History Of The New International Version Of The Bible

The idea for a New International Version of the bible was born in 1965. A group of scholars, gathered in Illinois exposed the need of new translation of the Bible in contemporary English.

One year later, this idea was approved by a big number of church leaders who met in Chicago in 1966. The financial support for this project was provided by New York Bible Society which is nowadays known as the International Bible Society.

The Committee on Bible translation was a body that was consisted of fifteen biblical scholars. The job of this body was to create a new version of the Bible. In the process of developing New International Version of the Bible, more than one hundred scholars worked together using the best texts from Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic language. Scholars worked in teams and each team had to translate a particular book. The samples that were translated were carefully revised and tested to ensure they are easy to read by many different groups of people.

The New International Version of the Bible is known as the most thoroughly reviewed translation that was ever released. The goal of the Committee on Bible translation was to produce a clear and accurate translation of the Bible which will be easy and suitable for public and private reading, teachings of the Bible, and also it was intended for liturgical use.

The completed translation at that time known as The New Testament was published in 1973. After publishing The New Testament, the Committee, again carefully reviewed the suggestions for revisions of their work. Many of the suggestions were accepted and included into the first printing of the complete New International Version of the Bible that was released in 1978. In 1983 further changes were made.

Nowadays, the New International Version of the Bible can be quoted without permission of the publisher in any form (visual, electronic, audio or written), up to five hundred verses. But there are certain limitations such as:

• it is not allowed for the quoted verses to amount to a complete book of the Bible;
• it is not allowed the quoted verses to account for 25% or more of the total text in the work where the verses of the Bible are quoted.

In such cases, a permission of the publisher is a must.