Subject: Informed opinions of the ESV please? |
Bible Note: The ESV team, chaired by J. I. Packer, used the RSV as a base and, in Packer's words "tightened it up" to produce the ESV. The ESV is not an entirely new translation, since only 8 per cent of it has been changed from the original renderings of the RSV, thus leaving a full 92 per cent of it the language of the RSV. But this is not to take away any merit from the ESV. The RSV was and still is a fine scholarly translation whose chief flaw was, in the eyes of many evangelicals, a tendency to take a liberal interpretative view of certain passages of Scripture, e.g., Isaiah 7:14. The ESV, as did the RSV, follows in the long and respected traditional style of the KJV and its predecessors, so that even in so modern a version as the ESV, admirers of the majestic language of the KJV will feel a certain sense of being at home with the ESV. It's a fine version, perhaps overall the finest of all modern versions. It stands in sharp contrast to the many so-so versions that clamor for our attention and vie for our dollar. --Hank |