Should I choose the NIV?

Following my post yesterday on the translation decisions in the NIV, the debate has continued apace. Although some of the discussion is quite technical, and the protagonists are conspicuously non persuaded, David Instone-Brewer has been making some interesting points. One that caught my heart was on some other well-known bugbear—the translation of Is 7.14 'A young woman/virgin shall conceive and requite nascency.' David comments as follows:

DIB: Information technology is true that the NIV tries to make the OT friction match the NT quotations as often as possible inside range of the pregnant of the Hebrew and Greek. This is mainly to help the readers see the link. A footnote points out that this Hebrew tin can also mean merely a young woman.
_ If information technology wasn't for the use of this poesy as prophecy, the Lxx translation would exist unremarkable. An 'aLMaH would normally be expected to be a virgin. Ideally we'd find an English word which ways: "a daughter of marriageable age who isn't married and who is therefore almost certainly a virgin unless something terrible has happened in her life, but who isn't specifically a virgin". Whatever suggestions?

PD: The about accurate translation, since the Isaianic oracle is referring to a woman in his own twenty-four hour period and not a miraculous virgin birth, would exist to say "immature woman" as the RSV and NRSV practice.

Of grade, I am aware of the bind this puts the NIV in, since such a alter made honestly and for the sake of accuracy would however anger a large portion of its readership that *wants* the Sometime Testament prophecies to read like their NT quotations. I empathise with you on the difficulty of such decisions.

DIB: I'chiliad afraid 'young woman' doesn't really work in the modern globe because information technology is no longer fifty-fifty vaguely overlapping with the concept of an 'aLMaH which in OT times implied a virgin. And in the days of the RSV translators this was still only nigh true. But the world has changed a great deal since then. The Seventy translators were not (I believe) inspired past the Holy Spirit when they translated PARTHENOS. They were simply finding the word with the nearest semantic range. And nosotros should follow the same principle today.

There are cardinal issues in translation and estimation at work here. Davidson is quite right that the woman's virginity is non the issue here, at to the lowest degree not terms of a miraculous virgin nativity, only Instone-Brewer is quite right that, in cultural context, a 'young woman' would be a virgin. The Internet Bible is interesting in this regard, since information technology is the only new translation that is completely free to use, and it includes 60,932 translators notes explaining why information technology has taken the translation decision that information technology has. On this poesy information technology has half dozen notes, and one of them explains:

Traditionally, "virgin." Considering this poesy from Isaiah is quoted in Matt 1:23 in connectedness with Jesus' birth, the Isaiah passage has been regarded since the earliest Christian times as a prophecy of Christ's virgin birth. Much debate has taken place over the best style to translate this Hebrew term, although ultimately one's view of the doctrine of the virgin nascency of Christ is unaffected. Though the Hebrew word used here (almah) can sometimes refer to a woman who is a virgin (Gen 24:43), it does not carry this meaning inherently. The word is just the feminine grade of the respective masculine noun elem, "young man"; cf. i Sam 17:56; 20:22). The Aramaic and Ugaritic cognate terms are both used of women who are not virgins. The word seems to pertain to historic period, non sexual experience, and would normally be translated "young adult female." The LXX translator(due south) who later translated the Book of Isaiah into Greek sometime betwixt the 2nd and first century B.C., however, rendered the Hebrew term by the more specific Greek word parthenos, which does mean "virgin" in a technical sense. This is the Greek term that besides appears in the commendation of Isa 7:14 in Matt 1:23. Therefore, regardless of the significant of the term in the OT context, in the NT Matthew'due south usage of the Greek term parthenos conspicuously indicates that from his perspective a virgin birth has taken place.

So in addition to the cultural context of the original verse, we demand to consider how the Hebrew was translated into Greek, and so how NT writers made apply of this verse—in quite different ways from how we would.

A farther set up of issues arises here: our ain expectation. In one of the online discussions, someone commented 'I e'er prefer the KJV for familiar passages.' This poetry will be heard past millions at Christmas services of Nine Lessons and Carols and it will certainly jar for near to hear 'A young woman volition be with child…' That might not be a bad thing, simply it illustrates the pressure to conform to expectations.

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David Instone-Brewer makes another annotate well-nigh the NIV which is worth remembering.

Biblica is committed to continuous updating of the NIV then the translation committee is required to see anually, ordinarily for one week (though occasionally more).
_ Every twelvemonth the members consider hundreds (sometimes thousands) of issues and then encounter to discuss the important ones in item. We've been known to spend half an 60 minutes on one comma as part of the revision of a verse, and a word can take much much longer. No changes are made unless there is a 75% vote in favour – ie nigh unanimous (given that some members will abjure due to doubtfulness).
_ Most of the work is based on discoveries published in research papers and commentaries, too as bug of consistency or misleading language that have been brought up, and of class changes in English usage – eg there are now no aliens in the NIV.
_ These revisions are accumulated until there is a major reprinting, and then that the text remains stable. I recall the NIV is the only Bible that is kept up to engagement this assiduously.

This twelvemonth is the NIV's 50th ceremony of offset publication, and Zondervan have made a whole heap of resources available, which would be worth looking at:

• A video "The NIV: Fabricated to Share," which highlights the piece of work of Biblica, a translation ministry supported by a portion of each buy of an NIV Bible
• Additional stories related to "Made to Share," the history of the translation commission and the electric current Commission on Bible Translation:
  • Karen Jobes: A Champion for Structural Accuracy
  • The NIrV: Bringing God's Word to Developing English Readers
  • Pastors and the NIV: They Say That the Contemporary Translation Brings Congregations Closer to the Word
  • Paul Swarup: For This CBT Fellow member, the NIV'southward Influence Spans Decades and Thousands of Miles

• The free NIV 50th Anniversary Bible App (bachelor in IOS and Android) provides gratuitous access to the NIV, boosted quarterly content, and the notes from a variety of NIV Bibles for the 2022 calendar year

• A365-twenty-four hour period reading plan drawn from an NIV study or devotional Bible, delivered via e-mail
• An bookish-level review of the translation philosophy of the NIV by Doug Moo (presented at the 2022 ETS meetings)
• An infographic outliningthe breadth and depth of NIV back up materials produced for studying the Bible — more than than any other English translation.

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I'll leave last word on this to Paula Gooder, who commented online:

I call back the NIV is a very good translation, except for where it isn't—like all the rest!!…My view is that we need to have a range of translation in play for different contexts. Those that aim for greater accuracy for personal study (I agree with you Ian virtually the TNIV by the style [which I adopt to the NIV]); those that aim for idiomatic rendering for public apply. And keep the range quite wide — it is easier to run into where passage are difficult to translate when y'all have a number of translations that make different decisions.

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