Monday, December 14, 2009

Mounce, NIV 2011, and Modern Translation Musings

Zondervan announced in September that they would be offering a revision of the NIV in 2011 (the 400th anniversary of the KJV).   In October they also announced that Greek grammarian Bill Mounce was being added to the revised NIV translation team.  The irony here is that Mounce also served as NT chair for the translation of the ESV.  You can read Mounce's reflections on this here.  In his remarks he states that his decision to join the NIV team should not be interpreted as casting doubts on his support for the ESV.  He also refers to potential issues with the NIV with regard to gender-neutral language, concluding:  "But who knows where the NIV 2011 will go and how I will vote."

Here's the question:  Do we really need a revision of the NIV?  If Mounce applied a translation philosophy of which he approved in the creation of the ESV, what substantial changes would he offer in the revised NIV?  Are those significant enought to warrant another English translation in the already crowded modern Bible marketplace?

JTR


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