Yet another NIV

On nivbible2011.com a visitor is greeted with the words:

“On Tuesday, September 1, 2009 Biblica anounced the first update in a quarter century of the world’s most popular version of the Bible. The Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), the independent body of global biblical scholars solely responsible for the translation of the world’s most popular Bible, is slated to finish its revision late next year, with publication in 2011.
--NIV Bible 2011

Yes that's right the NIV is geting an update.

I'm far from an NIV basher - I have and continue to use it as a reference version, though I clearly prefer the NASB and the ESV over it for stylistic and translational reasons. Yet I'm seized with the question immediately, "Do we really need another translation?" I would much rather that Zondervan would pump the multiple thousands of dollars into Wycliffe Bible Translators to help accomplish at minimum one translation for every people group in their heart language. I believe the English language has several dozen. Such scriptural gluttony is overwhelming.

At least there's one bright spot on the horizon when the New NIV comes out...

“The T-NIV will be taken off the market when the new Bible is released.
--Translators announce 2011 update of popular NIV Bible - USATODAY.com

That same USA Today article indicates that Zondervan and company are dedicated to not repeating the fiasco accompanying the TNIV "translation" which mangled God's word by forcing today's hyper-sensitive gender inclusivity into the text. The TNIV rather infamously made bad translation decisions by ignoring the gender of pronouns and translating many of them in generic terms. It didn't quite extend to the blasphemy of calling God mother, but in forcing their editorial opinions on the scriptures they edited out some clear meanings in favor of their own prejudice.

If you get the feeling that I think very little of the TNIV you are correct. As a friend of mine states, "The Bible is the divine inspired Word of God - Including the pronouns."

Thankfully Zondervan has at least created www.NIVBible2011.com as a location for collecting and responding to feedback and questions regarding the upcoming translation.

As for me I'm going to adopt a wait and see attitude since it's already clearly been established that the translation is going forward. While I wait I've already placed my vote for a "missions version" of the updated NIV. How about this Zondervan: let the missions version be priced a little higher if you must, but donate $10 for every single one sold to Wycliffe. This year alone they need $88,700 urgently to finish some translation projects.