***Update: Dr. Karen H. Jobes explains I’ve jumped to some wrong conclusions. My apologies. The new NIV is apparently not identical to the TNIV, although they share some updates in common. It would appear that this is a classic case of do your homework before raising a stink so you don’t look like a fool (Prov. 17:27 [NIV 1984] [NIV 2010]). Side note: If you click the two links you might notice a slight difference between the two illustrating some of the updates (“man” vs. “one” and “having” vs. “of”). Ironically, my very rusty Hebrew actually prefers the ESV here, but the moral of the story though is that if I’d practiced that verse (which I memorized a while back) a little better, I might not be writing this update.
I’ve been a big fan of BibleGateway.com ever since I discovered it. Not only is it an easy way to access scripture in multiple different translations, but the topical linking and searching it offers are helpful in exploring topics. It defaults to the NIV, which saves me an extra step when searching, since the NIV is my preferred translation.
Today I typed in Philippians 4:8 so I could quickly take a look at the context of the verse, and I noticed that the NIV (which I memorized) didn’t exactly match what was showing up on the screen. However, the website still claimed it was the “NIV” translation. Then I noticed a link on the right side to “An Introduction to the updated NIV.” Turns out, what was once labeled as the TNIV has dropped the “T” on BibleGateway and is now considered just the NIV. This may be due to the publisher’s original intentions of “discontinuing” the 1984 NIV in 2011.
If you ask me, this is wrong. I don’t think the TNIV is “evil” with its gender-neutral language and other updates they’ve made. I understand that many changes have brought greater faithfulness to the originals or clarified readings for more current speech. That aside, my beef is that they’re re-labeling Scripture translations: “NIV” has become “NIV (1984 Version)” and “TNIV” is now “NIV”. The NIV Bibles found in thousands of pews across this country are no longer going to be the same as new (T)NIV Bibles. Rather than saying to our congregations that a group of scholars has taken updated scholarship and written the most precise translation to date, we’re labeling two different translations the same: how does that help affirm Scriptural inerrancy? “My NIV is different from your NASB” is a question that can be answered credibly. “My NIV is different from your NIV” is a bit more sticky.
If the TNIV is better, serve that up as default–I have no problem with that. Just label it TNIV, or even tNIV if you want to understate the T a little. How can we roll out large-scale updates to the NIV–changes large enough that for 8 years we called it the TNIV–and call it still the same translation?
PS. If we’re so concerned about accuracy, can we finally get rid of John 7:53-8:11, or at least move it to a footnote? Our most reliable, earliest manuscripts don’t include this passage. If scholars know it doesn’t belong, it shouldn’t be in there. There was enough furor over the TNIV to begin with, why not actually do things right?
