Why I Like the ESV

This is going to be a long story, so sit back and get comfortable!

When I mentioned my new Bible in Coming Next Week, Kaylene asked if I would explain why the English Standard is my favorite version. What a great question. I mention the ESV fairly often at Hope Road and use it for references, so I’m happy to take the opportunity to explain my oh-so-exciting history with Bible translations, and how I ended up liking this one the best.

When I was five and officially knew how to read, I was allowed to pick out my first copy of the Bible. I chose a big pink NIV, with my name embossed on the cover. That Bible was my only one all throughout elementary school.

In middle school, I got a dark green thinline NIV. Around the same time, I was becoming much more spiritually aware, and I wore that Bible out with all of my underlining and rereading. I still have it, and looking through it brings back so many memories. I particularly loved the Psalms at that time. My next Bible was also an NIV.

During high school, I worked part-time at a Christian bookstore. Every Christmas, Zondervan offered $300 worth of free merchandise to employees who went through their excellent Bible training program. Through that, I learned the basics about different types of translation methods. I’m sure some of you know far more than I do, but I’ll share a couple of the fundamentals I learned.

Thought-for-thought translations seek to express the “dynamic equivalence” of the original languages, and are the least literal. The New Living Translation is one example.

Word-for-word translations seek to translate as literally as possible from the original languages. The New American Standard Bible is one of the most literal translations in the English language.

The New International Version falls somewhere in between those two extremes, and is a fairly good translation for the most part. I loved it because I was so familiar with it, and I never really thought of switching.

I think the first time I encountered the ESV was the summer before my senior year, when my family and I visited my aunt and uncle. They were using that version and really liked it. They tried to convince us to use it too. I was reluctant because I was so familiar with the NIV, but eventually I came around and bought one from the bookstore I was working at. It soon became my favorite translation.

What I like about the ESV is that it combines word-for-word accuracy with literary beauty. Sometimes very literal translations use slightly awkward syntax to stay as true to the original text as possible, but there are times when you can rearrange things to make them more readable and yet still stay very close to the original wording. I find the ESV as accessible as the NIV, but with more of the literalness of the NASB and the beauty of the King James. ESV’s website provides a whole list of comparisons.

I think there’s value in choosing one main (hopefully literal) version of the Bible for the majority of your reading and study, simply because the words become well-known with time if they’re read in the same version over and over. I think there’s also value in reading other versions. I began to enjoy that in the last few years too. I have a copy of the NIV still, as well as the New Living, and it’s very interesting to read a passage in several different translations and capture different nuances of thought and expression. Sometimes, too, it’s good to read in a different translation just to wake your mind and get a fresh perspective.

Here is a little more about the ESV. The website explains the translation philosophy: “The ESV is an ‘essentially literal’ translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on ‘word-for-word’ correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original… we have sought to be ‘as literal as possible’ while maintaining clarity of expression and literary excellence.”

The ESV has an impressive list of endorsements by some well-known names, including R.C. Sproul, Joni Eareckson Tada, John Piper, Carolyn Mahaney, Max Lucado, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Ravi Zacharias, Jerry Bridges, Al Mohler, Susan Hunt, Joseph Stowell, Steve Green, Mark Driscoll, and Grant Osborne. I would like to see it become a standard translation in churches, and it is becoming more and more popular, which I love – because who doesn’t want their favorite translation to be the most popular?

So that’s my story. What do you think of the ESV? What translation do you use, and why do you like it? Do tell.

Politically Correct Scripture

My favorite Bible translation is the English Standard Version. I like it because it combines accuracy with readability. I like to read the ESV Blog occasionally, and yesterday I noticed a good post there. It was about how different passages of the Bible are viewed as “difficult” or “problematic” in different historical periods.

For example, in the Victorian period (late 1800s and early 1900s), atheists often complained that the Bible was not outspoken enough about the dangers of alcohol.

Isn’t it interesting how we think the Bible should fit our cultural standards? Two modern-day examples come to mind:

1. Evangelical feminism. This arose in response to secular feminism. Suddenly biblical scholars were finding more “correct” and “contemporary” ways of interpreting Scripture in regard to women’s roles.
2. Homos*xuality. Now that it is more accepted in the culture, some scholars have scrambled to find ways to reinterpret passages that have traditionally been interpreted as calling homos*xuality sin.

The moral of the story is, let’s not fall prey to the temptation to make the Bible say just what we want it to say for our time. The Bible is not always going to be politically correct. It certainly wasn’t when it was originally written!