New International Version: What today's Christian needs to know about the NIV (2)

Modern Receptors

A great difficulty in the NIV translators' theory is the view of the importance of the receptor or receptor language over that of the original languages. The result is that the need of the reader takes precedence over the fidelity to the text. Sentence structure and word usage must be such that the reader will have no trouble understanding the author's intent, regardless of the author's actual words. Thus, in a translation aimed at a people in the Caribbean, Isaiah 1.18 would not be "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow," but rather "as white as a dove's feathers" or of something else in the reader's experience that is white. (Happily for us, the NIV translators assumed English readers would have seen snow; but, since the translators believe that "there is a sense in which the work of translation is never wholly finished",7 one wonders what will happen in the twenty-first century.)
With this in mind, the NIV translators have gone on to say that "a present-day translation is not enhanced by forms that in the time of the King James Version were used in every day speech, whether referring to God or man".8 Thus they have done away with the use of 'thou' and 'thee', whether in narration or in prayer in the Scriptures. They would say that to use these terms only when referring to Deity serves no legitimate purpose. But it must be understood that the AV had no more purpose linguistically in using 'thou' and 'thee' than the NIV translators would have today. As can be seen in the works of Shakespeare, the terms were not in strict common usage during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The AV translators, however, used these terms to express something that nearly every major language except current English expresses: the singular of 'you'. In Biblical Hebrew and Greek, there is a differentiation between 'you' (singular) and 'you' (plural). To distinguish the two in English, the AV translators employed 'thou' and 'thee' for 'you' (singular), 'ye' and 'you' for 'you' (plural). In this way the reader of Scripture understands that "the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Corinthians 3.17), and thus is able to avoid the individualism so rampant in the Church today -- an individualism perpetuated by the NIV's lack of differentiation between singular and plural forms of 'you' in its rendition of 1 Corinthians 3.17b, "and you are that temple".
To be fair, it must be noted that in some passages the NIV attempts to indicate the differences between the singular and plural pronouns, but this is normally done by inserting words not found in the original texts (as in Luke 22.32, "I have prayed for you, Simon," and 1 Corinthians 3.16, "you yourselves") but without indicating that the words were added; or by adding footnotes (e.g., Isaiah 7.14).
The result of this modern dynamic view of translation is a Bible that reads like a newspaper, complete with short, chopped sentences. The idea behind this is that the modern reader of English is incapable of retaining more than a half-dozen words at a time; thus the paragraph-long sentence of Ephesians 1.3-14 is broken down into eight simpler sentences in the NIV and is even broken at verse 11 into separate paragraphs. The problem is, however, that this cannot be done without changing the normal interpretation of the passage as held by many evangelicals (as is seen in the break between verses 3 and 4 in the NIV: are we holy and without blame before Him in love, or are we predestined in love?).
One advantage of having Scripture in a classical form is that the reader obtains a feeling of 'foreignness' when reading Scripture. The Bible is not only the Word of God to man, but is also a history of the people of God. Here we learn of the culture of the Jews, their way of living, the entire basis for the faith revealed in Christ. We learn also of our earliest brothers in the faith, of their struggles and trials and joys. But we also learn that, despite this 'foreignness', we are the same as they; man since the fall has not changed, his heart is still desperately wicked, his salvation still not of works. There is also the benefit of memorisation; it is much easier to memorise something with an unusual or unique wording (as in poetry) than it is to memorise a paragraph from a newspaper. The NIV is more readable than, say, the AV or the American Standard Version of 1901, but many find it much less easily memorised and less easily 'hidden in the heart' as God would have it to be.
One further disadvantage of easy readability is speed of readability. The NIV is so easy to read that it is often read as one might read a newspaper: quickly and with little comprehension. An advantage of greater difficulty in reading is that one is more apt to read slowly and pick up nuances and meanings hidden from the rapid reader. (This is one of the great advantages of learning to read the Scriptures in the original languages.) Skimming the newspaper may be acceptable, but skimming the Scriptures rather than in-depth reading and study is inappropriate.
One further word needs to be said regarding the receptors of God's Word. As was stated earlier, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him". No matter how a passage is worded, how closely or loosely translated, the unsaved man will never understand it unless the Spirit of God opens his eyes to its truth. In this respect, the Word of God is most definitely given to His people. Through it God gives instruction on how to live in a right relationship with Him. It is His Word to us, and must be treated, not merely as a glorious piece of literature, but as the very Word of God. The most important aspect of translation, therefore, is not the audience but the Author. It is with this in mind that we will consider individual translation problems in the NIV.
Textual Problems in the NIV
The Word of God was originally penned in three languages: Hebrew and a small amount of Aramaic in the Old Testament, and Koine Greek in the New. This not being an article on textual criticism, a full discussion of the problems associated with modern textual theory will not be undertaken here. (Please see the Society's online article What today's Christian needs to know about the Greek New Testament.) Instead, the problems of the NIV will be presented with the presupposition that the Hebrew Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and the Greek Textus Receptus of the New are the most reliable texts of Scripture, and reference is made to other publications of the Trinitarian Bible Society, such as A Textual Key to the New Testament and The Lord Gave the Word: A Study in the History of the Biblical Text.