The New International Version Inclusive Language Edition (NIVI) of the Christian Bible was an
inclusive language
Inclusive language avoids expressions that are considered to express or imply ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to any particular group of people and sometimes animals as well. Use of inclusive language ...
version of the
New International Version
The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The ''NIV'' was created as a modern translation, by Bible scholars using the earliest an ...
(NIV). It was published by
Hodder and Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.
History
Early history
The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher ...
(a subsidiary of
Lagardere Publishing) in London in 1995; New Testament and Psalms, with the full bible following in 1996. It was only released in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth Countries.
In 1997, an article by ''
World Magazine
''World'' (often stylized in all-caps as ''WORLD'') is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. ''World''s declared p ...
'' accused the NIVI of being "a feminist seduction of the evangelical church". This led to a protest in evangelical circles, led by
James Dobson. A meeting led by Dobson released the
Colorado Springs Guidelines The Colorado Springs Guidelines is a 1997 document to address gender issues in Bible translation. It was written by theologically conservative Christians in response to "gender-neutral" Bible translations, in particular the New International Versi ...
, a set of guidelines on gender in Bible translation.
Despite some evangelicals coming to the defense of the NIVI,
Zondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publ ...
responded by not releasing the NIVI in the United States.
Bibles: Hands Off My NIV!
Christianity Today
''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...
, June-16-1997
One of the criticisms was that the word ‘man’ was replaced by a variety of words in a very mechanical way (‘anyone’ ‘person’ etc.) even in passages where clearly a man was indicated. This lent credibility to the criticism that this was a feminist translation with the need to strip the translation of as many occurrences as possible of the word ‘man’.
A modified edition was published in 1999. Typical of the changes was Leviticus 15:2-15, where ‘man’ was restored in the 1999 edition, as the passage clearly concerned males. Also John 17:6-26 a speech of Jesus was indented in the 1999 edition, following the indentation of similar passages in the gospel.
In 2002 Today's New International Version
Today's New International Version (TNIV) is an English translation of the Bible which was developed by the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT). The CBT also developed the New International Version (NIV) in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NI ...
(TNIV) was published for the English speaking world as a replacement, but differing in its title with the addition of 'Today's'. This was also discontinued, with a slightly toned-down version of the TNIV being published as the New International Version in 2011.
References
1996 books
Bible translations into English
1996 in Christianity
New International Version
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