have many excellent contemporary translations, and we are the poorer if we do not make use of them.

I pray that God will guide the translators of this new version, as I believe he did when they originally produced the first version of the NIV.

Predictions:
1. When the new NIV is released, it will be even more similar to the ESV than it already is. [Although some will dispute their similarity, I have read both through completely and have discovered that they are much more alike than many folk would like to admit.]

I am guessing that the use of gender-inclusive language in both versions [which is currently an obvious difference between the NIV and ESV, and to a lesser extent, between the TNIV and ESV] will be fairly similar.

2. Those who have continued to use the NIV, despite the strident campaign by ESV promoters, will be pleased with the update and find less reason to change over to the ESV, which may be one of the NIV publisher's objectives.