Social media trigger queries about reliability of NIV Bible

There has been anxiety among Christians because of information circulating in the social media to the effect that the New International Version (NIV) is not a reliable version of the Bible.

The post, whose source is unknown, claims that some "Satanic owners" of NIV have altered the content of the Bible by removing some verses. Furthermore, the article argues that some key words such as Jehovah, Calvary, Holy Ghost, etc — usually found in the King James Version (KJV) — have also been replaced.

The effect of the article has been confusion among many Christians. Some have gone to the extent of destroying their NIV Bibles. This is unfortunate because, Biblica is the worldwide publisher and copyright holder of the NIV. Through licences, Biblica works with commercial partners around the world like Zondervan and Hodder Faith. Therefore, considering that the NIV is one of the most popular English versions of the Bible worldwide, it would be important to interrogate this information so that we may act with some knowledge.

First and foremost, we need to note that Scripture was originally written in Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament). All other languages, including English, are translations derived primarily from these two languages. The original texts were hand written in single manuscripts, then hand copied for distribution over hundreds or even thousands of years. Translators therefore carefully compare hundreds of available manuscripts to ensure internal textual fidelity. They particularly try to get the earliest manuscripts as these would be closest to the original text.

The KJV is among the earliest English translations of the Bible, having been commissioned and authorised in the year 1611 by King James I of England. For a long time this was the most popular version of the English Bible. Its lofty old English language and expressions — with such words as "thou", "thine", "Holy Ghost", etc — influenced much of the Christian lingo, especially among the Evangelicals, and more so Pentecostal Christians. However, as the English language developed, there was need to have an English Bible that could be easily read and understood by contemporary English readers. Thus in 1965, the work on the NIV began, as a completely new English translation of the Bible.

The translation team of the NIV consisted of over 100 Biblical scholars drawn from across denominations — including Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Brethren, Christian Reformed, Church of Christ, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, among others — to help safeguard the translation from denominational bias. The translation of the NIV also took advantage of some of the more recent archeological discoveries of manuscripts, such as those from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which contained material with older Hebrew texts. Such manuscripts had not been available when versions like KJV were translated. The first complete NIV Bible was consequently published in 1978, and a further edition in 1984. It became immediately popular with English readers across denominations and grew to become the most used English Bible of all times.

It can be said that the NIV is one of the most reliable versions of the ENGLISH Bibles, having been translated from some of the oldest Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. KJV, however, is the most faithful to the LANGUAGE of the Bible. This is basically because it used a method that produced an almost word for word translation from the original language. Noteworthy though, is that at its translation, the KJV had some additional verses, for reasons we cannot cover here. These verses are generally agreed among scholars not to have been in the most original manuscripts. These are some of the verses left out in newer translations, including in NIV. Hard copy Bibles usually place them in the footnote with explanations.

What about words like Jehovah? Jehovah is the Greek version of Yahweh, the Hebrew ACTUAL name of God. Because of this, the Jews have considered the name too sacred to use, the same way many of us would find it difficult to call our fathers by their actual names. That is why the newer English versions of the Bible do not use Jehovah or Yahweh. Instead they use "the LORD" (in caps). This is what is used in NIV and even New King James Version.

It should be pointed out however that the latest 2011 edition of NIV has had challenges in how it has handled the translation of some texts of scripture. Because of this, some Christian leaders and scholars have cautioned against its use — a matter pointed out to the Translation Team. It follows therefore that if you have the 1984 NIV, you have a good translation of the Bible. But, it is always good to use several versions to compare renderings, unless of course you can read Hebrew and Greek.