An Open Letter to Zondervan and the International Bible Society Regarding the Promotion of the TNIV
03/10/2007 04:21 Filed in: Faith & Reason
To my friends and fellow believers at Zondervan and the International Bible Society:
I suppose that normally when you receive a complaint from someone regarding the Today's New International Version Bible, it's on unfriendly terms from those who are hostile to the translation. It is very important to me that you understand that is not the case with this correspondence from me today. Personally, I believe that the TNIV is one of the most accurate translations on the market today. I reject the suggestion by some that the TNIV is a liberal, feminist, or politically correct translation. In my opinion the TNIV is a conservative, Evangelical translation that accurately represents the message of the original language texts in a style of English that is contemporary and easily communicable to modern readers.
Further, I regularly study, teach and even occasionally preach from the TNIV. I have explored and defended translational decisions regarding the TNIV in numerous posts on this blog. I have actively sought out other websites that spread misinformation about the TNIV in an effort to set the record straight whenever I am able. The reaction by some in the evangelical community to the TNIV have, in my opinion, often been misleading and at the very least uncharitable. Currently the TNIV is only one of three translations I recommend to people who ask my suggestion for a good primary Bible version to use (the other two are the New Living Translation and the Holman Christian Standard Bible). In other words, I fully support, endorse, and even promote the TNIV.
But I also have concern for what I perceive as a lack of attention (or at least not enough attention) in the promotion of the TNIV by Zondervan and to a lesser extent, the International Bible Society. This is not a new issue. I've had a number of private correspondences with employees at Zondervan and the IBS. Often the issue seems somewhat settled with promises of upcoming promotion or updates to information on the TNIV website that often never materializes. Although I have been assured a number of times over that you are completely committed to the TNIV, for some reason, these issues continue to gain my notice.
The most recent example, and the event that has prompted this particular open letter, is concern from a pastor who might be willing to make the TNIV the official Bible for his congregation but is concerned that the TNIV may not be around in five years. He has posted his concerns in the comments of a post at the Better Bibles Blog in which he writes:
Incidentally, the other translation this pastor is considering adopting for his church is the English Standard Version. Honestly, I have no doubt that the ESV will be around five years from now because of the excellent marketing from Crossway. And if you really press me, I have no doubt that the TNIV will be around in five years as well, but sometimes I wonder at what level it will be around. I mean technically, even J. B. Phillips' New Testament in Modern English is still around, but it's not a major voice in Bible translations. And although I have received numerous reassurances from Zondervan about your commitment to the TNIV, I have to wonder why this issue keeps getting brought up.
Before I voice the specifics of my concerns, I should note a number of positive developments that I have observed.
First, I suppose we should all remember that the TNIV has really only been out in complete form for less than two years. In that time, despite serious campaigns to thwart its acceptance (unlike anything perhaps since the release of the RSV in 1952), the TNIV first hit the CBA top ten Bible version rankings in about a year and a half's time. That should be compared with the English Standard Version which took almost four years to see a spot in the top ten. Bible translations often take years to truly find widespread acceptance. In terms of translation adoption, the TNIV is really only in its infancy.
Second, two extremely significant editions of the TNIV were released last year: the TNIV Study Bible and the Bible Experience audio Bible. From my perspective, the TNIV Study Bible goes a long way toward demonstrating Zondervan's long term commitment to this translation. The Bible Experience has taken the TNIV to new markets and has been widely praised by its reviewers, some of whom weren't necessarily supporters of the TNIV in general.
Third, as I reported on my blog a couple of weeks ago, the TNIV has replaced the RSV in the new second edition of Wayne Meeks' Writings of St. Paul demonstrating its academic value and acceptance beyond the realm of the Evangelical world.
Fourth, I have begun to see more shelf space devoted to the TNIV in both secular and Christian book stores.
But in spite of the above developments, I still have some concerns about the way the TNIV is being promoted, or rather, my concern is that the TNIV is not being supported well enough. I have categorized my concerns under four broad categories.
Internet Promotion. First, in an internet age, the attention devoted to keeping the TNIV website up to date frankly just stinks. TNIV.com, a Zondervan website for the version, has not been significantly updated in probably two years. And it's not that it's just been neglected, it's like a neglected house that is starting to fall apart. The most significant neglect is on the products page, promoted on the home page as supposedly being "the complete TNIV line-up." It's not. In fact, it hasn't been updated since it was first created as far as I can tell. On this page, the visitor will find no mention of the TNIV Study Bible. the Bible Experience, or the recently released College Devotional Bible. And to make matters even worse, upon a recent visit, I discovered that now there are graphics which are missing and do not load. And all the bizarre white space at the bottom of the products page make it look like a middle schooler's first attempt at a website.
