World Bible Quiz Association
Task Force Charged with Version Recommendation
03.28.2015
The WBQA Board recently appointed a Task Force responsible for researching Scripture Version options and presenting a recommendation for the version to be used by WBQA beginning with the 2016-2017 quiz year.
There has been no small amount of dissent the past few years within the quizzing community at large regarding Scripture versions. Much of the discussion began with Zondervan's announcement that they would no longer permit their 1984 version to be published in print or electronically shortly after the release of their 2011 New International Version.
Several of the denominational quiz programs, such as the Nazarenes and the Assemblies of God, made the transition to the NIV 2011. However, many groups, including several served by WBQA, have concerns about the updates made by Zondervan to the NIV 2011, such as greater use of gender neutrality within the text.
WBQA changed from NIV to ESV for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 quiz years due to these concerns, and in an effort to provide an alternative option for those teams and groups unhappy with the NIV 2011. However, there has been some dissatisfaction voiced about the use of ESV the last two quiz years, also, largely relating to the sentence structure and it's more difficult readability and "quizability" compared to the NIV.
In response to these concerns and in an effort to provide ample time for a thorough review of version options for a more permanent selection by WBQA, the board recently made a difficult decision to revert back to the 1984 NIV for a single year while the Task Force puts together a recommendation for the future. For more information about the decision to use 1984 NIV, see this article.
The task force is composed of 5 quiz leaders: Cindy Hatfield, John Isett, Gary Johnson, Rich Kifer and Rick Morgan.
The versions that the task force will be reviewing are the following:
1) Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
2) New King James Version (NKJV)
3) New American Standard Bible (NASB)
4) Berean Study Bible (BSB)
5) New English Translation (NET)
6) American Standard Version (ASV)
7) New Living Translation (NLT)
8) English Standard Version (ESV)
The task force has a substantial list of guidelines and qualifications that will be used in reviewing and evaluating these versions. Some of these guidelines include:
1) Main Greek Source
2) Degree of "literalness" of the translation (ie, Formal vs Dynamic Equivalence)
3) Level of Gender Neutrality
4) Reading Level
The task force will be completing their review this spring and preparing a recommendation for the WBQA board in July 2015.
Stay tuned as WBQA prayerfully and diligently goes through this process!