Why I Still Read The NIV

January 27, 2010 Posted by David NcloseAuthor: David N Name:
Email: dvnilsen@gmail.com
Site: http://reasonfromscripture.blogspot.com
About: In 2003 I graduated from high school with no set direction for my life. I spent a year in Iowa before returning to California to attend Junior College. I changed majors 3 times; from Physics to Business to Film (as you can see, no direction). I was a Christian, attending church regularly, but furthering the cause of Christ in this fallen world was not a high priority. In 2005 I picked up an issue of TableTalk magazine, and I was re-introduced to the work of R. C. Sproul (whom I had read once in high school). Later that year, while taking a biology class with an ardent atheist professor, I picked up a copy of Lee Strobel's "The Case For A Creator." In the Fall of 2006 I came to Biola University and was introduced to the works of J. P. Moreland and John Mark Reynolds. My fate was sealed. Just a few years ago, I was passionless. Now I have two passions: Studying the Word of God and engaging in the task of Apologetics. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts all Christians to be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. My goal is to be able to give my answer articulately and powerfully, but even more importantly, in love. There are many purposes for apologetics, but by far the most important is the opening of minds and the softening of hearts for the work of the Holy Spirit. If we don't care about and pray for those with whom we engage in apologetics, we fail to fulfill this purpose. As a wise man once said, "Take a stand for the Truth, but do it in love fool!" Education Info: --Currently: M.A. in Historical Theology student, Westminster Seminary California --2008: B.A. in Philosophy, Biola University --2006: A.A. in Liberal Arts, Palomar CollegeSee Authors Posts (70)

For the last year and half or so, I’ve been conducting an experiment of sorts.  My church uses the NIV for all Scripture reading and preaching.  But for the last four years I have used the ESV for all of my personal reading and study.  So naturally I bring my ESV with me to church.  This means that while my pastor is reading the Scripture text for that day (usually a lengthy passage) in the NIV, I am following along with the ESV.  As it turns out, the two translations aren’t substantially all that different, so following along is pretty easy.  I have noticed two major differences, however, both of which have caused me to move slowly back toward using the NIV for the majority of my Bible reading.

First, is word order.  90% of the differences between the NIV and ESV can be boiled to down to word order within a sentence.  For example, 2 Peter 3:1 in the ESV says:

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder

The NIV renders it like this:

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking

The ESV puts “beloved” at the end of the first sentence, while the NIV puts it up front (using “dear friends” instead).  Also, the ESV puts “sincere mind” before “reminder”, while the NIV puts it after (again, using “wholesome thinking” instead).

This verse also gives an example of the second major difference, which is the use of synonymous words or phrases.  In this case, “beloved” is substituted for “dear friends” and “sincere mind” for “wholesome thinking.”  Another (somewhat amusing) example is Hosea 1:2, which says in the ESV:

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”

The NIV has it:

When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.”

It was actually during the reading of Hosea 1 at church that I first began to prefer the NIV to the ESV.  To me, the word “whoredom” is just too archaic and obscure.  The NIV translates the passage in a way that does not obscure the meaning of the Hebrew at all, and yet is far more readable than the ESV.

I found this to be the case time and again.  Not only did the NIV use words and phrases that were “smoother” and more familiar to my modern English ears, but I often found the word order of sentences to flow better and read easier in the NIV.  Again, this was always without sacrificing the meaning of the passage.  And thus I began to break out my old NIV for personal devotional time.

Now for the caveats.  First, I still like the ESV and I will still continue to use it for my serious study and academic work.  The ESV is more or less the “official” English version used at Westminster California, so it will continue to be the default English version for my classes, chapels, and papers.  Second, you may have noticed that the NIV used two different words in Hosea 1:2 (”adulterous” and “unfaithfulness”) where the ESV used “whoredom” twice.  This is because the ESV makes a conscious effort to translate a given Hebrew or Greek word with the same English word in every instance (unless it’s just grammatically impossible).  This makes the ESV great for doing serious study (especially word studies).

But of course, if you have a basic working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, then you don’t really need (or want) your English translation to try to do that work for you.  And this brings me to my final reason for returning to the NIV.  As part of my seminary training, I am beginning to acquire such a basic knowledge (and the marvelous Bible Works software is a great help!).  This frees me to be able to use less “literal” English translations if I want.

But I don’t think that the NIV is dangerous for those without a seminary education.  As I hope I have illustrated with a few examples, the differences between the NIV and ESV are not significant enough to pose any problems to the “English-only” reader.  More importantly, though, I don’t believe in the anti-tradition model of “private devotions” where a person is encouraged to lock himself in his closet with his Bible and simply let the “naked text” speak to him.  I believe that the Bible ought to be read with the historic Reformation churches, which means that a person should be using the historic creeds, confessions and catechisms of the church to guide their Bible reading, as well as good commentaries (which will deal directly with the Hebrew and Greek) and personal interaction with one’s pastor and/or elders.  With such safeguards in place, almost any translation of the Bible should be safe!

Now you might be asking, “What  is the point of all this rambling?”  Well, after the ESV was released and met with huge success in conservative evangelical circles, I began to notice a degree of snobbery toward the NIV.  I had never heard the acronym “Nearly Inspired Version” until my first year at Biola (2006), and it was always uttered by (new) ESV users who were criticizing the lack of literal, word-for-word precision in the NIV.  But there is no clear-cut solution to the problems posed by translating something from one language into another.  Every translation has its difficulties, which is why it is ultimately best to use multiple English translations from across the spectrum of translating philosophies, rather than being tied too closely to only one.  Still, the NIV has its strengths in a number of areas, including areas where the ESV is lacking, and it has been used and trusted by many conservative evangelical scholars for over 30 years.  For that reason, I’m proud to say that I still read and enjoy the Nearly Inspired Version!

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