I wouldn't dream of recommending TNIV.com to a person who is interested in the TNIV. In fact, a while back a Zondervan employee suggested that all such interests be directed to the main Zondervan site where all the current editions of the TNIV are listed. The problem with this is that the Zondervan website doesn't work well with any browser other than the six-year-old Internet Explorer 6, and it hardly works at all for Mac users running the native Safari web browser--but I suppose the main Zondervan website is a separate issue.
Months ago--last summer, in fact--I was told that an update to TNIV.com was forthcoming, that it was a project in progress at Zondervan. What happened? In the meantime, Harper Bibles, part of the same company that also owns Zondervan, has just launched a brand new site devoted to the NRSV. They've even got a podcast! And this, after I was told that the NRSV had such declining sales that it was barely even on publishers' radar anymore.
The IBS site, TNIV.info, fares somewhat better as it is an attractive repository of information about the TNIV including reviews, scholarly articles (although no new ones in a while), explanation of questioned passages, information about translators and more. But completely missing in action is the once frequently updated TNIV Blog. Since December, 2005, the TNIV blog has only been updated twice--once in October and once in November of 2006. And now, as far as I can tell, all links from other pages on TNIV.info to the TNIV Blog have been removed. If a visitor doesn't know the address or can't find it in a search engine, he or she will not be able to find it all, but maybe that's by design.
Now, I understand that employees at a company like Zondervan are busy and juggle many responsibilities. But falling behind on keeping the TNIV website up to date seems vastly different from simply abandoning it which is what it's beginning to look like. I assume that Zondervan is a much larger company, but you could really take a lesson from Crossway's website for the ESV. Their product page is always up-to-date, and their blog is second to none. I would suggest that the ESV website is the hands down best Bible version promotional website in existence. Tyndale's NLT website is a very close second, but they should really add a blog.
Neglect of Grassroot Support. This is another place where Zondervan could learn from Crossway. Their ESV blog is quite useful for highlighting how the translation is being used among individuals and churches. They even have a page of buttons and web badges for ESV users to put on their websites. I come across these on personal sites and blogs all the time. How come Zondervan doesn't provide such things for the TNIV?
But on a more serious level, I have tried to help Zondervan and IBS out in the promotion of the TNIV on a number of occasions, and after receiving initial response, nothing ever happens. Let me give some specific examples. After strongly trying to encourage IBS to continue the TNIV blog (including suggesting entry topics), I contacted both IBS and Zondervan offering to write a TNIV blog for either organization. I was willing to completely ghostwrite the blog anonymously, focusing on features of the translation, differences from the NIV, spotlights on translators and the like. From IBS, I didn't even receive as much as a "No, thank you." The folks at Zondervan seemed to take the idea seriously at first, though. I was told that my suggestion for a new Zondervan sponsored TNIV blog had been discussed in one of their meetings. They said they were open to my contributing to such a blog. Then I was told that a specific person at Zondervan would be in touch with me the following week to see about getting the process rolling, but I never heard anything more about it. That was about three or four months ago. I was willing to do all this for free, mind you.
Another situation is even more puzzling. As I said before, the concerns expressed here have come up from time to time. About five months ago, they had come up again, and an employee at Zondervan specifically contacted three of us who support the TNIV in response to an online conversation. Toward the end of his well-written response to the three of us, he included this offer:
Two of the three of us said we were interested. In response, we were told,
And then neither one of us heard anything. Ever. You know, I thought this was a great idea. Here we had been concerned about the perceived neglect of marketing of the TNIV, so we were invited to help out. Both of us agreed to this person's offer, and then it never happened. I realize that people get busy and things fall through the cracks, but we're trying to help promote the TNIV--on a volunteer basis, no less--with free promotion and advertising--simply because we believe in this translation. I realize that This Lamp isn't THE most frequented site on the internet, but 250 hits a day isn't too shabby considering your average person with a family blog only gets about a dozen hits a day.
