I'm probably in last place when it comes to blogging on the recent notice that the NIV will be updated (the edition that was to be "frozen" is going to get thawed out and revamped) and the TNIV will be put to bed. But here goes. To see the official notice you can go here. The official website is called NIV Bible 2011 since it is due out in 2011.
Perhaps coming in last gives me a chance to comment on the tsunami of responses. Talk of boycotting is way too premature. The final product may be very close to the TNIV. Who knows? Zondervan is also accused of caving into the pressure of conservatives. I don't see this as very realistic either. The fact of the matter is the TNIV has not done very well in sales. I have carried every edition they made and a couple of large churches in my area have adopted it as their official translation and it still has not ranked very high in our sales. Fans of the TNIV have long charged Zondervan with not really getting behind the translation and giving it the support it deserved. Could Zondervan have done more? Probably, but I'm not sure it would have made that much of a difference. I was never happy with the decision to "freeze" the NIV. It was an unnecessary move in light of the gender controversy. I am happy to see Douglas Moo as the chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT).
I think instead of boycotting anyone and judging motives we should offer our prayers for those involved and ask God to bless their efforts and use the final product for his glory. Do we have too many translations? We do. Could the NIV use some editing? It could. Does the TNIV need to go out of print? I don't think so. Why can't it live side by side with the 2011 NIV? Unless, they will be so close in nature that it would be truly superfluous. But it is far too soon to speculate. I'm sure we will see some preliminary samples as they become available.
Here's the article in Christianity Today.
I first heard about it from the Better Bibles Blog.
Zondervan's blog, Koinonia, has a notice as well.
The list could go on. The Scripture Zealot has put together a couple of the better links.
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