Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The ESV

Just recently, I made the switch to the ESV.  I think that I did a post on it a few weeks ago, but I wanted to mention some more about it.  For those of you who don't already know, the ESV is the English Standard Version of the Bible.

If you are a reader of this blog and you fall into the KJV Only camp... I hate to disappoint, but I am most definitely not in that camp.  In fact, I don't really even visit that camp anymore and I may have even moved myself to the KJV Hardly Ever camp.

I don't mean any offense to the King James Translators.  I really admire what they did and would uphold their translation philosophy.  I would even go as far as to say that by switching to the ESV I am more in line with what the King James translators were trying to do than those people who cling to the King James Version.

From the ESV website I am borrowing this quote which really summarizes what I am trying to say, way better than I am saying it:

"The true heirs of the King James translators are those who continue their task today, not those who declare it to have been definitively concluded in 1611."
—Alister McGrath, In the Beginning

In fact, I would suggest going on to their website and reading their stuff instead of listening to anything else that I have to say.  Here are a couple of links to different pages on their website that I found especially interesting.

Translation Philosophy
How is the ESV different from other Bible translations?
and
From KJV to ESV: A Historical Legacy

4 comments:

  1. Matt,

    What did you switch *from* and why? Just curious.

    Personally, I used to be a NIV guy, but switched to the updated NASB, but I considered ESV.

    Craig

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  2. I guess I should have added that...

    I was a KJV guy when I first started College. Then I switched to the NIV, which was probably one of the single most impactful things that I have done. It brought the Bible to life for me.

    For a while I was using the NASB, then I was back to the NIV but was looking for something more literal in translation style.

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  3. love love love the ESV. I've used it for a few years now. Spectacular.

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