Lack of Professional Editions. I understand that supposedly the TNIV was initially aimed toward 18 to 34 year olds, but there's a large market beyond this demographic that will read and use the TNIV (I'm 39, by the way). In fact, anyone reading the NIV should be a potential target market for the TNIV. On a readability level, there's no real difference between the two. My biggest initial concern was simply finding an edition of the TNIV with a cover that didn't attract attention to itself (which I finally did). Now, I'm concerned that other than the TNIV Study Bible, I still can't purchase a reference edition or an edition with wider margins for notes. In my opinion, strictly targeting younger markets is too narrow of a focus. I need a copy of the TNIV which I can teach and preach from, one that I can write my own notes in. I realize that wide margin Bibles don't sell as well as other editions, but those who use wide margin Bibles often have influence over individuals who will be purchasing Bibles and what translations they choose. I regularly get asked from people in my classes what Bible I'm using. I seriously need a good edition of the TNIV in which I can add my own notes and use as the same Bible for both personal study and public use. I would at least suggest a limited/seasonal run of this kind of edition. Again, the market for those who use these editions might be smaller, but we influence the translation choice of the larger group.
Cannibalization. I know this is a taboo subject, and I also realize that of everything I've suggested here, that this will be the least considered. But the biggest barrier to the TNIV's acceptance is not its detractors; rather, it's the NIV. Frankly, I'm skeptical that the TNIV will ever gain widespread acceptance as long as the NIV remains in general use. This is a case where Tyndale really made all the right moves in the transition from the old Living Bible paraphrase to the New Living Translation. Before the NLT was launched in 1996, the old Living Bible was available in much more than the standard green hardback. There were reference editions, children's editions, and study editions--including the Life Application Study Bible. But in order for the NLT to be a success, Tyndale phased out every edition except the old green hardback which is still available today. I'm sure this may have even caused some financial problems initially, but today the NLT usually ranks the 4th or 5th spot on the CBA chart.
Zondervan could learn a lot from Tyndale on this issue. I fully understand the commitments that were made a decade ago to keep the NIV in print in response to the controversy over the NIVi. However, Zondervan could stay true to that promise and simply keep the old standard brown NIV hardback in print, and let every other edition transition to the TNIV. Yes, there would be some money lost initially, but as Tyndale has shown with the NLT, these things work themselves out.
The NIV has a wonderful and proud legacy. I am truly thankful for its place in translation history as the first contemporary language version to dethrone the old KJV. My fear, however, is that in 200 years, the NIV will still be the dominant Protestant translation. It's time to make the hard move and retire the NIV. The NIV came along at a time when it was fairly unique among translations. There are so many translations now that the TNIV, although a better translation than the NIV, has less secure footing.
I have no illusion that this will actually happen, but I thought I'd say it anyway.
In addition to the above issues being addressed, I would also like to see more aggressive marketing of the TNIV, especially the use of some of its better known endorsers. When detractors of the TNIV start listing high profile evangelical leaders who do not like the translation, I often surprise them by countering with the fact that individuals such as D. A. Carson and Timothy George endorse the TNIV. Or I'll mention that Douglas Moo was one of the translators. That kind of information often takes opponents of the TNIV by surprise. Granted, endorsers don't really have any direct connection as to how well a translation communicates the message of the original biblical texts, but I've found that such endorsements will often make someone opposed to the TNIV open to take an actual look at it. I would love to see advertisements with the gentlemen I've mentioned here, as well as others listed online in ads in such places as Christianity Today and other high profile advertising space. I believe such testimonials would go a long way toward creating more open minds.
I hope that you will take this letter as I intend it--an expression not just of concern, but of suggestions from a supporter of the TNIV. I would welcome any representatives of Zondervan or IBS to respond in the comments on this blog entry and join in with the conversation among the visitors to my site. I've said over and over that the TNIV is a highly accurate translation and a better representation of the original texts than its predecessor. I would hope to use it for the next decade or two, but I don't want to be alone in doing so.
Humbly,
Rick Mansfield
Be sure to read the PS to this open letter as well.
I suppose that normally when you receive a complaint from someone regarding the Today's New International Version Bible, it's on unfriendly terms from those who are hostile to the translation. It is very important to me that you understand that is not the case with this correspondence from me today. Personally, I believe that the TNIV is one of the most accurate translations on the market today. I reject the suggestion by some that the TNIV is a liberal, feminist, or politically correct translation. In my opinion the TNIV is a conservative, Evangelical translation that accurately represents the message of the original language texts in a style of English that is contemporary and easily communicable to modern readers.
