zondervan-niv-study-bibles

New International Version Study Bible

By Joe Felim

Produced by a company of conservative scholars who wished to provide a literal and conservative revision of the ASV, as an alternative to the Revised Standard Version (1952), which had proven to be unacceptable to conservative churches. Although the NIV Study Bible revisers were influenced by the RSV’s interpretation in many places,(1) overall the NIV Study Bible is a good deal more literal than the RSV, and thus it preserves the highly literal character that had made the American Standard Version so useful as a translation for close study. Also unlike the RSV, the NIV Study Bible deliberately interprets the Old Testament from a Christian standpoint, in harmony with the New Testament.

The publication of the New International Version Study Bible began with the Gospel of John in 1960, followed by the four Gospels in 1962, the New Testament in 1963, and the entire Bible in 1971. The Greek edition used by the NIV Study Bible revisers was the 23rd edition of the Nestle text.

The NIV Study Bible was widely accepted by conservative churches in the years following its publication, but it was often criticized for its awkward and unnatural English. This was mostly a consequence of the version’s strict adherence to the idioms of the original languages, whether or not they were natural in English. But in many cases the awkwardness serves no good purpose and is hard to tolerate.

In general, the words of Charles Spurgeon regarding the English Revised Version (the British counterpart of the ASV) might also be said of the NIV Study Bible - “Strong in Greek, but weak in English.” For this reason, many people used the NIV Study Bible only for reference when doing close study, while using other more “readable” versions for other purposes. The version became a byword for conservative literalism among liberal critics, who often compared the NIV Study Bible unfavorably with the RSV. (2)

For many years the names of the NIV Study Bible translators and editors were withheld by the publisher. But in 1995 this information was finally disclosed. Below is the list of names posted on the publisher’s website in 2002.