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.