Further, I regularly study, teach and even occasionally preach from the TNIV. I have explored and defended translational decisions regarding the TNIV in numerous posts on this blog. I have actively sought out other websites that spread misinformation about the TNIV in an effort to set the record straight whenever I am able. The reaction by some in the evangelical community to the TNIV have, in my opinion, often been misleading and at the very least uncharitable. Currently the TNIV is only one of three translations I recommend to people who ask my suggestion for a good primary Bible version to use (the other two are the New Living Translation and the Holman Christian Standard Bible). In other words, I fully support, endorse, and even promote the TNIV.
But I also have concern for what I perceive as a lack of attention (or at least not enough attention) in the promotion of the TNIV by Zondervan and to a lesser extent, the International Bible Society. This is not a new issue. I've had a number of private correspondences with employees at Zondervan and the IBS. Often the issue seems somewhat settled with promises of upcoming promotion or updates to information on the TNIV website that often never materializes. Although I have been assured a number of times over that you are completely committed to the TNIV, for some reason, these issues continue to gain my notice.
The most recent example, and the event that has prompted this particular open letter, is concern from a pastor who might be willing to make the TNIV the official Bible for his congregation but is concerned that the TNIV may not be around in five years. He has posted his concerns in the comments of a post at the Better Bibles Blog in which he writes:
[I]s this translation going to make it? Zondervan and IBS are taking such a tremendous amount of heat, I don't see Zondervan pushing this like they did the NIV. I emailed asking about a wide margin TNIV (other than that squared one they have) and they said they have no plans for one, even though they have a NIV and NASB wide margin Bible.
If I switch us to TNIV and then Zondervan doesn't support it, am I getting into something that won't be here five years from now...?
Incidentally, the other translation this pastor is considering adopting for his church is the English Standard Version. Honestly, I have no doubt that the ESV will be around five years from now because of the excellent marketing from Crossway. And if you really press me, I have no doubt that the TNIV will be around in five years as well, but sometimes I wonder at what level it will be around. I mean technically, even J. B. Phillips' New Testament in Modern English is still around, but it's not a major voice in Bible translations. And although I have received numerous reassurances from Zondervan about your commitment to the TNIV, I have to wonder why this issue keeps getting brought up.
Before I voice the specifics of my concerns, I should note a number of positive developments that I have observed.
First, I suppose we should all remember that the TNIV has really only been out in complete form for less than two years. In that time, despite serious campaigns to thwart its acceptance (unlike anything perhaps since the release of the RSV in 1952), the TNIV first hit the CBA top ten Bible version rankings in about a year and a half's time. That should be compared with the English Standard Version which took almost four years to see a spot in the top ten. Bible translations often take years to truly find widespread acceptance. In terms of translation adoption, the TNIV is really only in its infancy.
Second, two extremely significant editions of the TNIV were released last year: the TNIV Study Bible and the Bible Experience audio Bible. From my perspective, the TNIV Study Bible goes a long way toward demonstrating Zondervan's long term commitment to this translation. The Bible Experience has taken the TNIV to new markets and has been widely praised by its reviewers, some of whom weren't necessarily supporters of the TNIV in general.
Third, as I reported on my blog a couple of weeks ago, the TNIV has replaced the RSV in the new second edition of Wayne Meeks' Writings of St. Paul demonstrating its academic value and acceptance beyond the realm of the Evangelical world.
Fourth, I have begun to see more shelf space devoted to the TNIV in both secular and Christian book stores.
But in spite of the above developments, I still have some concerns about the way the TNIV is being promoted, or rather, my concern is that the TNIV is not being supported well enough. I have categorized my concerns under four broad categories.
Internet Promotion. First, in an internet age, the attention devoted to keeping the TNIV website up to date frankly just stinks. TNIV.com, a Zondervan website for the version, has not been significantly updated in probably two years. And it's not that it's just been neglected, it's like a neglected house that is starting to fall apart. The most significant neglect is on the products page, promoted on the home page as supposedly being "the complete TNIV line-up." It's not. In fact, it hasn't been updated since it was first created as far as I can tell. On this page, the visitor will find no mention of the TNIV Study Bible. the Bible Experience, or the recently released College Devotional Bible. And to make matters even worse, upon a recent visit, I discovered that now there are graphics which are missing and do not load. And all the bizarre white space at the bottom of the products page make it look like a middle schooler's first attempt at a website.
