Today's New International Version

Today's New International Version is a major revision within the NIV family, covering the complete Bible and translated from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek on the basis of modern critical texts. Taking the 1984 NIV as its predecessor and base translation, it is categorized as a substantial revision rather than a new work, and it follows a mediating translation philosophy — one seeking a middle path between formal and functional equivalence — while extending the use of gender-accurate language. Its reception was marked by controversy, which centered especially on those gender-accurate renderings and on their implications for how the biblical text should be rendered for contemporary readers. The revision nonetheless anticipated many of the language choices later incorporated into the 2011 NIV, and it thus occupies a transitional place in the history of one of the most widely circulated modern English Bible traditions.