Today’s blog entry at the ESV site has my review and other ESV blog entries posted on their site along with other entries from fellow bloggers. They noted that I was on an “ESV Blogging Kick.” Is that a slam? Well, I say to the ESV blog servants a hearty, “You had me at hello.”
Also, it seems there’s a bit of ESV Mania out there. How neat! I have had the most response in dealing with the ESV than in any other topic in my 15 months of blogging.
Categories: ESV
Why am I blogging about this? Simply put, I used to be one who would vacillate back and forth on versions. I’d go through a spell where I wanted accuracy, so I went to the New American Standard. Then I’d go through a spell where I wanted readability, so I’d go to the New International Version or the New Living Translation.
Then I became a pastor.
And for the first six month I was here, I preached out of four versions: the NKJV, the ESV, the NASB, and the NIV (once). On top of that, our church has King James Version Bibles in our pews. I had to choose — for my sake and for the sake of those in my congregation trying to follow me. It was too much of a distraction from hearing the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The more I read and studied and compared the ESV to the Greek, I found that this translation accomplished something rare among translations: it was readable and accurate to the text. It kept the original meaning and flavor of the Greek and Hebrew texts and translated them into beautiful English with a very poetic cadence that aided me in readability.
The video I alluded to in an earlier blog (7.16.06) does a nice job of showing other translation philosophies. One of which is the ‘dynamic equivalence.’ This is where they basically take a biblical phrase and then modernize it into the idiom of the 21st century rather than keeping the original translation from that era.
Yet, the dynamic equivalence philosophy of translating seems more to me an interpretation than a translation. The way I preach about Christ, I need to know what the original authors said and meant, rather than having translators 2000 years removed from the time to make educated hypotheses of how it would have been said now.
Philip Graham Ryken, the pastor of the historic Tenth Presybeterian Church at Philadelphia, explains why he encouraged this church with such a wonderful history to move to the English Standard Version. You can read a transcript of his talk on the ESV Bible Blog or listen to the talk as an MP3 file.
John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the founder of Desiring God Ministries also make the case for why he switched from the New American Standard (considered the most literal translation around) to the English Standard Version. Here are some articles:
Good English with Minimal Interpretation: Why Bethlehem Uses the ESV
All Scripture Is Breathed Out And Profitable
What Translation Does John Piper Recommend?
The ESV website has a number of endorsements as well (click here).
In closing, I urge all of you to find a Bible and read it voraciously. But make sure that your standard for the Scriptures is one that seeks to stay true to authorial intent rather than look solely to readability.
Categories: ESV
Crossway has produced a wonderful video dealing with the translation philosophy and the great benefits of using the English Standard Version as a translation.
Here is an introductory note from the ESV Website:
The ESV Bible is a new, essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and readability.
“The English Standard Version (ESV) is a “word-for-word,” essentially literal translation because every word of the Bible is inspired by God.
“Based on this principle, more than sixty of the world’s leading Bible scholars pored over every word and phrase to achieve the unique accuracy, excellence, and beauty of the ESV Bible.
“The result is a new Bible translation (published in October 2001) that has a timeless quality and enduring relevance—a translation to trust for today and for generations to come.
“With its distinctive combination of accuracy, excellence, and beauty, the ESV is ideally suited to become one Bible to meet our needs for all of life:
Categories: ESV
I purchased an ESV Journaling Bible this past week. I confess, I am an ESV apologist. I preach out of the ESV exclusively — and I am thankful that many of our congregation now have a copy of the ESV. I hope within the next year we will replace our King James Version pew Bibles with the ESV Pew Bibles, but we shall see.
I noticed the ESV had recently release a Journaling Bible. At the ESV website, they describe the Journaling Bible as “a unique format with wide margins and ruled lines designed for writing prayers, observations, sermon notes, and personal reflections. It also includes a one-year Bible reading plan.
What encouraged me to purchase this is the 2″ of ruled writing space.
Although I do not feel having this area ruled is necessary, it is such a big help to have the space. I preached from this edition this past Wednesday and was able to write down the basic thoughts of my sermon in expanded form. What a huge help this is!
If you have trouble with small print, don’t buy this! I’d wait and see if they will put it in a version with a larger font. 7.5-point type is exceedingly tiny. Since I’m 34, Lord willing I will have good, strong eyesight for quite a while.
Another item I like about this is that the words of Christ are in black. Having Christ’s words in red gives the notion that all the words in black are important, but the words of Christ are more important that the rest. Yet, the Spirit inspired it all (2 Timothy 3:16) and it is all equally the Word of God. We must pay special attention to all of it!
I see myself writing in this edition frequently in my studies, then buying another when I have filled up this one. My desire is for my children and grandchildren to pull out this edition and see what their dad/granddad considered with each passage he read.
Categories: Book Review · ESV
In some senses, I feel as if I am a missionary to Trinidad, having been there doing missions work three times in the last three years and currently having in the works to do a Marriage and Family Conference in the South early next year, Lord willing.
I also feel as if I am an ESV apologist. I went exclusively to the ESV in teaching and preaching back in 2004. And thanks to the folks at Crossway, they have donated over 60 pew Bibles that I have taken to Trinidad for a church in Point Fortin to distribute and use in their times of worship.
So imagine my surprise when I received the latest edition of “The Standard Bearer E-News” from The Standard Bible Society of the English Standard Version outlining an ESV Outreach Ministry Initiative. In this edition, they relate how they recently partnered with PastorServe to distribute ESV Bibles in … you guessed it … Trinidad. Words cannot express how this thrills my heart that the ESV is making in-roads to these incredible people.
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Categories: ESV · Missions · Trinidad & Tobago
