Falling in love with the ESV

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GTMOPC

GTMOPC

Puritan Board Freshman
I'm starting this thread to make a confession. I'm not sure if there has been a similar thread by someone in my situation so I'm starting one!

I've been cheating on King James. :( There, I said it.

I've never been a hardcore "KJV Only" but I certainly could be a called devout KJV reader. I have referenced the Geneva often and various other translations in study but I never read anything but the KJV devotionally.

A few days ago I picked up an ESV Reference Bible because the new church I'm attending seems pretty committed to it, though I'm not sure if it is officially the endorsed translation (does anyone know where the OPC stands on the ESV?). I think the Pastor is preaching from it and several of the members seem to be using it. As an aside, I'm aware the ESV is pretty common in the reformed community, for anyone who feels the need to inform me.

Anyway, I picked it up solely for the purpose of being able to read along in the service and Sunday School. Since I got it though I've read several of my favorite Psalms, John, Part of Matthew, Hebrews, and 2 Peter and I've fallen in love with it.

I've always been so committed to the KJV that I would never stoop to read a whole section of any other translation with any other motive that an academic one. But the ESV just seems to flow so well. The English is exceptionally readable. The prose is almost poetic (even if that is stretching the term 'poetic' for lack of a better word).

I feel a deep seated anxiety at the thought of giving up on the good ole KJV, but I'm really liking the readability of the ESV. It's not the 'archaic English' in the KJV either, I'm quite comfortable with the KJV language. The ESV just sounds so refreshing for some reason. I'd go so far as to say that it's illuminating in a way that only the Holy Spirit could illuminate. I haven't felt such a deep love for scripture and desire to immerse myself in it since I was converted. Don't get me wrong I've maintained a love for scripture throughout my Christian life but it has waned at times I must confess.

I'll never retire the KJV entirely but I felt a need to express this new love for a modern translation. It's a good thing cheating on translations isn't a sin or I'd be in trouble! Has anyone else had a similar experience with the ESV or any other translation for that matter? Maybe it's just oddly refreshing that I'm not having KJV withdrawals!?
 
It's an excellent version.
As far as the OPC and PCA...the ESV is not their "official" version, but it's their "default" version in some regard.

from Q and A

New Horizons (the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's denominational magazine) has made the English Standard Version its "default" translation...Great Commission Publications, the publishing house jointly operated by the OPC and the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America), has chosen to quote the ESV in its Sunday School materials.
Click to expand...
 
All of a sudden our pastors up and switched from NIV to ESV. Consequently, we changed the scripture links on our site accordingly.
 
As a pastor I use many different translations in my study, the ESV being one of them. I highly recommend it.
 
It is certainly worthy of sober consideration for anyone weary of their current translation. If it wasn't for the PB support and ultimately the church I'm presently attending I'd never have picked it up. Funny how things work out.
 
I love it. I've always used the NASB but I haven't been able to put down the ESV since I got it. If you're looking for a good study bible the ESV Study Bible is definitely worth the money.
 
ManleyBeasley said:
I love it. I've always used the NASB but I haven't been able to put down the ESV since I got it. If you're looking for a good study bible the ESV Study Bible is definitely worth the money.
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Oh yea! If it hadn't been the ESV I'd already have bought it. Wish I'd known how much I would like the ESV. It will be my next purchase for sure!
 
Hahahahahahahahahaha . . . and the conspiracy continues. Eventually, we will have all of you Stepford students in the collective.
 
From all accounts I've seen, the ESV is a very good translation (more faithful to the individual wording of the original) and a very good one among the "readable texts."

It is the trend among "Reformed."

I still use KJV and sometimes compare it with the NIV but more-and-more look to the ESV also.
 
Seems like everybody is switching to the ESV (the whole churches!), but the NIV is still at the top, according to the polls... I ordered myself a copy (even two), of course (and am planning to order the ESV Study Bible), but it does not seem to flow as well as the NIV. Perhaps, it does not matter so much for the English-speaking people.
 
