New International Version Inclusive Language Edition
The New International Version Inclusive Language Edition (NIVI) of the Christian Bible was the first of three inclusive language versions of the New International Version (NIV). It was published by Hodder and Stoughton (a subsidiary of Lagardere Publishing) in London in 1996. It was only released in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth Countries.
In 1997, an article by World Magazine accused the NIVI of being "a feminist seduction of the evangelical church". This led to a protest in evangelical circles, led by James Dobson. Despite some evangelicals coming to the defense of the NIVI, Zondervan responded by not releasing the NIVI in the United States.[1]
The front cover of the Inclusive Language edition did not distinguish the version from the standard NIV, and only in opening the Bible on the title page was it clear it was a feminist/Inclusive Language version.
One of the criticisms was that the word ‘man’ was replaced by a variety of words in a very mechanical way by a variety of words (‘anyone’ ‘person’ etc.) even in passages where clearly a man was indicated. This lent credibility to the criticism that this was a feminist translation with the need to strip the translation of as many occurrences as possible of the word ‘man’. The worst of this mechanical replacement was corrected in 1999 in the last edition.[2]
In 2002 Today's New International Version (TNIV) was published for the English speaking world as a replacement, but differing in it's title with the addition of 'Today's'. This was also discontinued, with a slightly toned-down version of the TNIV being published as the New International Version in 2011.
References
- ^ Bibles: Hands Off My NIV!, Christianity Today, June-16-1997
- ^ For example compare the first few verses in Leviticus 15 in the 1996 and 1999 editions
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