What is your attitude to the New International Version of the Bible?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1990.

You ask about my attitude to the NIV.

It would be scandalous to say that the NIV is a bad and unreliable translation. Of all the translations, including the King James and the Revised King James, the NIV outshines them all in its stand for the full deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It has, of course, indulged in dynamic translation to an extent that I think is in places excessive and unnecessary; and in places it has employed interpretation more than strict translation. Moreover, in its zeal to produce modern English, it has to my mind eliminated conjunctions where it should not have done, simply because omission of conjunctions is a feature of modern literal English.

But when all those are taken into consideration, the NIV remains a very helpful translation, done by men and women who believe utterly in the inspiration and authority of Scripture. I myself was asked to vet some of the footnotes in some of the Old Testament texts that relate to the Septuagint.

Yours sincerely in Christ,