I really, really don’t understand Zondervan’s marketing and publishing decisions when it comes to the TNIV. This is a worthy revision of the venerable NIV, yet Zondervan seems determined to cut it off at the knees before it gets the chance to run in the marketplace.
Some background: I’m searching for a “modern” Bible to replace the NASB that I’ve used for 20+ years. I’m 35 years old, married with two young boys. According to Zondervan and IBS, because I’m (just) older than their target 18-34 year old market for the TNIV, I should not be using a translation that is “more precise”, “highly readable” and “reflects the most recent advances in biblical scholarship.” Presumably, I should be using the less precise, less readable and less advanced, but more popular, uh… traditional, NIV. Ironically, that would fit nicely with the pew Bibles at the new church we’ve begun attending.
Yet, being the determined sort who likes precision and accuracy, I’ve gone looking for a TNIV to use for everyday studying and personal reading. I tend to use hardbacks as a way of evaluating a translation and had picked up the TNIV “Church Bible” as such. However, of the 50+ ISBNs listed with a major online retailer, there are only *two* titles that are not a thinline, compact, audio, topical and/or study Bible: the aforementioned Church Bible hardback and the TNIV Reference Bible, which I critiqued in an earlier post (and which has not been published yet, due out at the end of the year).
So I did the next best thing. I ordered a TNIV that is no longer in print. That is, a seasonal edition (ISBN 0-310-93445-1) that Zondervan had produced sometime in the past year or two and was available on closeout from one of Amazon’s market vendors. It’s a thinline edition with a black and gold Italian Duo-tone cover with a textured image of a cross on the center band. Of course the text is small as you’d expect with a thinline, but not unreadable. The red ink is tolerable, not as pink as from Tyndale. Ironically the Church Bible and the Reference Bible are the only two black-letter editions from Zondervan; someone there must have decided that red ink was thinner than black ink at some point in time…
If Zondervan were to offer the Church Bible with this cover, I’d be very happy. If they were to offer their TNIV XL with this cover, black-letter ink *and* thicker paper, I’d be ecstatic. But for now, this will do — it just doesn’t thump that good.
There are also TNIV editions available from IBS, the TNIV copyright holder, including hardbacks. I purchased a large print hardback TNIV from IBS and my eyes are pleased. And IBS’ prices can’t be beat!
Thanks for the link, Wayne. Here’s the link for all TNIV editions from IBS, not just hardbacks… looks like some nice options to compare to what Zondervan has produced.
The TNIV XL is great for preaching. I had mine rebound with calfskin at leatherbibles.com. The TNIV XL is cheaper at IBSdirect.com (leather and hardback). We use them at our church for gifts and the brown TNIV large print for extra Bible for Bible study for those who forget to bring their Bibles.
If anyone has one of the IBS Large Print TNIVs and can take a digital photo of the inside layout, I’d welcome the chance to post it here and compare it with the other TNIV editions. IBS doesn’t seem to have a sample page posted for that particular edition…
Speaking of the TNIV. There is a great audio version of the TNIV I found called The Bible Experience. A Hollywood production group recorded over 200 top actors, pastors, musicians, with sound effects and music. I have the NT, but the full Bible is coming in October. I found it a great way to engage the Bible. There are some “making of” videos on YouTube. Or you can check it out at zondervan.com/tbe.
I’m confused. I don’t understand your pov. I was looking for somewhere that said the TNIV was exclusive to 18-34-year-olds. What I found was a need for that age group to have a Bible as I know from experience as most of my friends fall in that age range, a lack of any knowledge of the Bible or Christianity in itself. So I went to the International Bible Society website and I found that they’re targeting that age with this new bible because that’s the age group that needs a bible. So it’s more the thought that this age is being targeted because they’d like this age group to be reading the bible. Not that the TNIV is only for that age. But everything’s targeted for some group. Point out where you saw text stating they think you shouldn’t be using the TNIV.
I was looking for somewhere that said the TNIV was exclusive to 18-34-year-olds. [...] Point out where you saw text stating they think you shouldn’t be using the TNIV.
There is no such statement. I was simply using negative logic (and I freely admit inaccurate “logic”) to underscore the irony to me that IBS (and Zondervan) is exclusively marketing (and publishing) such an excellent revision to the NIV to just one generation of consumers when the NIV has been one of the most popular and widely used translations for *all* age groups, not just young adults.
[...] Large Print sample from IBS I had previously commented on my search for an everyday TNIV edition; in response, several folks mentioned the Large Print [...]