The NIV Bible

I'm no fan of the newer Bibles, all of which claim to the most accurate version to date because they are based upon "older and more reliable manuscripts." This is complete hogwash when you consider the fact that the King James translators had access to the same 44 manuscripts that the NIV and its ilk are based upon but rejected them because they were from questionable sources. For instance, do you know the NIV is only based upon 3 of those 44 manuscripts and it is rare that these three ever agree in just two successive verses.

David Daniels lays out the following scenario:

"Imagine a stadium with 5,366 people. 5,322 of them are in harmony, agreeing with one another and enjoying themselves. But there are also 44 other people. These are not like the first. They dislike the crowd around them and slander their words when they can. But have another problem: they also disagree with each other.

Which group would you rather listen to? The one with people in one accord or the one that is filled with discord. The one that knows what it is saying or the one that cannot agree on what to say? The answer is obvious."

 Answers To Your Bible Version Questions, David Daniels, pp.16-17

Interestingly, the director of Voice of the Martyrs has come out swinging against the NIV and its paraphrase translation.

New NIV “was written, it seems, by cowards for cowards” says Voice of the Martyrs Director

In the May 2011 print edition of Voice of the Martyrs, Director Tom White states, “I do not need to be shielded by a miserably comfortable religion, existing in what I call a numbed down Christianity. One current example of this dangerous numbing down of the Christian faith is the 2011 NIV Bible. It was written, it seems, by cowards for cowards. In Job, Amos, Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah, the translators have removed all 16 references to our greatest motive for evangelizing – the “shadow of death” – and replaced the phrase with “darkness.”[1]

Mr. White continues, “The words ‘shadow of death’ in the Old Testament are from the Hebrew word  ’Tsalmaveth,’ which literally means the ‘grave’ or figuratively, ‘calamity.’ The grave has been artfully removed. Now Job in his struggles never has to face death. He only faces some kind of internal ‘darkness.’ Today he could simply get a prescription to avoid this challenge.”[2]

1. Voice of the Martyrs May 2011, From The Director, pg. 2, “Taking the Bull by the Horns,” by Tom White
2. Ibid., pg. 2

There is a huge difference between a translator and a teacher. Click here if I've piqued your curiosity and you want to learn more about the many different bible versions and why they're not just "updating the words" but changing the meaning and deleting sections of God's Holy Word.