GMcClain20 said:
The ESV just sounds so refreshing for some reason. I'd go so far as to say that it's illuminating in a way that only the Holy Spirit could illuminate. I haven't felt such a deep love for scripture and desire to immerse myself in it since I was converted. Don't get me wrong I've maintained a love for scripture throughout my Christian life but it has waned at times I must confess.
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Travis, I am glad to hear of your deeper love for Scripture. May your worship, devotional, and study time with your ESV continue to be richly blessed.
 
Igor said:
Seems like everybody is switching to the ESV (the whole churches!), but the NIV is still at the top, according to the polls... I ordered myself a copy (even two), of course (and am planning to order the ESV Study Bible), but it does not seem to flow as well as the NIV. Perhaps, it does not matter so much for the English-speaking people.
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Is English your second language? If so, I can certainly understand the preference for the NIV. To many native English speakers, the NIV can sound a little forced sometimes, as if it's talking down to you. The lack of complexity is itself a bit unnatural. I do really like it in the minor prophets, though.
 
I probably don't understand what's behind the translation, but the ESV has a few oddly worded passages that seem to sound as if the translators are somehow trying to sound more impressive, or "smarter" or something. For example I was just reading in 1 Samuel, where God calls out to Samuel, and he answers "Here am I." Or in Mary's "magnificat," where she says "the rich he has sent empty away." If they were going for modern English, why the awkward ordering that no modern speaker would ever use? Those kind of hit me between the eyes.

I also use the NASB and NKJV pretty extensively. It's probably due to my age, but I really never spent much time in KJV.
 
I've been cheating on the AV and now I'm falling in love with the AV all over again.
 
wturri78 said:
I probably don't understand what's behind the translation, but the ESV has a few oddly worded passages that seem to sound as if the translators are somehow trying to sound more impressive, or "smarter" or something...
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Bingo. I have always been trying to figure out what it was about the ESV that was off and you nailed it for me. "Pretentious" is a word that comes to mind. It is almost as if the translators were trying to, on purpose or not, make an "evangelical" version of the NRSV that would be accepted as "scholarly".
 
Backwoods Presbyterian said:
wturri78 said:
I probably don't understand what's behind the translation, but the ESV has a few oddly worded passages that seem to sound as if the translators are somehow trying to sound more impressive, or "smarter" or something...
Click to expand...

Bingo. I have always been trying to figure out what it was about the ESV that was off and you nailed it for me. "Pretentious" is a word that comes to mind. It is almost as if the translators were trying to, on purpose or not, make an "evangelical" version of the NRSV that would be accepted as "scholarly".
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Correct are you! Pretentious are they.
 
It was love at first sight for me with the ESV. Here is what zondervan.com has to say about it.

English Standard Version (ESV)

Translation:

But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even you.

2 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
Reading Level: 8.0


Readbility:

A literal style, but more readable than the King James Version.
Reference Support Material: Low
Number of Translators: 100+
Translation Philosophy/Format: word-for-word
Endorsements:
Notes: A literal update of the Revised Standard Version, seeks to produce word-for-word correspondence.

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). Read ESV for:

*
For personal reading and in-depth study
*
For preaching, teaching, and public worship
*
For family reading and devotions
*
For memorizing and understanding the Word of God
 
What does "Reading Level 8" mean? 8th grade level?

I haven't encountered any of the so called odd passages you guys have mentioned yet but in any event I don't think I'd go so far as to charge the translators as being 'pretentious'. I think, in my limited exposure, they've done a top notch job. But I won't let that be my final word till I've read it through a few times and compared it with KJV at certain places.

Thanks for all the pro-ESV encouragement and also thanks for the warnings to from the naysayers! All your points are well taken.

It's hard to say no to a translation when it deepens your love for scripture though, and has a good rep for being reliable!
 
I'm no naysayer--I like the ESV a lot. It just has a few awkward wordings that seem to jump out at me. It isn't the norm--just read the first few chapters of 1 Samuel and the Magnificat, which are what I remembered as being a little...well, odd in word ordering.

