How We Got Our Bible: The Year the Approach Changed

Line the modern English Bibles up by date and a pattern appears.
1901 brought an updating of the King James. 1952 gave the Revised Standard Version - very formally equivalent. 1960 produced the New American Standard Bible, formally equivalent again, and its eventual replacement kept the same approach. 1971 gave the Living Bible, which is a paraphrase rather than a true translation.
Then 1973. The NIV New Testament appeared that year, marking the growing influence of dynamic equivalence. The complete NIV Bible followed in 1978.
After that the picture is mixed rather than linear. 1982 brought the New King James and a return to formal equivalence. The Jewish Publication Society Tanakh is very formally equivalent. The New Revised Standard Version is also generally classified as formally equivalent. And many translations blend the two - sometimes a version is purely dynamic, sometimes a mix.
Why does this matter for an ordinary reader? Because when two Bibles differ in wording, the difference is often not about manuscripts at all. It is about which of these approaches the committee chose.
Scripture links:
- 2 Timothy 3:16 - all Scripture is breathed out by God.
- Luke 1:1-4 - an orderly account for certainty.
- Psalm 119:105 - your word is a lamp to my feet.
Sometimes it is the manuscripts. Sometimes it is the method.