Sticking with the NIV?


My NIV has been a joy to me.  Despite occasional frustrations with word-renderings (like when “walk” in Ephesians is repeatedly translated “live”), I’ve found it a reasonably accurate and highly readable translation.  It’s served me well in reading and preaching; I often memorize from it; and I even use it for study when supplemented with more literal versions like the ESV and my Greek and Hebrew helps.

It’s the best-selling and most popular version of the Bible in the world, and I especially like how it smoothes out verses that have often proved awkward for translators, like John 1:16 and Ephesians 2:10.

Now it’s going to be revised, and this seems to be the week’s major religious story in the press.  The revision will roll out in 2011, and that may mark the end of my NIV days.  After the TNIV fiasco, I don’t have a lot of confidence in the outcome of the upcoming revisions. 

If I do lay aside my NIV as a “Preaching Bible” in 2011, I’ll probably switch to the HCSB Version (although I can never remember the sequence of those four letters—why didn’t they just use three?), or the more literal ESV.  My ESV Study Bible, edited by Wayne Grudem, is the finest Study Bible I’ve ever owned.

Well, we’ll stay tuned.  Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised with the new NIV.  But if not, we’ve got some other excellent options to consider.