What are your thoughts on the updated NIV version of the Bible?

Question

Gramps,

Have you checked-out the new “updated” NIV?  What’s your thoughts on it?

Ken

Answer

Hi there Ken,

Well, to be honest, I don’t pay much attention to what’s new in the Biblical translation world. When I dive into biblical scripture, I find it occasionally useful to compare versions (Studylight.org, for example, lets you look at over 40 versions), so I guess I can throw the new version on the pile. Reading up on the original Hebrew or Greek for context and meaning helps too. But at the end of the day, until archaeologists discover a version closer to the original source documents, all we’re doing here is reinventing the wheel and continuing to pour God’s word through our own cultural lenses.

This is what humans do – we take in information, run it through our own filters and biases and beliefs, and send it out in a changed form. I’m a big fan of Article of Faith #8: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly…” All of Christianity owes the Catholics big-time, for preserving the Bible as well as they did through so many centuries. But even so, our earliest sources of scriptures are copies of the original, made hundreds of years after the original.

Our church considers the King James version to be accurate and complete enough to be in our standard works. Joseph Smith gave us a few things to think about in the inspired translation he did. We have access to guidance and confirmation of the Holy Ghost to help us understand and interpret what the Bible has to tell us. We have the Book of Mormon to stand as a second witness, basically pointing to the Bible and saying “Ditto to what it says.” And no matter which translation you use, the Bible basically says God exists, we are His children, He loves us, so He sent His son to atone for humanity’s sins so we can free ourselves of sin by accepting Christ as our savior, and return to heaven, hopefully to dwell with our Heavenly Father as joint heirs with Christ. As long as the newest updated New International Version doesn’t eliminate any of that, it’s fine with me.

Gramps