On the first day of the month the latest update of the New International Version of the Bible was released. This update replaces both the 1984 edition of the NIV as well as Today’s New International Version (TNIV), which was recently pulled from the market. Shortly after our family received a copy of the latter, I posted a brief preliminary assessment on my blog. Having compared the same passages in the NIV 2011, I reproduce here, with very few modifications, what I wrote then of the TNIV, because it turns out to be just as relevant:
To begin with, the NIV 2011 reads smoothly and is easily comprehended. However, the NIV 2011 has the same major deficiency as the NIV 1984, namely, harmonizing across texts without warrant in the existing ancient manuscripts. Something I wrote seven years ago concerning the NIV 1984 applies to the NIV 2011 as well:
For example, the translators change the tense of the Hebrew verb in Genesis 12:1 to make it agree with Acts 7:2 on when Abraham received God’s call to the promised land. They similarly revocalize the Hebrew in Gen 47:31, so that the dying Jacob leans on his “staff” instead of his “bed,” to make it agree with Heb 11:21. In attempting to smooth over the rough edges of the biblical text, it sometimes takes the reader in misleading directions from a textual perspective.
Like the NRSV, the translators of the NIV 2011 have unwisely resurrected the archaic word mortals as a substitute for the generic masculine men, as, e.g., in Psalm 9:19. This is a questionable innovation at best, given that ordinary speakers of English generally do not use mortal in any context at all. However, the NIV 2011 does not make the mistake of using it in Revelation 21:3, when mortality has obviously been conquered in the redeemed earth. Moreover, there are a number of passages, e.g., Psalm 54:3, in which people is the word of choice. This makes more sense.
The NIV 2011 has avoided the anachronistic reference in the NRSV to “human rights” in Lamentations 3:35, which here reads: “to deny people their rights before the Most High”. It has also eluded the inadvertent ascription of errors to the Law of God in the NRSV’s translation of Psalm 19:12, which here reads: “But who can discern their own errors?” The insertion of own properly clarifies this. The NIV 2011 maintains the male reference in Proverbs 10:5: “He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” Here the NRSV unwisely substitutes child, with its implication of immaturity.
However, in Psalm 127 the NIV 2011 replaces the references to sons with children, which does not seem to fit the context, especially in light of verse 5: “Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.” The RSV reads as follows: “Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” The footnote to this verse in the New Oxford Annotated Bible says: “The gift of many stalwart sons makes a father feel secure.” Given the highly gendered division of labour in ancient Israel, the shift to children masks this meaning. Even the NRSV recognizes this and retains the reference to sons.
Finally, as in the NRSV, the NIV 2011′s translation of Psalm 8 alters the masculine pronoun to a generic plural, thereby making it unclear why the author of the letter to the Hebrews would cite it as a messianic reference to Jesus in Hebrews 2:5-9. For a translation that otherwise harmonizes across texts, this seems an odd thing to do. This is what I wrote of the NRSV seven years ago:
But suffice it to say that, if one of the characteristics of an ideology is to follow rigidly the inexorable logic of a single abstract principle, e.g., the abolition of the division of labour or the freedom of the market, to the exclusion of other legitimate concerns, then the NRSV has by no means avoided this in its otherwise laudable use of inclusive language. To show that they affirm the equality of men and women, the translators have not only masked the highly gendered character of the original cultures — itself problematic in the translation of an ancient text — but, more seriously, have created difficulties of their own in the English text which would not have occurred had they been less single-minded.
At this point, while I think the NIV 2011 has corrected some of the more egregious renderings in the NRSV in its use of inclusive language, it has not altogether escaped the ideological single-mindedness of which I speak above.
Two more comments are in order.
First, the translation of the Greek αδελφοί as “brothers and sisters” in both the NRSV and NIV 2011 New Testaments strikes me as correct. After all, in English the word brothers always refers to males. However, I wonder whether the word brethren might not have made for greater economy of expression. Although it is slightly archaic, it is much less so than mortals and it continues to be used and understood as a generic designation in the names of more than one protestant denomination, e.g., the Plymouth Brethren or the Brethren in Christ. (Incidentally, modern Greek employs the neuter plural τα αδέλφια for “brothers and sisters.”)
Second, like the NIV 1984, the NIV 2011 does not contain those books regarded by Catholics and Orthodox as deuterocanonical and by protestants as apocrypha. This marks the NIV as a bible for evangelicals only. The fact that the majority of the world’s Christians regard such books as Judith, Tobit and the books of the Maccabees as canonical scripture appears to have made no impression on the work of the NIV translation committee. Ironically this will keep the largest-selling version of the Bible in the English-speaking world from becoming genuinely ecumenical and that’s unfortunate.
