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Today’s New International Version (TNIV) is a revision
of the New
International Version (NIV). Among the many English
versions of the Bible
that appeared in the twentieth century, the NIV (1973,
1978, 1984) has gained
the widest readership in all parts of the English-speaking
world. It was a
completely new translation made by over a hundred scholars
working directly
from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts.
The fact that
participants from the United States, Great Britain,
Canada, Australia and New
Zealand worked together gave the project its international
scope. That they
were from many denominations—including Anglican, Assemblies
of God,
Baptist, Brethren, Christian Reformed, Church of Christ,
Evangelical
Covenant, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist,
Nazarene,
Presbyterian, Wesleyan and other churches—helped to
safeguard the
translation from sectarian bias. Responsibility for
the NIV text, and now also
for the text of the TNIV, is held by a self-governing
body, the Committee
on Bible Translation (CBT), composed of biblical scholars
from colleges,
universities and seminaries. During the revision process,
many of the original
members of CBT have been replaced by other scholars
owing to retirement
and other causes, but a similar geographical and denominational
mix has
been maintained.
From the beginning the translators have been united
in their commitment to
the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God’s
Word in written form. For
them, the Bible contains the divine answer to the
deepest needs of humanity,
sheds unique light on our path in a dark world and
sets forth the way to our
eternal well-being. Out of this deep conviction,
the Committee has held to
certain goals for the NIV and for the present revision:
that it would be an
accurate translation and one that would have clarity
and literary quality and so
prove suitable for public and private reading, teaching,
preaching, memorizing
and liturgical use. The Committee has also sought
to preserve a measure of
continuity with the long tradition of translating
the Scriptures into English.
There is a sense in which the work of translating
the Bible is never finished.
This very fact has prompted the Committee to engage
in an ongoing review of
the text of the NIV with the assistance of many other
scholars. The chief goal
of this review has always been to bring the text
of the NIV abreast of
contemporary biblical scholarship and of shifts in
English idiom and usage.
Already in 1978 and again in 1984 various corrections
and revisions to the NIV text were made. In the TNIV
the Committee offers to the reading public
the latest fruits of its review.
The first concern of the translators has continued
to be the accuracy of the
translation and its faithfulness to the intended
meaning of the biblical writers.
This has moved the translators to go beyond a formal
word-for-word
rendering of the original texts. Because thought
patterns and syntax differ
from language to language, accurate communication
of the meaning of the
biblical authors demands constant regard for varied
contextual uses of words
and idioms and for frequent modifications in sentence
structures.
To achieve clarity the translators have sometimes
supplied words not in the
original texts but required by the context. In a
few instances, where some
uncertainty about such material remained, it is enclosed
in corner brackets.
As an aid to the reader, italicized sectional headings
have been inserted.
They are not to be regarded as part of the biblical
text and are not intended
for oral reading. It is the Committee’s hope that
these headings may prove
more helpful to the reader than the traditional chapter
divisions (which were
introduced in the thirteenth century).
For the Old Testament the standard Hebrew text, the
Masoretic Text as
published in the latest editions of Biblia Hebraica,
has been used throughout.
The Masoretic Text tradition contains marginal notations
that offer variant
readings. These have sometimes been followed instead
of the text itself.
Because such instances involve variants within the
Masoretic tradition, they
have not been indicated in the textual notes. In
a few cases, words in the
basic consonantal text have been divided differently
than in the Masoretic
Text. Such cases are usually indicated in the textual
footnotes. The Dead Sea
Scrolls contain biblical texts that represent an
earlier stage of the transmission
of the Hebrew text. They have been consulted, as
have been the Samaritan
Pentateuch and the ancient scribal traditions concerning
deliberate textual
changes. The translators also consulted the more
important early versions—
the Greek Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion,
the Latin Vulgate,
the Syriac Peshitta, the Aramaic Targums, and for
the Psalms the Juxta
Hebraica of Jerome. Readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls,
the scribal
traditions and these versions were occasionally followed
where the Masoretic
Text seemed doubtful and where accepted principles
of textual criticism
showed that one or more of these textual witnesses
appeared to provide the correct
reading. In rare cases, the translators have emended
the Hebrew text where it appears to have become corrupted
at an even earlier stage of its
transmission. These departures from the Masoretic
Text are also indicated in the textual footnotes. Sometimes
the vowel indicators (which are later
additions to the basic consonantal text) found in the
Masoretic Text did not, in
the judgment of the translators, represent the correct
vowels for the original
text. Accordingly, some words have been read with a
different set of vowels.
These instances are usually not indicated in the footnotes.
The Greek text used in translating the New Testament
has been an eclectic
one, based on the latest editions of the Nestle-Aland/United
Bible Societies’
Greek New Testament. The translators have made their
choices among the
variant readings in accordance with widely accepted
principles of New
Testament textual criticism. Footnotes call attention
to places where
uncertainty remains.
