# Why Our Church Switched to the ESV ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41eHuEAV9RL._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Kevin DeYoung]] - Full Title: Why Our Church Switched to the ESV - Category: #books ## Highlights - must be stated unequivocally that the Lord in his sovereignty has used and will continue to use many different English translations to build up his church. ([Location 46](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=46)) - arguing for the ESV, please do not hear me belittling the work the Lord has accomplished through many other English translations. ([Location 49](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=49)) - There are millions of people in the world who still do not have the Scriptures in a language they can understand and millions more who do not have the Bible in their heart language. How fortunate are English speakers who not only have 500 years of Bible translation history to rely on, but can choose from more than a dozen modern translations. Ours is an embarrassment of riches. ([Location 50](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=50)) - After using the NASB for several years and reading through it several times, I switched to the ESV because it had precisely the balance I was looking for: more literal than the NIV and more readable than the NASB. ([Location 60](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=60)) - My decision to switch to the ESV several years ago was not because I felt that all other translations were terrible but because I resonated with its translation philosophy. ([Location 65](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=65)) - I want to focus on how the ESV compares with the NIV, ([Location 72](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=72)) - 1. The ESV employs an “essentially literal” translation philosophy. ([Location 84](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=84)) - Anyone who has translated from one language to another knows that achieving a rigid word-for-word translation is a naive goal. Languages work differently and the words fit together in different orders, making strict word-for-word translations overly clumsy and often impossible. That’s why the ESV is called an essentially literal translation. ([Location 99](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=99)) - 2. The ESV is a more transparent translation. ([Location 106](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=106)) - This is what I mean when I say the ESV is more transparent. It makes more of an effort to leave ambiguities in the English that are actually there in the Greek. ([Location 115](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=115)) - When it comes to understanding and living by God’s Word, I want teachers to teach and translations to be transparent. ([Location 152](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=152)) - 3. The ESV engages in less over-translation. ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=154)) - the NIV often adds words unnecessarily, not in order to ([Location 156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=156)) - better translate a Greek or Hebrew word but in order to clarify what the translators think the passage means. ([Location 157](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=157)) - 4. The ESV engages in less under-translation. ([Location 177](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=177)) - 5. The ESV does a better job of translating important Greek or Hebrew words with the same English word throughout a passage or book. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=207)) - 6. The ESV retains more of the literary qualities of the Bible. ([Location 224](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=224)) - 7. The ESV requires much less “correcting” in preaching. ([Location 273](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005CDCWYW&location=273))