I’ve used the NIV as a new believer and as a scholar. It is the gold standard of English translations, still a delight to read, to use in preaching and teaching. Subsequent revisions have only made it better. It is the Bible for the English-speaking world, from Australia to Zimbabwe. I thank God for the work of the men and women who put it together and made it available.
The Committee on Bible Translation (CBT) has repeatedly shown it understands that not only the words of Scripture were inspired by God, but also the syntax, grammar, and idioms of Scripture. The result has been the NIV, which understands the challenges of responsible translation, combining faithfulness, accuracy, and contemporary English. In my view, the NIV is the most readable of the faithful contemporary translations of the Bible.
The Church owes a debt of gratitude to the Committee on Bible Translation and those who support them in their important work. Many of us have benefited from their tireless labor of scholarship in overseeing the NIV. In personal study and teaching, the NIV has been my primary Bible translation for the past twenty-five years. Thank you for using your God-given gifts to build up God’s people and point others to God’s word, faithfully and truthfully translated. May your work be richly rewarded.
I have used the NIV since it first appeared. I still read it and love it. The NIV is a great marvel of modern Bible translation and proof of what Paul wrote to his young colleague Timothy, “The Word of God is not bound” (2 Timothy 2:9).
I regularly consult the NIV for personal study and I often appeal to it in my sermons and lectures. It has stood the test of time for many decades and continues to speak to Christians today with each update.
The NIV will now continue to be at the forefront of modern English Bibles as the best translation for both public and private use. It combines accuracy and readability better than any other translation.
I grew up in a nominally Hindu and Catholic family, and after coming to faith through the witness of a friend at high school I read the Bible from cover to cover, highlighting something from virtually every page. The NIV was the first Bible I bought for myself as a new convert, and I was drawn closer to God through its readability and its commitment to accuracy and scholarship.
The NIV is my heart Bible, it’s the version through which I came to understand who Jesus is, and it’s the version I have hidden in my heart through memorisation and prayer. The NIV is the text that I preach from, and it is the version that I read to my mother in her last few hours. The NIV has been a gift to me, my family, and my generation, and I am very grateful to the scholars who worked on the original translation and to those who have found ways to update its language to help it continue to be relevant and accurate as the English language evolves and as we recognise the need for more gender-inclusive language.
The NIV has been a wonderful translation, powerfully helping the people of God for decades. I was first introduced to the Scriptures as I was given an NIV translation of the Bible and encouraged to read John’s Gospel. With no background or prior knowledge, I was so thankful for this accessible contemporary translation that opened up this mysterious world of the Scriptures to me in language I could understand. And I am only one of millions. Through the years the NIV has helped countless people to read, meditate upon, and even memorize the Bible. Every English-speaking Christian can celebrate and praise God for this good work.
The NIV is a careful translation that seeks to balance the various complexities of representing the ancient languages in modern English. Blending consideration of the meaning of each word with a deep awareness for phrasing and contextual meaning, the translators have sought to render each phrase and sentence in line with the original while also paying attention to modern English. As such it manages to be one of the most trustworthy translations available today and continues to serve as a gift to students of the Bible.
My students of Westmont College take their NIV for granted. For that reason I like to tell them about the pre-NIV days when I first became a Christian in the early 1970’s. There were not a lot of options in terms of English translations at least for the whole Bible. There simply was not a good readable, up-to-date, and accurate translation available. When the whole NIV appeared for the first time in 1978, it was a God-send for those of us who wanted to study Scripture seriously.
These many years later the NIV is still the best-selling English translation of the Bible in spite of the fact that there are other good alternatives out there. It maintains its place in the hearts and minds of those who love Scripture because it faithfully reflects God’s ancient message to today’s readers. Congratulations to those, mostly departed, who began the process back in the 1950’s, and those who have shepherded the NIV to the present day.
This is an exceptional translation, designed to be read and heard in an idiom that we can understand.
The NIV is the Bible I read as a young disciple of Jesus. As I have grown older, it too has grown in usage and refined translation, and throughout my life the NIV has remained my primary source for reading Scripture, whether in study, use in church or classroom, or quiet reflection and worship. This translation is thoughtful, even beautiful, in its treatment of different genres, its nuancing of idioms and its faithful rendering of language that speaks to the whole people of God, women and men. Throughout the NIV’s history, and certainly with this most recent translation, we have been granted easy access to God’s grand narrative of love and grace, ultimately spoken forth in his living Word, and our location in that ongoing story.
