Update for 'new' Dutch Bible version after 17 years
Rieuwerd Buitenwerf, director of the Dutch-Flemish Bible Society, presented the new Bible version to King Willem-Alexander (right). Photo ANP, Robin Utrecht
Western Europe
The Dutch King Willem-Alexander received a copy of the New Bible Translation last week. The so-called NBV21 is a revision of the NBV version from 2004. The translators made 12,000 changes.
In 2004, the first NBV was presented to the king's mother, Queen Beatrix. That edition was a long-awaited translation to replace the version from 1951.
The 2004 edition became very popular in both church and society but attracted a lot of criticism as well. Four years ago, a team of translators came together to look at all the remarks and to review the complete Bible.
The Dutch-Flemish Bible Society (NBG) came back on the decision in 2004 to remove the so-called reverential capital. In the NBV21, all for God have a capital again. "In 2004, we thought that the use of the reverential capital in Dutch was moving out", according to project manager Matthijs de Jong in Reformatorisch Dagblad. "But that trend has not continued. In both church and synagogue, this capital remained the standard."
The reverential capital in connection to God is still part of the official grammar rules in Dutch. All other church Bibles have this capital, and therefore the Bible Society received massive reaction on this. This led to the return of it.
Middle position
In terms of translation method, the NBV21 is "in a middle position", says De Jong: both faithful to the source as readable in Dutch. Some language experts said in the media that the update is nearer to the Hebrew and Greek than the first edition.
After 2004, the NBV became one of the standard Bible versions in the Protestant churches in the Netherlands. However, the traditional Reformed churches usually stick to the States Translation (SV), the Dutch equivalent of the King James Version. In 2010, a revision of this version was presented.