Long live the ESV, otherwise!

And long live KJV--yea, verily!!!
 
I'm no textual scholar, as I've said before on threads. And I've no quarrel personally with whatever Bible version anyone else feels led to use. That's nothing for me to address with anyone as I've no academic or scholarly "heft" to throw behind my assertions. I'm just extremely puzzled by the wholesale abandonment and even constructive repudiation of the AV by Reformed congregations... I would like to find some explanation of this, somewhere. Things have changed so much in just the 14 years that I've been reading the KJV! I was "invited to leave" one Reformed church because of my support of it. In another Reformed church of which I was later a member, the AV was in the pews but virtually everyone was reading the ESV.

Part of my support of the AV comes from what shakes out when one asks questions and then gets answers re: the ESV and other versions vs. the KJV.

For example, for ESV aficionados:

1. Can you show an unbeliever, from the ESV's rendering of Luke 2:33 and 43, that Joseph was not Jesus' biological father?

2. In Luke 4:4, if "man does not live by bread alone," what does he live by? (The ESV gets it right in Matthew 4:4, but if "Scripture interprets Scripture," why was Luke 4:4 changed?)

3. By which means do we have redemption in Christ? (Colossians 1:14.) How did He achieve that for us?

4. According to Philippians 2:6, did Jesus willingly lay His deity aside in humility when He became a man, or did He know that He did not blaspheme in and by His awareness that He was equal (equivalent) to God? Which option more easily leads to the conclusion that He was, indeed, fully God and fully man?

5. Simply compare the renderings of 2 Corinthians 2:17 in the ESV, NASB, NIV, KJV and, if you have access to one, the (Roman Catholic) New American Bible. Interesting... If you're trying to witness to a Catholic and along with that witness, let them know that you're not trying to "shove the Bible down [their] throat," and that "forever (His) word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119:89; cf. Psalm 12:6-7), then how is that done from the implications of just that single verse and its various renderings?

As I said, I seek to make no points or anything; I'm a very simple Christian who's only madly in love with the Gospel, and with God's word, and with Jesus Christ.

Margaret
 
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I recently purchased The Reformatiom Study Bible ESV to replace my NIV Study Bible I lost. I have seen a lot of remarks about it so I figure I would try it and see for myself. It seems like a good translation. But for some reason I keep falling back to my Thompson Chain KJV. The KJV just seems easier to understand probably due to the fact is I used it fore so many years. It is hard for me to memorize scripture in any other version except KJ. I end up confusing my self. I am not sure about the debates over the scholary aspect of the texts so that is not very important to me. The important aspect for me is what i will read and understand on a daily basis.
 
GMcClain20 said:
What does "Reading Level 8" mean? 8th grade level?
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The KJV has a reading level of twelve, because of the difficulty of the English used. I ran across this note from a website called, sundayschoolresources.com, and the they state regarding the NASB, KJV, NRSV, and the NKJV:

The difficult reading level of these Bible translations prevents us from recommending these translations for children. While some may consider the NKJV to be written at a Medium Reading Level, we think it is too difficult for children to read. In addition, the KJV and the NKJV are based on the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts that were available in 1611. Since that time, manuscripts have been discovered that allow scholars to reconstruct a Hebrew and Greek text that better represents the original text. Thus, the KJV and NKJV are not based on what scholars today believe is the best representation of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. While the differences in text have no effect from a doctrinal viewpoint, they may affect the meaning of specific texts. See "How to Read the Bible for all its Worth" by Fee and Stuart for further information.

Please remember this quote is about the translations for children, but we also need to be aware of what translation will allow us to most effectively preach and teach God's Word to everyone sitting in the sanctuary.
 
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So basically what you want to do with this thread is to admit that you have been unfaithful to your first-love
You know what the bible says about that, and what is more frightening os that I can read that you a incouraged by some people here to just give in :think:

No, just kidding as long as you read the Bible you have my blessing, if that is what you were looking fore, with your confession.
 
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