Description

The NIV was a completely new translation,butit was strongly influenced by the tradition of the KingJamesVersion The full Bible was published in 1978. It was revisedin1984 and again in 2011. A blend of form-based andmeaning-basedtranslation types, the NIV is one of the most popularEnglishBibles in use today. It is equally useful for individualstudy andpublic worship, especially among more traditional andconservativedenominations.

The initial vision for the project was provided by asingleindividual – an engineer working with General Electric inSeattleby the name of Howard Long. Long was a lifelong devotee ofthe KingJames Version, but when he shared it with his friends hewasdistressed to find that it just didn’t connect. Long saw theneedfor a translation that captured the truths he loved in thelanguagethat his contemporaries spoke.

A self-governing body of fifteen biblical scholars, theCommitteeon Bible Translation (CBT) was formed and chargedwithresponsibility for the version, and in 1968 the New YorkBibleSociety (which subsequently became the International BibleSocietyand then Biblica) generously undertook the financialsponsorship ofthe project. The translation of each book wasassigned totranslation teams, each made up of two lead translators,twotranslation consultants, and a stylistic consultantwherenecessary. The initial translations produced by these teamswerecarefully scrutinized and revised by intermediateeditorialcommittees of five biblical scholars to check them againstthesource texts and assess them for comprehensibility. Eacheditedtext was then submitted to a general committee of eight totwelvemembers before being distributed to selected outside criticsand toall members of the CBT in preparation for a final review.Samplesof the translation were tested for clarity and ease ofreading withpastors, students, scholars, and lay people across thefull breadthof the intended audience. Perhaps no other translationhasundergone a more thorough process of review and revision. Fromthevery start, the NIV sought to bring modern Bible readers ascloseas possible to the experience of the very first Biblereaders:providing the best possible blend of transparency to theoriginaldocuments and comprehension of the original meaning inevery verse.With this clarity of focus, however, came therealization that thework of translating the NIV would never betruly complete. As newdiscoveries were made about the biblicalworld and its languages,and as the norms of English usage developedand changed over time,the NIV would also need to change to holdtrue to its originalvision.