TylerRay
Puritan Board Graduate
I have found in my preaching when translating passages, that the NASB (from the Critical Text) is generally okay and when it is on it is literal. And the KJV and NKJV are generally good translations as well.
The thing I hate is the ESV, with a passion. It removes verses from Holy Scripture. It doesn't even bracket them in like the NASB which I can accept, it just deletes verses. And that is blasphemous and contrary to Scripture. I hate the NIV too for obvious feminist reasons.
Ok, I hate to wade into what appears to be a little bit of an AV love-fest and be "that guy" defending the ESV, but this post...one, you have established the Majority Text as the standard, without proving it, and then, reasoning from the unsourced presupposition that Majority Text/KJV/TR/whatever="Holy Scripture", you've made two claims 1) the ESV "deletes verses without even bracketing them" and 2) "this is blasphemy" (because again Majority Text=Scripture).
Some rejoinders: 1) The source you linked to in your above post made the usual borderline conspiracy theory claims about the history of Alexandria, among other things I consider to be pretty rough arguments (although it also made good points).
2) I reject your implication a) that MT=HS, and also implication b) that passages like the longer ending of Mark are Scripture because you can find Byzantine witness for them. If you were not implying the second one, I retract my statement, but your link certainly made that claim.
3) The only paper copy of the ESV I have at home is a five-buck paperback my church hands out en masse, not even a study bible or serious scholarly resource, it has less than a footnote a page, but it includes the entirety of the Pericope Adulterae and the Longer Ending, with annotation regarding manuscript witness. So does the ESV on Bible Gateway (the internet source I most frequently use). Don't just throw around unqualified accusations about hiding God's Word, please.
Also, my Zondervan NIV from the 80's has perfectly orthodox gender pronouns. Not all NIVs are created equal.
See this thread: Verses Omitted from the ESV