Achieving a middle way between strictly formal and dynamic translation, the New International Version provides a clear, engaging, and faithful translation. I’m delighted to recommend it to both my students and parishioners.
The NIV translation of the Bible has set the standard for the last 50 years. It is clear, accessible, and accurate. For my generation, it is the translation that resides in our heart, with countless texts memorized and retained to this day.
The NIV was my first Bible when I came to Christ in 1983. The first 60 verses I learned were from that version, and the NIV continues to be my go-to version. However, I am all the more appreciative of the updated versions. As a biblical scholar, I can see instance after instance in which the new is better than the old. Thanks to all the folks on the committee for all the hard work that has gone into this important project!
The NIV has become the “go to” text of the Bible for me as a New Testament scholar, a preacher, and as a Christian disciple. For my academic work, it provides a well-researched, contemporary, and updated version of the Scriptures that offers deep insight into the original meaning of the text.
Although clearly evangelical, the NIV does not impose its own categories upon the text and seek to amend the text to portray a specific ideological viewpoint – it is the text that matters throughout.
For my work as a preacher, the NIV offers clear texts that are now so well known and well distributed. I can preach in most churches and find the NIV is available in the pews or downloadable onto people’s mobile devices. We can all look at the same text together and work out what the living Word of God is saying through this printed word.
In my own devotional life, the NIV has become my regular reading partner, and I have managed to wear out several copies by almost constant use. Thank you so much for your work in putting this text together and for making it so widely available to expand and extend the work of the Kingdom of God.
The New International Version is my far and away my favorite translation. Attending to both the form and meaning of the original languages, the NIV offers an accurate and accessible translation of Scripture, put together by an expert team of international men and women.
A good Bible translation needs two things: readability and accuracy. The NIV has both in spades. When I started reading the Bible in my youth I was handed an NIV. I couldn’t put it down. The NIV proved for me to be the ultimate ‘page-turner.’ The Bible’s poetry moved me, its narratives enthralled me, its letters taught me, its apocalypses frightened me – just as they should. When I went to Seminary, and learned Greek and Hebrew exegesis, I read my NIV and was pleasantly unsurprised to find it rendered the original languages faithfully. I thank God for the NIV.
Your work has made an invaluable contribution to the Messianic Jewish community around the world. As a rabbi and scholar from that community, I would like to express my appreciation for all of your hard work and efforts. They are yielding a hundredfold return in the lives of countless Jewish followers of Jesus.
I have had a long career teaching at North Park Theological Seminary, and from the first the NIV was one of the translations I recommended for students. It has been the one most used by my students and by churches with which I have had contact. I do my own work with the original languages, but if I am checking a translation, it is usually the NIV, and when in class I display English texts electronically, it is nearly always the NIV. The NIV serves the church well. The NIV has enabled people to read and understand with relative ease.
I am deeply appreciative of the work done to accomplish this translation and to keep the revision process going, especially with regard to gender issues.
Hats off to the Committee on Bible Translation for their effective work in bringing the word of God to us with a great blend of accuracy and relevancy. The hard work that the Committee has consistently put into this effort has blessed the Church with a version of Scripture that is trustworthy and understandable. From scholars to pastors to the laity, the NIV has been a tremendous blessing.
The NIV’s combination of thoughtful, close translations of the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic alongside its readable approach has made it a translation that I continue to use to teach, preach, worship, and share the Gospel.
When I think of all the centuries of Church History when people had very limited access to God’s Word in their own language, or when what was available had such limitations, I am grateful for the gift to the Church provided by the translators of the NIV and their continuing attention to sustaining it as a cutting edge resource for giving access to God’s gracious revelation of himself to his people.
The NIV was the Bible that accompanied the student years of Christian growth of my wife and me – in its beautiful use of contemporary language, its clarity, and its immense readability, it has been a gift to our understanding of God’s word. Further, it has been an amazing resource in our preaching, theological teaching, and in our evangelism.
When the NIV was first published, I took to it immediately, in the context of my theological studies and the beginnings of my pastoral, preaching and teaching ministry. It had the clarity of straightforward contemporary English, without the colloquial chattiness or literary stiltedness of some other versions at that time. I have used it as my Bible of preference ever since, though my earliest copies have long since fallen apart under the onslaught of heavy use, scribblings, and global travels. I warmly welcome the most recent revision and commend it constantly to churches and individuals alike. It is particularly encouraging to know that the Committee for Bible Translation is an international team of evangelically committed men and women.
