An Alarming Discovery

Dated July 31, 2013


I was going to quote a verse from the Bible and usually I would just cut and paste it from the online Bible site Biblegateway.com. However, I noticed that since a few months ago, Biblegateway.com had phased out my favorite translation: NIV 1984. Last time they had both "NIV 1984" and "NIV", the latter presumably being the NIV 2011. Now they have only NIV 2011 available and they label it only as "NIV" (no year), which means that for people who are not aware that they have made a new 2011 translation, they will presume this is one and the same NIV of 1984 (and they hope to pass it off as such for all time?).

What's alarming about this is that the verse I was looking up was Malachi 4:6

"He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." (NIV 1984)

Biblegateway NIV has this:

6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children,and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (NIV 2011)

Now I know this verse by heart, so, I know this is an inaccurate and misleading translation of that verse because the intent of Malachi is really for the fathers, as mothers' hearts are always devoted to their children.

So, I looked up other online Bibles that offer various translations, hoping I can still find the NIV 1984 online. I couldn't find any!? Is it just my search engine? It seems we now have only Biblegateway.com and they have monopolized the online Bible??? I seem to have found one or two more but they seem to be related to Biblegateway.com as well and they don't have the NIV 1984 either.

When I searched further, I found this:

http://zusings.com/2013/01/22/the-death-of-the-niv-1984-bible-1984-2012/


Main point of above article:


"The King James Version’s OT (Old Testament) was written with certain available Masorectic Texts. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found they became factors in subsequent translations such as the Revised Standard Version and New Living Translations. In short I understand why we can justify new translations when new manuscripts are found and the English language changes. But we haven’t experienced a significant linguistic shift since 1984 and I haven’t heard any news about concrete critical archaeological manuscript findings. And I’d like Bible scholars out there to comment on revelatory and meaningful recent discoveries in hermeneutics and exegetical approaches that merited application to the NIV1984...


The resulting NIV 2011, among other things, has obvious questionable gender pronoun changes. The Unlocking Femininity Blog eloquently addresses this in the old but rich post from 2011: Words Matter: Why We Can’t Recommend the NIV 2011."

I also found this: https://getsatisfaction.com/memverse/topics/niv_1984_missing_from_bible_gateway
posted March 4, 2013

And this: http://bltnotjustasandwich.com/2013/04/05/biblica-kills-online-tniv-and-niv-1984/
posted April 5, 2013

There is no doubt that the King James Version will remain our only reliable version because some Bible scholars had a lower opinion of the NIV 1973, 1978, 1984 anyway, but we all know that the KJV is more difficult to relate with, not to mention understand, especially for new believers or people who are just starting to read the Bible.


Meanwhile, I think we should avail of the NIV1984 Close Out Sale here:http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=2676035&sp=114187

They are phasing it out!!!

With Obama pushing the gay agenda and this underhanded and seemingly un-publicized move by Zondervan, the once-thought-of-reliable Bible publisher, I believe something big is going on behind our backs.

This note is mainly for Christians.

God bless to all.