New NIV Product Catalog: Some Cheers and Jeers

The front half of the 52-page printed catalog supporting the new NIV rollout this spring is somewhat predictable, highlighting as it does the major product lines we’ve come to know and love.   But start at the back cover and read backwards to the staple in the middle, and you find some things that those reading front to back just might miss:

• Laurel: Translation Brochure — Nobody does this better than Zondervan.  This should be required reading for staff, right?  No; this should be required to be memorized by staff selling Bibles.  Add item 438526 to your next order and hand these out liberally to inquiring customers.
• Dart: NIV Liberty Bible — I just about gagged when I saw the eagle, the Stars and Stripes, Mount Rushmore, and the Statue of Liberty on this Bible’s packaging; but it gets worse when you look close.  The front cover of the duo-tone Bible features a U.S. flag on the cover.  I wonder what my UK friends think of this one?  It’s official:  God and the United States are now officially united in this patriotic NIV edition.  Zondervan should never have allowed these catalogs to be distributed outside the land of the free and the home of the brave.  Waaay too embarrassing at an international level. Okay, now I am gagging.
• Laurel: NIV & KJV Side-By-Side Bible, Large Print — The parallel thing has been done before, but you gotta love this:  The NIV features an introduction by Andy Stanley and the KJV features an introduction by Charles Stanley.  Hey, you didn’t think of it.  But it should be called “The Atlanta Edition.”
  
• Laurel: The People’s Bible — Two laurels actually; popular verses, as determined by BibleGateway.com are highlighted (yeah, I know some people will have issues with this as they do with red-letter editions) and the second laurel for the awesome typeface. Okay, a third laurel for the price point.
• Dart: NIV Backpack Bible All-Star Blue — Okay, this dart isn’t from me, but the five-pointed star on the cover of this Bible is just begging for attacks from conservative fundamentalist groups who will take the opportunity to further their attack on the translation and its publisher.  What were the people at Zondervan thinking?
  
• Laurel: NIV Bible for Teens/Kids — The popular Thinline Bibles with some more kid-friendly and teen-friendly covers were previously available, but often overlooked.
  
• Dart: NIV Gift & Award Bible — There have been some improvements over the past few years, but these budget productions with the 6.5 point type seem like such a poor presentation of God’s Word. (An improvement on my earlier sentence, “seem like a rather mean thing to do a Bible.”)   Our store no longer carries them.
• Laurel:  NIV Church Bible — It’s the name.  So obvious.  Most of our churches don’t have pews anymore, so why call them “Pew Bibles?”  Hope the guy who suggested this gets a bonus.  Well, a small one.
• Dart:  NIV Church Bible Large Print — With a rapidly aging population, it’s hard to believe that economies-of-scale pricing still gives the regular edition (at $12.99) such an edge over the large print (at $19.99) though I’ll grant you the page count in the latter is nearly double.  But page count isn’t a factor in the Thinlines, which jump from $24.99 to $39.99 for bonded leather, with only a 10% page count differential.
• Laurel: NIV Textbook Bible for Students — Again, as with The Peoples Bible, this one usually features a knockout typeface that belies the fact it’s only a 9-point type.  It’s only a $19.99 Bible, but I tell my customers if the store caught on fire, it’s the one I’d grab; so distinctive is the font.  They should really use this on other editions, again, especially with an aging population.
• Laurel: NIV Thinline Reference Large Print Black Letter — Okay, this one is actually past the staple on our back-to-front flip, but it’s nice to see an alternative to the red-letter format, especially in a large print edition whose customers are often bothered by the red ink.  But I’m talking about the $44.99 one.  The $129.99 premium edition is another subject entirely, and it puts Zondervan in more direct competition with NIV-licensee Cambridge Bibles.
• Laurel: NIV Come Closer Catalog — This is a massive undertaking; so many ISBNs — make that Bible ISBNs — all releasing within a few months (a few weeks when you think about it) of each other.  Good thing their Daddy-publisher has deep pockets.  But almost all the individual editions are already proven, so the risk here would seem to be minimal.

If you don’t have one, even if you’ve already programmed the new ISBN numbers into your system; get your rep to send you the “ISBN Translation Map” which parallels old editions and new editions, and gives you a more visual sense of where things fit in.  The map also highlights the editions which will experience price increases, but thereby also indicates the greater number which are staying at the same MSRP.

Prices in this article are in U.S. dollars.

New NIV is Forcing Churches to Choose

Online Christian writer Trevin Wax nails it with this observation about the introduction of the 2011 edition of the NIV:

The problem I see with the NIV 2011 is that the publisher (Zondervan) seems to be putting churches and church leaders in a position where they are forced to make a choice. A few years ago, upon considering the resistance from some evangelicals toward the TNIV, Zondervan assured Bible-readers that the 1984 NIV would remain available. But no such assurance is given now. In fact, the publisher has expressly indicated the desire for the NIV 2011 to replace both the original NIV and the TNIV.

Though many evangelicals have gravitated toward other translations (such as the English Standard Version or the Holman Christian Standard Bible), most evangelical churches continue to use the 1984 NIV as their common text. NIV Bibles occupy the pews in thousands of churches, giving it the prominence of being a kind of “default” contemporary translation.

But the widespread use of the NIV as a “standard” English translation will probably disappear. Why? Because this most recent revision (one that straddles the fence between dynamic and formal equivalence, between gender-neutral and gender-specific language) seals the translation philosophy for the NIV as it eventually replaces the 1984 version.

Here’s a few other quick quotes:

• …Pastors and churches will be forced to make a choice. Either make the move to the NIV 2011 or move to another translation altogether.
• The programs on my computer require me to update often. A trustworthy program in one decade may require an update installation in order to continue to function properly. But the Bible is not like a computer program.
• It’s ironic that the NIV 2011 revision is scheduled to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, the most popular and most influential English translation of all time. Unfortunately, the launch of this new revision will have the opposite effect of the KJV. The King James Version united Bible readers around a common text. I’m afraid the NIV 2011 will speed up the growing fragmentation of evangelicals in regards to Bible translations.

Read the entire piece in context here at his blog, Kingdom People.