Being interested in literature only leads to one thing – reading more. The more you read, the more books you want to have on your reading bucket list. When you’re passionate about books you want to hear everyone’s opinion, get to know more books, meet and read different authors, and introduce yourself to worldwide literature. One book that is often highly recommended but also often overlooked is the Bible.
Like you know, you do not have to belong to a religion to read it. Also, you don’t have to be a Christian to read it. The Bible has been around for a while and you can not neglect the value of its message regardless of your beliefs. The one thing that can turn you away from reading the Bible is the translation. There’s plenty lost in translation when it comes to the Bible, and sometimes the translation is just plain bad. It also all depends on the area of the world where you live and your native language.
In this article, we are going to focus on the New International Version of the Bible. It offers a modern outlook and quite accessible translation. If you haven’t read it yet, this could prove to be an ideal opportunity to do so. Outlets such as Lifeway provide more than a few options when it comes to the New International Version Bible. Below we’re going to talk a little bit about this version, and within the few lines in our text, you just might find an answer to why this book and this particular iteration might be what you’re looking for.
What is The New International Version Bible?
The New International Version, often abbreviated as NIV, is the edition of the standard Bible that was updated in the 1960s in terms of translation and overall content. What makes it so unique is the number of scholars who participated in the text exploration and the entire translation process exceeds 100. The base of their entire operation was the finest available texts in original Hebrew and the initial available versions of Greek and Aramaic.
An interesting fact is that the original idea hasn’t come from church or out of the place where the Bible originated. The man behind it is Howard Long, and he is an engineer from Seattle who worked at General Electric. Initially, Long was enamored with the famous King James Version. But, when he tried to share his infatuation of this version with his friends he often found closed minds for its acceptance. This is where the idea that they’re not repulsed by content but by the language used was born. At that moment he became adamant that he would bring the truths of the Bible to his contemporaries written in a language that would resonate with them.
But, as one could have guessed, this was not an easy task. Instead, it took Howard and his likely-minded friends more than ten years to bring this idea close to people who could make a difference. Back in 1965, even the church was on the same page as Howard Long and the work on The New International Version Bible started when a group of scholars first assembled in Palos Heights, Illinois. The principal idea was not that they would adapt the existing English-written Bible, but to start from scratch from the original texts available all over the world in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. In 1966 they officially received the endorsement of many church leaders, and the work on NIV we know today started.
The Core Development of the NIV Project
While the idea was widely accepted after the ten-year Howard Long-led effort to create The New International Version Bible, a project of this magnitude always required massive funding. The much-needed financial injection came in 1968 when the work on this project was taken over by the New York Bible Society which later became better known as Biblica. The people behind the project were groups of Biblical scholars, translators, and stylists. All people involved were divided into groups as this project was done on a scale never seen before when it comes to the exploration of the Bible.
The first stage of the process was to create translations of the original texts that would fit well with the contemporary reader. When the first drafts were made they went through additional inspection by the editorial committees that were in charge of checking out their credibility and comparing them to existing translations and how well can they be comprehended by the readers without losing any of the core truths.
If you think that the work was done there then you’re wrong once again. The second-hand revision was then taken to a general committee which consisted form eight to twelve members who after giving the green light took the copies to all members of the CBT. The scale of the project and its consequences were so great that there was no margin for error whatsoever. When the final draft was created it was distributed among the clergy, different students and pastors of the religion, and many more scholars who were and weren’t introduced to the project. The ultimate goal was to provide the factuality of the content and ease of reading to everyone who touches this book. The second goal was to attract new and modern readers who wouldn’t have an issue with the written language used for this book.
The Final Product
The goals that NIV initially had were achieved. But, as with every project of a grand scale as this one, the work was not done. It never was, and it will never be. Since there are still things being discovered tied to the Bible and Biblical texts, and the fact that the English language keeps on evolving, The New International Version Bible hasn’t retained the same shape it initially had back in the 1960s.
It is interesting to know that it is revised and revisited every year according to the rules regarding the NIV that the CBT sets. This never-ending process has been done annually every year since the original version. While not every year the change has been made you can be sure that its content was revised by CBT. The latest update happened more than a decade ago in 2011. Considering the amount of time that has passed, we can expect an update any year now. So, stay tuned, as it is imminent that it will happen.