50 years ago this August, the NIV translation was commissioned and the Committee on Bible Translation was born. After years of labor from a broad group of Evangelical scholars, the New Testament would be published in 1973 followed by the entire NIV Bible in 1978.
By all accounts, the NIV was an incredible success. It filled a need and provided a faithfully translated, widely available, and clearly understandable Bible in modern English. It was a major milestone in the history of Evangelicalism and most of us would agree that its impact was positive on the wider church. Even its critics, for the most part, respect the NIV in its mission and goal. Who doesn’t want to bring God’s Word to people in an understandable translation?
Over the summer, Zondervan will be releasing new resources marking the upcoming 50th Anniversary of what is really the birth of the NIV. Today I wanted to share a couple interesting articles and a video.
The following two articles showcase what a sacrifice was involved in bringing the NIV to completion. From unsuccessful pledge drives to an eleventh hour pitch to Zondervan for advance funding, to the sacrifice of scholars risking their future advancement by devoting time to this project, the project was tenuous. But who could have imagined the ultimate result: with the NIV becoming the most widely used English version?
The more I have studied the translation philosophy of the NIV, the more I have come to respect it. I hope to offer a review and analysis of Douglas Moo’s brief work (offered as a free ebook) on the state of Bible translation 50 years after the NIV, soon.
I leave you with two videos giving a brief overview of the continuing mission of the CBT and the NIV. Learn more about the NIV’s 50th anniversary at www.thenivbible.com/50th-anniversary.
Dr. William Combs, of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, recently posted a series of short blog posts on the origins of the KJV-Only movement (the belief that the King James Version of the Bible is the only acceptable English Bible). I have greatly appreciated Combs’ other articles on the KJV questio, and found this series beneficial as well.
Here are links to his posts if you’re interested, as well as to his longer articles on the subject:
I should also mention, that I do try to maintain a group blog and resource site on the issue myself. KJVOnlyDebate.com includes links to resources on this issue, and several blog posts (although lately, I haven’t found as much time to keep it continually updated).
Lately, I’ve been reading a fascinating work on the King James Bible produced by Baylor University Press. The King James Bible and the World It Made edited by David Lyle Jeffrey includes contributions from Mark Noll, Alister McGrath, Lamin Sanneh, David Bebbington, Robert Altar, Philip Jenkins, Laura Knoppers and others. The book is a collection of essays reflecting on the legacy of the King James Bible. But these essays are a cut above the typical book touting the King James on its 400th Anniversary. Many of the essays offer profound historical insights and analysis on the King James Bible.
David Bebbington, professor of History at the University of Stirling, Scotland, pointed out the fact that the King James Version was not always known as “The Authorized Version.” The title was first applied to the King James Version in 1805 by the newly created British and Foreign Bible Society.
The following conclusion to Bebbington’s chapter, captures his contention that “the enthusiasm for the translation of 1611 rose and fell with the growth and decay of Romantic sensibility.”
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Over the previous two and a half centuries, the King James Bible had passed through a striking trajectory. In the middle years of the eighteenth century, the version was generally used but not especially respected. Its status rose from the last years of the century onwards as a taste for the past developed, the translation became identified with national feeling, the British and Foreign Bible Society circulated it, and the title the “Authorized Version” emerged. Criticism of the defects of the translation nevertheless created a demand for revision, but both the practice of the revisers and the reaction of the public confirmed the high esteem enjoyed by the King James Version. Appreciation by a wide cross section of the population culminated in the celebrations of 1911, when it was hailed as a marvel of religion and literature alike. The English Bible, it was generally held around that date, was the foundation of national greatness. Dissenting voices came from critical scholars, Roman Catholics, devotees of Tyndale, and increasingly from those within the churches who thought the cult of the Bible as literature was obscuring its spiritual value. The result was the plethora of new translations which gradually eclipsed the Authorized Version during the later twentieth century. The rearguard defense of the older Bible was mounted by intellectuals concerned for its cultural role and conservative evangelicals bolstering their doctrinal position. The former were rather more salient than the latter by 2011. The changing estimate of the King James Bible was clearly bound up with the whole history of Britain during the period, political as well as ecclesiastical, social as well as intellectual, but the key explanation for the trajectory was identified by both C.S. Lewis and Ronald Knox. The two men pointed out that the enthusiasm for the translation of 1611 rose and fell with the growth and decay of Romantic sensibility. A “taste for the primitive and the passionate,” as Lewis called it, flourished in Britain during the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, but was superseded in the later twentieth century by other attitudes that have been variously labelled “expressivist,” “postmodernist,” or simply “anti-Romantic.” The Authorized Version, fortified by the preferences of the times, could withstand the call for greater accuracy in the nineteenth century but not the challenge of more intelligible versions in the twentieth. This cultural factor, more than any other, explains the altering fortunes of the translation of 1611. The reputation of the King James Bible in Britain was hugely but temporarily enhanced by Romantic feeling. (pg. 65-66)
The article explores an interesting question. Along the way you will learn things you didn’t know about the KJV. Here’s an excerpt which reveals that the problem of multiple and competing Bible translations is no new problem. Be sure to read the entire article, and check out this interesting quiz.
From about 1650 to 1960, when Protestants memorized the Twenty-third Psalm, they would always recite the last verse this way: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” But if the KJV had not become the favored translation, the memorized words would have depended on translation preference.
For at least 50 years after the KJV’s completion in 1611, various editions of the Geneva Bible, published in 1560, were just as popular. Geneva’s adherents liked the down-home flavor of the translation and its helpful marginal notes. They would have memorized, “Doubtless kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall remain a long season in the house of the Lord.” Protestants who wanted to connect with their Catholic neighbors would have memorized this, from the Douay-Rheims translation: “And thy mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.”
But Bible readers who wanted to use an officially authorized text””which the KJV never was””would have memorized the Bishops’ Bible of 1568: “Truly felicity and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of God for a long time.”
Of course, Protestants would have continued memorizing Scripture even with several popular translations in existence. But they would have done so privately, sincepublic recitation with several translations could be haphazard””much like it is today. And we would have lost some small sense of connectedness in the church and the broader culture.
50 years ago this August, the NIV translation was commissioned and the Committee on Bible Translation was born. After years of labor from a broad group of Evangelical scholars, the New Testament would be published in 1973 followed by the entire NIV Bible in 1978.
