Several weeks ago, the minister at my church announced that the church was changing Bible translations. This didn’t necessarily mean that each member needed to change, but the Bibles provided in the auditorium and the scripture shown on the screen would no longer by the 1984 version of the New International Version.
Excited about the change, I posted a question on my Facebook page to encourage people to vote for which version they thought would be chosen. The English Standard Version got 15 votes, the King James Version and New Living Translation each got 3 votes, and the New American Standard Version and the Holman Christian Standard each got 2 votes. The rest of the choices got either 1 or 0 votes.
Finally, this morning the pastor announced the version we’re changing to. He also gave some explanation.
We’ve been using the 1984 New International Version, which the church was happy with. But last year, Zondervan, which publishes the New International Version, came out with a new version. It is still called the New International Version, but it is significantly updated, and the old version is no longer available for purchase.
The new version has actually changed some of the wording of the translation, making it more gender-neutral. And here is one of the reasons I love my church: the leadership believes that the words that God used in the Bible are important, so we should not be changing them.
We could just continue to use the previous version of the NIV, but the Bibles in the auditorium are offered to anyone who doesn’t have a Bible, so more Bibles need to be purchased on a regular basis, and if we want to continue using the NIV, we would have to purchase the newer version that we disagree with.
As for what we are changing to? The minister announced a “winner” and two “runners-up.”
The auditorium Bibles are going to be replaced with the English Standard Version. Congratulations to my voters for picking the right one!
The minister also said that he supports the Holman Christian Standard Bible and the New King James Version. He did not suggest that we individually get rid of our NIVs, but he discouraged us from purchasing the new version. He also discouraged us from using the Today’s New International Version (TNIV) that came out a few years ago. It has similar problems as the New International Version now has.
If you have any questions about Bible translations, please comment. I would be glad to answer your questions to the best I know how or to find the answer for you if I can’t.
If you're in the market for a new Bible, why don't you try out Christianbook.com's Bible Finder?
If you're in the market for a new Bible, why don't you try out Christianbook.com's Bible Finder?
Also, please like my Facebook page so that you can participate in any other polls that come along.
