The release of the updated NIV is a topic near and dear to my heart because my wife works for the Bible department of Zondervan, its publisher (Disclosure alert!). It is available today as a digital ebook download from Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others.
I love this fresh version of the NIV for 2 big reasons:
1) it is the only translation to use modern linguistic research and Greek/Hebrew lexical analysis in order to provide the most accurate translation that’s also the most readable in the English language. They actually commissioned the first-of-its-kind statistical linguistic analysis of the way English is spoken and written. As the CBT (committee on bible translation) says:
Prior to the update of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) for 2011, all previous Bible translation efforts have been hampered by the lack of accurate, statistically significant data on the state of spoken and written English at a given time in its history…As part of the review of gender language promised at the announcement of the latest update to the NIV on September 1, 2009, the Committee on Bible Translation sought to remove some of this subjectivity by enlisting the help of experts. The committee initiated a relationship with Collins Dictionaries to use the Collins Bank of English, one of the world’s foremost English language research tools, to conduct a major new study of changes in gender language. The Bank of English is a database of more than 4.4 billion words drawn from text publications and spoken-word recordings from all over the world.
This research combined with the careful attention to the original language of the Text in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek has enabled the translators to translate the original manuscripts in a way that incarnates the original intent of the text in the 21st century English language.
2) unlike other translations, it is translated by a committee that has no ties to the copyright holder (Biblica) or publisher (Zondervan), ensuring an agenda-free translation. This is a big one for me. The CBT is an entirely independent translation committee that chooses its members outside any direction from Biblica or Zondervan. Neither Zondervan nor Biblica make translation decisions nor control the outcome of the translation. Changes in translations require a supermajority vote—something like 70% or more—from the translation committee members, a committee that is diverse in gender, denominational affiliation, ethnicity, and nationality. This gives me great confidence that it is as agenda-free as possible.
Another up-and-comer translation that is trying to compete with the NIV cannot say the same thing. You may have heard of it. It’s called the ESV. The ESV translation committee members are chosen by the publisher, Crossway. They also own the copyright. The President of Crossway sits on the committee and acts as the Publishing Chair. I’ll not go into the issues I have with this, not to mention the translation itself. I mention it to provide stark contrast to the differences between two dominate translations. For my money, translation independence is highly important, and the NIV provides that independence.
If you’ve been waiting for a translation that is the optimum combination of accuracy and readability, the wait is over. The new NIV is here. You can purchase eBook copies now or read the complete text online at BibleGateway.com.
"Another up-and-comer translation that is trying to compete with the NIV cannot say the same thing. You may have heard of it. It’s called the ESV"
Trying to compete? With the release of the NIV 2011, there is going to be little contest. The ESV will be adopted en masse when churches realize that the NIV 2011 is, by and large, a repackaged TNIV. For those of us interested in the apocrypha, Oxford has produced a decent hardcover edition of the ESV with the 2009 Oxford Apocrypha.
Maybe in 2017 we will see a worthy successor to the NIV of 1984.
The NIV 2011 is a fine translation. Like all translations, it has its flaws, but there is much to like about the NIV 2011. In some places, it does seem better than NIV 1984. In others, it is much more a repackaged TNIV, as another commentator has already noted.
However, Jeremy, your two claims of the exclusive nature of the NIV 2011 are inaccurate. I think you misunderstand the nature of the ESV translation committee and Crossway, to say nothing of other translations like the REB, NET Bible, NASB, NJB, NLT and many others. What you said about the NIV 2011's translation *is* true; it's just that neither claim is *unique* to this translation. Consequently, your post sounds like a press release for Zondervan/ Biblica, which has a history of being the *most* market-driven Bible publisher in the last 40 years.