The New Testament authors, writing in Greek, often
quote the Old Testament
from its ancient Greek version, the Septuagint. This
is one reason why some
of the Old Testament quotations in the TNIV New Testament
are not identical
to the corresponding passages in the TNIV Old Testament.
Such quotations in
the New Testament are indicated with the footnote
“(see Septuagint).”
Other footnotes in this version are of several kinds,
most of which need no
explanation. Those giving alternative translations
begin with “Or” and
generally introduce the alternative with the last
word preceding it in the text,
except when it is a single-word alternative. In poetry
quoted in a footnote a
slash mark indicates a line division.
It should be noted that references to diseases, minerals,
flora and fauna,
architectural details, clothing, jewelry, musical
instruments and other articles
cannot always be identified with precision. Also,
linear measurements and
measures of capacity can only be approximated (see
Appendix I). The
manner in which Hebrew proper names are to be represented
in English has
not become fully standardized. In the TNIV the spelling
of many names has
been revised to conform more closely to current scholarly
practice and to the
phonetics of the Hebrew originals. A list of such
changes can be found in
Appendix II, following the biblical text. A parallel
list provides the spelling of
these names in the NIV. Although Selah, used mainly
in the Psalms, is
probably a musical term, its meaning is uncertain.
Since it may interrupt
reading and distract the reader, this word has not
been kept in the English
text, but every occurrence has been signaled by a
footnote.
Three changes of special note in the TNIV are the
frequent substitution of
“Messiah” for the more traditional “Christ,” the
replacement of “saints” in most cases with alternative
renderings, and a greater sensitivity to shifts in
English
idiom. A word about each is in order.
While “Messiah” (from the Hebrew) and “Christ” (from
the Greek) both mean
“Anointed One,” what began as a title full of meaning
to the early Jewish
hearers of the gospel tended in the later Greek-speaking
churches to become
just another name for Jesus. So where the term is
clearly used to designate
the God-sent deliverer of Jewish expectations (primarily
in the Gospels and
Acts), it was judged more appropriate to use “Messiah.”
However, where this
sense seems less prominent (primarily in the Epistles),
the transliteration of
the Greek word (“Christ”) has been retained.
Concerning “saints,” current usage (as reflected
in major dictionaries of the
English language) burdens it with meanings that lie
outside the sense of the
original-language words. The main Old Testament term
that has traditionally
been rendered “saints” refers to those who are faithful
to God. The New
Testament term primarily designates those who have
become followers of the
Christian Way as people consecrated to God and thus
belonging to the Lord
in a special sense.
Although a basic core of the English language remains
relatively stable, many
diverse and complex cultural forces continue to bring
about subtle shifts in the
meanings and/or connotations of even old, well-established
words and
phrases. Among the more programmatic changes in the
TNIV are the removal
of nearly all vocative “O”s and the elimination of
most instances of the generic
use of masculine nouns and pronouns. Relative to
the second of these, the
so-called singular “they/their/them,” which has been
gaining acceptance
among careful writers and which actually has a venerable
place in English
idiom, has been employed to fill in the vocabulary
gap in generic nouns and
pronouns referring to human beings. Where an individual
emphasis is
deemed to be present, “anyone” or “everyone” or some
other equivalent is
generally used as the antecedent of such pronouns.
Sometimes the chapter and/or verse numbering in English
translations of the
Old Testament differs from that found in published
Hebrew texts. This is
particularly the case in the Psalms, where the traditional
titles are included in
the Hebrew verse numbering. Such differences are
marked by asterisks (*) in
the text and informative footnotes set off in a separate
line (or lines) at the
bottom of the page. In the New Testament, verse numbers
that marked off
portions of the traditional English text not supported
by the best Greek
manuscripts are now set alongside the immediately
preceding verse numbers and placed in brackets (see,
for example, Matthew 17:20[21]).
Mark 16:9–20 and John 7:53—8: 11, although long accorded
virtually equal
status with the rest of the Gospels in which they stand,
have a very
questionable—and confused—standing in the textual history
of the New
Testament, as noted in the bracketed annotations with
which they are set off.
A different typeface has now been chosen for these
passages to indicate
even more clearly their uncertain status.
Basic formatting of the text, such as lining the
poetry, paragraphing (both
prose and poetry), setting up of (administrative-like)
lists, indenting letters and
lengthy prayers within narratives and the insertion
of sectional headings, has
been the work of the Committee. However, the choice
between single-column
and double-column formats has been left to the publishers.
Also, the issuing
of “red-letter” editions is a publisher’s choice—one
that the Committee does
not endorse.
The Committee has again been reminded that every
human effort is flawed—
including this revision of the NIV. We trust, however,
that many will find in it an
improved representation of the Word of God, through
which they hear his call
to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and to service
in his kingdom. We offer this
version of the Bible to him in whose name and for
whose glory it has been
made.
The
Committee
on Bible
Translation
August 2003 |
