The newly updated NIV Bible

Newsflash:
This is probably old news to many of you. But today I discovered I couldn't search for familiar Bible phrases like, "The spiritual man" and "If any man is in Christ". I kept checking to make sure I was using the right translation. I found that "New International Version" is no longer the right one for me.

The NIV Committee on Bible Translation has surreptitiously replaced the NIV on BibleGateway with a gender-neutralized, "updated" edition. This bothers me almost more than the random changes they've made. They state plainly that "transparency to the original text" is their goal, rather than the usual goal of Bible translators, which is always "faithfulness to the original text". Whatever "transparency" means can only be understood from long study to detect just what has been changed.
Professor Douglas Moo explains (here) that they have retained 95% of the original NIV, thus admitting they have changed 5% of the original meaning. This means they admit that the previous NIV translators were 5% in error. They admit they have determined that the Bible could use some improvement based on "the fruits of our efforts" and "cutting edge research on English usage".

No doubt the NIV bibles you see in the stores will also soon be adulterated.

I should have jettisoned the NIV years ago, when I noticed they had even relegated part of The Lord's Prayer to a footnote. Now I must do so. I am going to use BibleStudyTools.com, which currently still has the older NIV version, instead of BibleGateway. And in general, I will be replacing my NIV with a different translation altogether, such as the RSV or perhaps the new ESV.

Thirty years ago when the NIV came out, there were so many who opposed it violently and insisted it was tampering with the meanings. I did not listen to the opponents, but insisted the changes were immaterial. Now I feel as they did and see the real motives of the current crop of NIV translators. Now I understand why they never released the NIV to the public domain. They wanted to have control so they could further change it to conform to the times. I should have jettisoned the NIV years ago, when I noticed they had even relegated part of The Lord's Prayer to a footnote. Now I must do so, or from a different metaphorical perspective, jump ship!