You might have noticed that we often use a particular translation of the Bible at Parker Hills: the English Standard Version. We usually preach from it. Our pew Bibles are printed in it. And yet it’s not a super common translation in Christianity at large. So perhaps it would be helpful to explain a few reasons we prefer the ESV for use in the church.
First, however, I (Josh) should probably make clear what I am not going to say. I’m not going to say the ESV is the only God-honoring Bible. I have read through the KJV, NIV, NLT, and ESV; and I have read extensively in others like the NAS, NKJV, and HCSB. I thank God for each of them, and I think they each have a helpful function and place.
So why do I prefer the ESV? I’ll explain my reasons over the next couple weeks, but it might be helpful to start with a little background on the ESV itself. The ESV was produced in 2001 by Crossway Bibles. The publication team included over 100 worldwide Bible scholars, pastors, and English experts from multiple denominations. According to the publishers, their goal was to produce “a new, essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning.”
As for its “newness,” the ESV draws on the best Bible scholarship of the last 100 years; but it also stands in a stately, historic stream of English translations that extends back to William Tyndale’s New Testament (1526). Its more recent, direct forebears are the King James Version (1611) and the Revised Standard Version (1971); in fact, the words and phrases of the ESV grow out of the RSV itself, which was the starting point for the publishing team’s work.
It was translated from the original languages, using the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible for the Old Testament (the same Hebrew text used for every other English translation), with occasional reference to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Latin Vulgate, the Greek Septuagint, and other OT sources. For the New Testament, the translation team used an eclectic Greek text compiled from what scholars consider the best manuscripts—namely, the Greek New Testament published by the United Bible Societies (the same Greek text used by every English translation except the KJV and NKJV).