November 4th, 2010 | 1:55 pm | #1
I have read several reviews thus far. This is one of the best, if not the best, I’ve read as of yet. Partly because you’ve been able to draw from previous, quite thoughtful reviews of the original NIV and NRSV.
Another thing that will keep Catholics from enjoying this translation is retaining the NIV1984′s selective translation of paradosis. When used negatively, it’s “tradition.” When used positively, it’s “teaching.” Convenient, but disingenuous.
November 4th, 2010 | 3:19 pm | #2
Thanks for your kind words, Gary. One of my Redeemer University College colleagues, James Payton, wrote something about the NIV’s translation of παράδοσις nearly two decades ago. I can’t recall which publication it appeared in, but you might try googling his name and see what comes up.
November 4th, 2010 | 8:33 pm | #3
Did anyone else notice how Bible Gateway stealthily introduced the 2011 version simply as the NIV? I was looking up a scripture recently, when I realized the verse seemed different that the familiar reading. At first I thought maybe I had selected the TNIV by mistake. But I saw that I hadn’t, so I was very confused. Only after scrolling down further and seeing that there was an option for the NIV 1984 version did I understand what had happened. Seems to me that the NIV folks probably told Bible Gateway to do this, so that those who despise the TNIV will become comfortable with the 2011 NIV without realizing they are reading it.
November 5th, 2010 | 12:34 am | #4
Anthony, this isn’t the Bible Gateway’s move. This is the NIV committee’s own decision. This translation is a revision of the NIV under the same name, just as the second edition of the NLT is a revision of the NLT under the same name and just as the updates to pretty much any other translation come out without fanfare as the same named translation but with revisions. The TNIV was an exception to this general practice of recent translation committees, harking back to the older practice of changing the name of a translation when you revise it.
November 6th, 2010 | 5:44 pm | #5
“This marks the NIV as a bible for evangelicals only. …[T]his will keep the largest-selling version of the Bible in the English-speaking world from becoming genuinely ecumenical and that’s unfortunate.”
Not so unfortunate. Am I going to trust the über-conservative scholars/translators (with an agenda) behind the NIV–or am I going to trust the more objective and highly-credentialed scholars/translators behind the NRSV and the REB? I’ll take the latter two any day. I like to be able to trust that the translations I read are the best possible ones available to me. I’m sure the Focus on the Family and Family Resarch Council crowd will continue to favor any version of the NIV. You are what you read.
November 7th, 2010 | 1:22 pm | #6
D.M. Perkins,
If you’ll set aside your prejudices and actually peruse the list of scholars who did the revision (see it here http://www.niv-cbt.org/translators) you will find them not “uber conservatives (with an agenda)” but solidly in the mainstream (though on the conservative side) of biblical scholarship — just as “credentialed and objective” as those who translated the NRSV…
Frankly, I don’t carry a brief for either. There are things I like about both, and things I don’t. There are occasional translational choices that seem to have the whiff of an agenda in ~both~ the NIV and the NRSV. Take for example the translation of “ruach” (usually translated breath or Spirit) as “wind” in Genesis 1 of the NRSV…
Banging on the translators as untrustworthy, because they are “conservative” and therefore must have an agenda whereas NRSV and REB translators deserve our trust because they are not “conservative” (therefore presumably “agenda-free”?) smacks of rank prejudice and special pleading. Some “agenda” examples please?
November 8th, 2010 | 6:56 pm | #7
“Am I going to trust the über-conservative scholars/translators (with an agenda) behind the NIV–or am I going to trust the more objective and highly-credentialed scholars/translators behind the NRSV and the REB?”
The notion that the translators of the NRSV and REB are “more objective” is itself a rather tendentious comment, Mr. Perkins. You might wish to read something I wrote seven years ago on bible translations: Which Bible translation?, in which the following appears:
November 12th, 2010 | 2:49 pm | #8
Why don’t they rename this translation? The current NIV is still HUGE in readership. I for one am frustrated with the publisher.
If it is not broken, don’t fix it!
Rename it, but leave the ’84 alone. It is time tested and my congregation loves it.
November 22nd, 2010 | 11:31 am | #9
I think “ideological singlemindedness” is a good phrase. It’s one thing to not insert un-necessary (and inaccurate) gender references such as the translation of “anthropos” when “person” fits properly. Unfortunately the NIV 2011 still seems slightly more PC than genuine objectivity warrants. I prefer the NET Bible (net.bible.org) for it’s work in this regard and it’s notes – just not the translation as anything but for study. Would that it were better for public reading… it would be the translation of choice then!
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