ESV Laments Xavier Pacheco 19. November 2008 18:20

So, I've been waiting for the ESV Study Bible to come out, and it has.  I ordered it from Amazon and am quite pleased overall. We intend to keep this one on the coffee table to use as a family, so that was a successful purchase!

I also wanted to get my son his own copy of the ESV Children's Bible.  This was not so successful. 

Back in May, I posted about how there was an update (2007) to the ESV text. I said that I wanted to wait until those updates were available in the ESV Children's Bible before buying one for my son.  Noticing that the Amazon ad for this edition showed a January 2008 publication date, I decided to buy hoping it was based on the 2007 text corrections. Oh, and by the way, I even phoned customer support at Crossway (the publisher) to confirm that it would have the updated text which they confirmed.

Well, here I am reading Gen 30:35 and I see that Laban has put his goats in charge of his sons!

So, I phoned Crossway again, and spoke with a different representative to gave me a different and I believe more accurate story.  Apparently, it will be months, if not years before this edition is reprinted with the updated 2007 corrections.  The reason is that they need to deplete inventory.

So, My dilemma is whether or not to to keep this edition and mark the translation spots as identified by some bloggers such as this very extensive list of differences.  Hmmm, what do I do?

Well, I suppose of God can make an mule talk, he can give goats management responsibilities, right?

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Comments

11/20/2008 2:27:50 AM #

Thanks for this update. I was not aware of an updated version since 2001 and am glad to know of it.

Paul

11/20/2008 1:25:07 PM #

Good Morning X,

A couple of thoughts from one who has been observing Bible translation releases for some time now. First, as you know, translations are muddied equivalents of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. This means that they are by nature flawed and errant. There is no perfect translation! Therefore, it is right, and we should expect, the refinement of translations for as long as they stay in publication.

That said, some translations radiate more brightly than others. For me, ESV is one of the best translations because it needs so little tweaking. This is in part because of the fact that it has been getting cleaned up for over four hundred years now. If you look at the texts that have been modified from 2001 to 2007, you will see very little worth even mentioning. In fact, I only see two worth mentioning: Ezek 44:19 (parallel 46:20) and Mal 2:16.

Compare that to the revisions that modern Bible translations go through, and you will see how insignificant the variances are between the two ESV releases are. Finally, we should hope for and expect more changes to come in the future (listen to Piper’s last sermon where he complains about the ESV getting a certain passage wrong). So if you hold off, you will need to understand that you will need to hold off forever. And if you hold off forever, you will never commit to a translation and you will never allow its parlance to shape your mind.

So what should you do? I’d suggesting keeping the new Children’s Bible and read it with your children. When they say, “Daddy, your bible just used a different word than mine has,” you can normally reply, “Yes son, but it’s basically the same.” Or in some rare cases, “Yes son, I see, let’s get a pen and fix yours.”

CT

christopher taylor United States

11/20/2008 5:50:34 PM #

Chris,

Thank you for your very thoughtful and detailed response. You have helped me in my decision to keep the bible. We will be giving it to him as a gift. I am sure it will bring Zachary many years of enjoyment and growth as he delves into God's word.

blessings!
-- x

Xavier Pacheco United States

11/22/2008 2:23:44 AM #

Also...Don't miss Mark Strauss' articles at <a href="http://betterbibles.com/">http://betterbibles.com/</a>

Paul

11/22/2008 2:25:17 AM #

Also...Don't miss Mark Strauss' entries at  http://betterbibles.com/.

Paul

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