Seminary Professor Helps in Bible Revision

After several years of work, a revised version of the New International Reader’s Version (NIrV) of the Bible is in the process of being published, says a Calvin Theological Seminary professor.

“The update will be will be available sometime between April and June of next year,” says Michael Williams, a professor of Old Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary and one of those who worked on the text.

Based on the New International (NIV) of the Bible, the NIrV is geared especially for people for whom English is a second language, for children and for those who prefer an easier--to-read version of the Bible.

“We want them to engage with the biblical text and with God who is behind it,” Williams says in a YouTube video that describes the project.

Three others who worked on the project appear in the video as well.

Several editions of the NIrV, such as the Discover’s edition, have been published since the NIrV came out around 1996.

In the new version of the NIrV coming out in 2014, language has been updated to reflect current biblical scholarship and changing word usage.

“We went through every word and made many, many updates including English language changes, shorter sentences, easier-to-understand words, and so forth,” says Williams.

Zondervan Inc., the publisher of other NIV versions including the NIrV Discover’s Bible, has worked in conjunction with Biblica, an international Bible publisher which holds the copyright to the NIV, on the new version.

In a description of initial NIrV text, the Biblica Website Biblica website says: “The NIrV uses the words of the NIV whenever it can. Sometimes it uses shorter words. It explains words that might be hard to understand. The NIrV also makes sentences shorter. And it avoids using words that could have more than one meaning.”