I wouldn't dream of recommending TNIV.com to a person who is interested in the TNIV. In fact, a while back a Zondervan employee suggested that all such interests be directed to the main Zondervan site where all the current editions of the TNIV are listed. The problem with this is that the Zondervan website doesn't work well with any browser other than the six-year-old Internet Explorer 6, and it hardly works at all for Mac users running the native Safari web browser--but I suppose the main Zondervan website is a separate issue.
Months ago--last summer, in fact--I was told that an update to TNIV.com was forthcoming, that it was a project in progress at Zondervan. What happened? In the meantime, Harper Bibles, part of the same company that also owns Zondervan, has just launched a brand new site devoted to the NRSV. They've even got a podcast! And this, after I was told that the NRSV had such declining sales that it was barely even on publishers' radar anymore.
The IBS site, TNIV.info, fares somewhat better as it is an attractive repository of information about the TNIV including reviews, scholarly articles (although no new ones in a while), explanation of questioned passages, information about translators and more. But completely missing in action is the once frequently updated TNIV Blog. Since December, 2005, the TNIV blog has only been updated twice--once in October and once in November of 2006. And now, as far as I can tell, all links from other pages on TNIV.info to the TNIV Blog have been removed. If a visitor doesn't know the address or can't find it in a search engine, he or she will not be able to find it all, but maybe that's by design.
Now, I understand that employees at a company like Zondervan are busy and juggle many responsibilities. But falling behind on keeping the TNIV website up to date seems vastly different from simply abandoning it which is what it's beginning to look like. I assume that Zondervan is a much larger company, but you could really take a lesson from Crossway's website for the ESV. Their product page is always up-to-date, and their blog is second to none. I would suggest that the ESV website is the hands down best Bible version promotional website in existence. Tyndale's NLT website is a very close second, but they should really add a blog.
Neglect of Grassroot Support. This is another place where Zondervan could learn from Crossway. Their ESV blog is quite useful for highlighting how the translation is being used among individuals and churches. They even have a page of buttons and web badges for ESV users to put on their websites. I come across these on personal sites and blogs all the time. How come Zondervan doesn't provide such things for the TNIV?
But on a more serious level, I have tried to help Zondervan and IBS out in the promotion of the TNIV on a number of occasions, and after receiving initial response, nothing ever happens. Let me give some specific examples. After strongly trying to encourage IBS to continue the TNIV blog (including suggesting entry topics), I contacted both IBS and Zondervan offering to write a TNIV blog for either organization. I was willing to completely ghostwrite the blog anonymously, focusing on features of the translation, differences from the NIV, spotlights on translators and the like. From IBS, I didn't even receive as much as a "No, thank you." The folks at Zondervan seemed to take the idea seriously at first, though. I was told that my suggestion for a new Zondervan sponsored TNIV blog had been discussed in one of their meetings. They said they were open to my contributing to such a blog. Then I was told that a specific person at Zondervan would be in touch with me the following week to see about getting the process rolling, but I never heard anything more about it. That was about three or four months ago. I was willing to do all this for free, mind you.
Another situation is even more puzzling. As I said before, the concerns expressed here have come up from time to time. About five months ago, they had come up again, and an employee at Zondervan specifically contacted three of us who support the TNIV in response to an online conversation. Toward the end of his well-written response to the three of us, he included this offer:
I wanted to let you know that in the next day or so, we’re going to have audio and video clips of The Bible Experience available for people to post on their websites, blogs, etc. This includes a 60-second video trailer, an 8-minute “behind-the-scenes” video, and 4-5 different audio clips from the New Testament. If you’re interested in posting any of these to your blogs, I’d be happy to help make that happen.
Two of the three of us said we were interested. In response, we were told,
I’m going to ask [name withheld] to get in touch with you about posting the audio and video clips to your site. Since [this person is] on the marketing side of things, [this person] probably can help you out better than I can. In any case, thanks for being willing to put them up on your website.
