The Inner Story of the New International Version

What strange event was it in 1955 in Portland, Oregon, that prompted the creation of a translation of the Bible into modern English that eclipsed the well-known and much-loved King James Version (KJV) as the most widely read copy of the Bible? And what was the unique process, involving more than a hundred scholars from a wide variety of Christian denominations, that led to the publishing of the New International Version in 1978 that has now sold over five hundred million copies? In this book you will find the fascinating testimony of one of the original NIV translators that affords an insight into the toils and triumphs of those scholars. It will give you a fresh appreciation of the estimated two hundred thousand man-hours that went into the production of this influential version of Holy Scripture.

Murray J. Harris is professor emeritus of New Testament exegesis and theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Formerly he was warden (i.e., director) of Tyndale House, a biblical research library in Cambridge, UK, and a faculty member of the Divinity School in the University of Cambridge. He has written commentaries on the Greek text of Colossians and Philemon, 2 Corinthians, and John’s Gospel. He was one of the original translators of the New International Version (NIV). He resides in his native New Zealand in retirement.