TNIV NT Preface (2001)

Among the many English versions of the Bible that appeared in the twentieth century, the New International Version (NIV: 1973, 1978, 1984) has gained the widest readership in all parts of the English-speaking world. The NIV was a completely new translation made by over a hundred scholars working directly from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. The fact that participants from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand worked together gave the project its international scope. That they were from many denominations—including Anglican, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Brethren, Christian Reformed, Church of Christ, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Wesleyan and other churches—helped to safeguard the translation from sectarian bias. Responsibility for the NIV text is held by a self-governing body, the Committee on Bible Translation, composed of biblical scholars from colleges, universities and seminaries.

From the beginning, the translators were united in their commitment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God’s Word in written form. They believed that it contains the divine answer to the deepest needs of humanity, that it sheds unique light on our path in a dark world, and that it sets forth the way to our eternal well-being. In light of this, the Committee held to certain goals for the NIV: that it would be an accurate translation and one that would have clarity and literary quality and so prove suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing and liturgical use. The Committee also sought to preserve a measure of continuity with the long tradition of translating the Scriptures into English.

There is a sense in which the work of translating the Bible is never finally finished. This very fact has prompted the Committee to engage in an ongoing review of the text of the NIV with the assistance of many other scholars. The chief goal of this review has always been to bring the text of the NIV abreast of contemporary biblical scholarship and of shifts in English idioms and usage. Already in 1978 and again in 1984 various corrections and revisions to the NIV text were made. In Today’s New International Version (TNIV) the Committee offers to the reading public the latest fruits of this review.

The first concern of the translators has been the accuracy of the translation and its faithfulness to the meaning of the biblical writers. This has moved the translators to strive for more than a word-for-word rendering of the original texts. Because thought patterns and syntax differ from language to language, accurate communication of the meaning of the biblical authors demands constant regard for the contextual meanings of words and idioms and frequent modifications in sentence structures. To achieve clarity the translators have sometimes supplied words not in the original texts but required by the context. If there was uncertainty about such material, it is enclosed in brackets. As an aid to the reader, italicized sectional headings have been inserted. They are not to be regarded as part of the TNIV text and are not for oral reading. It is the Committee’s hope that the headings may prove more helpful to the reader than the traditional chapter divisions (which come only from the thirteenth century).

The Greek text used in translating the New Testament has been an eclectic one. Where existing manuscripts differ, the translators have made their choice of readings in accordance with widely accepted principles of New Testament textual criticism. Footnotes call attention to places where there was uncertainty about what the original text was. Such footnotes are introduced by “Some manuscripts” or similar expressions.

Other footnotes in this version are of several kinds, most of which need no explanation. Those giving alternative translations begin with “Or” and generally introduce the alternative with the last word preceding it in the text, except when it is a single-word alternative. In poetry quoted in a footnote a slant mark indicates a line division.

It should be noted that references to minerals, flora and fauna, architectural details, articles of clothing and jewelry, musical instruments and other articles cannot always be identified with precision. Also measures of capacity in the biblical period are particularly uncertain.

Two changes of special note in the TNIV New Testament are the frequent substitution of “Messiah” for the more traditional “Christ” and the replacement of “saints” in most cases with alternative renderings. A word about each of these is in order.

While both “Messiah” (from the Hebrew) and “Christ” (from the Greek) mean “Anointed One,” what began as a title full of meaning to the early Jewish hearers of the gospel tended in the later Greek-speaking churches to become just another name for Jesus. So where the term is clearly used to designate the God-sent deliverer of Jewish expectation (primarily in the Gospels and Acts), it was judged more appropriate to use “Messiah.” However, where this sense seems less prominent (primarily the Epistles), the transliteration of the Greek word (Christ) has been retained.

Concerning “saints,” current usage (as reflected in major dictionaries of the English language) burdens it with meanings that lie outside the sense of the original. As used in the New Testament documents, the Greek term primarily designates those who have become “followers of the [Christian] Way” as people consecrated to God and thus belonging to him in a special sense—a meaning derived especially from Daniel 7: 18., Hence the language of choice in most instances is now “God’s people” or “the people of God”—but in some cases “believers.”

While a basic core of the English language remains relatively stable, many diverse and complex cultural forces continue to bring about subtle shifts in the meanings and/or connotations of even old, well-established words and phrases. Among the more programmatic changes in the TNIV is the removal of nearly all vocative “O”s and the elimination of most instances of the generic use of masculine nouns and pronouns. Relative to the second of these, the so-called singular “they/their/them,” which has been gaining acceptance among careful writers and which actually has a venerable place in English idiom, has been employed to fill in the vocabulary gap in generic nouns and pronouns referring to human beings. Where an individual emphasis is deemed to be present, “anyone” or “everyone” is generally used as the antecedent of such pronouns.

Verse numbers that marked off portions of the traditional English text not supported by the best Greek manuscripts are now set alongside the immediately preceding verse numbers and placed in brackets (see, for example, Matthew 17:20 [21]).

Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11, although long accorded virtually equal status with the rest of the Gospels in which they stand, have a very questionable—and confused—standing in the textual history of the New Testament, as noted in the bracketed annotations with which they are set off. A different typeface has now been chosen for these passages to indicate even more clearly their uncertain status.

The Committee has again been reminded that every human effort is flawed—including this revision of the NIV We trust, however, that many will find in it an improved representation of the Word of God, through which they hear his call to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and his guide for service in his kingdom. We offer this version of the New Testament to him in whose name and for whose glory it has been made.