New International Version
FD
Scale
(formal-dynamic factor): 3 (in the middle)
To me, the
NIV is somewhere in between a formal and a dynamic translation. On the one
hand, it doesn't alter the sentence structure of things much or give
"brothers and sisters" for "brothers." But largely because
of the drift factor below, it does give its own dynamic rendition at a number
of points. For example, it has "It is good for a man not to marry"
where the Greek has "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 Cor. 7:1).
OC
Scale (original-“catholic” text): 2 (in the middle)
Actually,
the NIV follows modern canons of deriving the original historical text. It is
thus far more original in its wording than the "catholic" text of the
KJV. But since the NIV did not yet take into account developments in our
knowledge of the OT text that came from the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
I'll put it in the middle.
Drift (degree to which
theology affects translation): 4 (theology affects translation significantly)
A 4 probably isn't fair, since most of the time theology doesn't affect the
translation. However, the evangelical theology of the NIV translators is so
evident in so many places that the 4 is meant to communicate that fact.
Here are some examples of this theological drift in addition to the example I
gave above. In 1 Cor. 7:27-28, later in the same
chapter, we have "Are you unmarried, do not look for a wife. But if you do
marry, you have not sinned..." The Greek reads, "Are you loosed from
a wife, do not seek a wife, but if you do you have not sinned..."
Then we have Isaiah 7:14, "The virgin will conceive..." The Hebrew
almost certainly meant, "A young woman will conceive..." The NIV of Philippians 2:6 reads, "Who, being in very nature
God" where the Greek reads, "Who being in the form of God."
The NIV of Colossians 1:15 reads, "firstborn over all creation," the
Greek could mean that, but reads less interpretively "firstborn of all
creation..."
Youth Scale
(readability): 3 (in the middle)
While the NIV was a massive improvement in readability over the KJV, teenagers
today still find it difficult to understand at times. Part of this is the fact
that the Bible was written to address ancient situations in ancient categories,
so that's no surprise. In other words, the more a translation tries to render
the original meaning, the more foreign it is bound to seem.
The NIV is clearly not one of my favorite translations, even if it is the
evangelical baby. In my opinion, the TNIV is a vast improvement in many ways.