The English Standard Version (ESV)
The ESV (2001) is a Crossway publication which is "essentially literal," seems to be of the hightest quality, and has sold 290 million copies as of March 1, 2024.
Text Used
This is a Critical Text translation using Kittel's Biblia Hebraica for the Old Testament, and Eberhard Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece for the New Testament, with the special Gideon's edition utilizing some TR readings (see below).
Publications and Variants
It was first published in 2001, used the Revised Standard Version (1971) as initital text, and has utilized the NET Bible translation notes. It has been revised in 2007, 20011, and 2016.
Publication varients include Anglican spellings (2002, 2019), a Gideons edition with licensed modification to use alternate TR readings, which were used for more than 50 passages (2013), and a Catholic version with deuterocanonical books and Catholic revisions based on the Vatican's Liturgiam authenticam (2018).
I have personally examined one of the Gideons editions in a hotel room - the license page was interesting (I took a picture for future reference), but mostly I wanted to see the KJV passages in the ESV Bible. I flipped to the end of Mark and saw the KJV seamlessly integrated with no brackets or notes, using the same modern English as the ESV. Nicely done.
Literacy before Literal?
ESV.org describes it's version as an "essentially literal translation of the Bible in contemporary English," and "emphasizes 'word-for-word' accuracy, literary excellence, and depth of meaning." The ESV has a high standard for "literary excellence," but is also published at an 8th grade reading level. This sounds too good to be true - literary excelence + 8th grade level + word-for-word literal, without my own exerience with the Bible, I would come away doubtful. As far as the use of gender-neutral language, the ESV uses it sometimes and not others, as does the NET Bible and the 2020 NASB - my assumption is that they have attempted to be accurate to the intent of the original language, but this is not an area I've investigated (yet).
My own opinion
For a handful of years or so, my pastor and another elder both used the ESV, and so I became familiar with how their versions read compared to my NASB 1995 ed, and I have to say that I have found it slightly too interpretive for my taste. Sadly, I don't remember any particulars to use for examples, but I remember doing a few resultant Greek word checks and coming away satisfied. My own copy is the 2011 version, but I just never got comfortable enough with it to use it for services or daily readings. When I purchased the Bible I did several particular checks for test passages and found no suprises or anything noteworthy. I am still very comfortable with it as a very good literal version to recommend, it's just not my 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice for my own personal use. I have not reviewed the 2016 edition.
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