And then neither one of us heard anything. Ever. You know, I thought this was a great idea. Here we had been concerned about the perceived neglect of marketing of the TNIV, so we were invited to help out. Both of us agreed to this person's offer, and then it never happened. I realize that people get busy and things fall through the cracks, but we're trying to help promote the TNIV--on a volunteer basis, no less--with free promotion and advertising--simply because we believe in this translation. I realize that This Lamp isn't THE most frequented site on the internet, but 250 hits a day isn't too shabby considering your average person with a family blog only gets about a dozen hits a day.
Lack of Professional Editions. I understand that supposedly the TNIV was initially aimed toward 18 to 34 year olds, but there's a large market beyond this demographic that will read and use the TNIV (I'm 39, by the way). In fact, anyone reading the NIV should be a potential target market for the TNIV. On a readability level, there's no real difference between the two. My biggest initial concern was simply finding an edition of the TNIV with a cover that didn't attract attention to itself (which I finally did). Now, I'm concerned that other than the TNIV Study Bible, I still can't purchase a reference edition or an edition with wider margins for notes. In my opinion, strictly targeting younger markets is too narrow of a focus. I need a copy of the TNIV which I can teach and preach from, one that I can write my own notes in. I realize that wide margin Bibles don't sell as well as other editions, but those who use wide margin Bibles often have influence over individuals who will be purchasing Bibles and what translations they choose. I regularly get asked from people in my classes what Bible I'm using. I seriously need a good edition of the TNIV in which I can add my own notes and use as the same Bible for both personal study and public use. I would at least suggest a limited/seasonal run of this kind of edition. Again, the market for those who use these editions might be smaller, but we influence the translation choice of the larger group.
Cannibalization. I know this is a taboo subject, and I also realize that of everything I've suggested here, that this will be the least considered. But the biggest barrier to the TNIV's acceptance is not its detractors; rather, it's the NIV. Frankly, I'm skeptical that the TNIV will ever gain widespread acceptance as long as the NIV remains in general use. This is a case where Tyndale really made all the right moves in the transition from the old Living Bible paraphrase to the New Living Translation. Before the NLT was launched in 1996, the old Living Bible was available in much more than the standard green hardback. There were reference editions, children's editions, and study editions--including the Life Application Study Bible. But in order for the NLT to be a success, Tyndale phased out every edition except the old green hardback which is still available today. I'm sure this may have even caused some financial problems initially, but today the NLT usually ranks the 4th or 5th spot on the CBA chart.
Zondervan could learn a lot from Tyndale on this issue. I fully understand the commitments that were made a decade ago to keep the NIV in print in response to the controversy over the NIVi. However, Zondervan could stay true to that promise and simply keep the old standard brown NIV hardback in print, and let every other edition transition to the TNIV. Yes, there would be some money lost initially, but as Tyndale has shown with the NLT, these things work themselves out.
The NIV has a wonderful and proud legacy. I am truly thankful for its place in translation history as the first contemporary language version to dethrone the old KJV. My fear, however, is that in 200 years, the NIV will still be the dominant Protestant translation. It's time to make the hard move and retire the NIV. The NIV came along at a time when it was fairly unique among translations. There are so many translations now that the TNIV, although a better translation than the NIV, has less secure footing.
I have no illusion that this will actually happen, but I thought I'd say it anyway.
In addition to the above issues being addressed, I would also like to see more aggressive marketing of the TNIV, especially the use of some of its better known endorsers. When detractors of the TNIV start listing high profile evangelical leaders who do not like the translation, I often surprise them by countering with the fact that individuals such as D. A. Carson and Timothy George endorse the TNIV. Or I'll mention that Douglas Moo was one of the translators. That kind of information often takes opponents of the TNIV by surprise. Granted, endorsers don't really have any direct connection as to how well a translation communicates the message of the original biblical texts, but I've found that such endorsements will often make someone opposed to the TNIV open to take an actual look at it. I would love to see advertisements with the gentlemen I've mentioned here, as well as others listed online in ads in such places as Christianity Today and other high profile advertising space. I believe such testimonials would go a long way toward creating more open minds.
I hope that you will take this letter as I intend it--an expression not just of concern, but of suggestions from a supporter of the TNIV. I would welcome any representatives of Zondervan or IBS to respond in the comments on this blog entry and join in with the conversation among the visitors to my site. I've said over and over that the TNIV is a highly accurate translation and a better representation of the original texts than its predecessor. I would hope to use it for the next decade or two, but I don't want to be alone in doing so.
Humbly,
Rick Mansfield
Be sure to read the PS to this open letter as well.