FAQs on the ESV

As word spreads about the new ESV, my email inbox is increasingly clogged with interested people wanting to know more. Here's a sample of some of the most common questions, with some brief answers.

1. Just what's wrong with the NIV? Is it so bad really?

No Bible translation is perfect, although some have more problems than others. The NIV is in many ways a fine translation, and in offering criticisms of it we shouldn't go overboard and make out that we have all been using a fundamentally flawed and heretical Bible for the last 20 years.

Having said that, the NIV does have problems, and many of us have come to realise that those problems are more serious than we first thought. Most of the difficulties stem from a philosophical commitment, on the part of the NIV translators, to giving priority to simplicity over accuracy. This commitment stems from a laudable desire to see the Bible's message reach out to everyone, but the unfortunate result is that the actual meaning of the Bible text is quite often tinkered with, in order to produce something that is simple, punchy and easy-to-read.

Better to have something simple, the NIV seems to think, even if it is not what the original text actually says.

This betrays something of a lack of trust, in my view, in what has traditionally been called the ‘perspicuity of Scripture’—that God's word is clear and understandable for the person who reads it with a regenerate heart. Who are we, after all, to tinker with God's words, just because we think we are doing God a favour in making them ‘easier’?

This tendency in the NIV comes out in four particular areas:

The logic of sentences

The NIV, as a matter of policy, breaks up the long Greek and Hebrew sentences of the Bible into shorter, simpler English sentences. In so doing, however, it often leaves out the vital connective words between ideas (such as ‘for’, ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘therefore’, and so on). The NIV also often renders participial clauses (which have some form of logical connection to a main verb) as new sentences. These translation practices make it very difficult in places to work out what the author is actually saying, since the logic of his flow of thought is hidden from the English-language reader. The English is punchier and simpler, in a superficial sense, but more difficult in another sense; it's actually harder to work out what the author was saying.

Ironing out ambiguity

Quite often, the biblical text carries a number of possible meanings, and the reader needs to ponder which meaning the author was intending (or whether, in fact, he wanted to suggest both meanings at the same time). The NIV routinely irons out these ambiguities, and presents the English with just one possibility (the one chosen by the translator). This means that the translator's judgement determines what the Scripture says at this point, and he may be wrong. It also means, of course, that the reader is prevented from thinking for himself, and coming to understand God's word more deeply.

Consistency of word use

The NIV follows the common English language practice of avoiding using the same word too often within a sentence or paragraph. And so quite often, even though the word is the same in Greek, a different English word may be employed in the translation. Sometimes, this will make little or no difference. At other times, however, it will stop the reader from seeing the connection that the author is making by using the same word. It also stops the reader building up a picture of how a word is used in the Bible.

Removing concrete metaphors

As a matter of modern English style, the NIV translators often replace a very concrete biblical expression or metaphor, with a more abstract concept. Thus, the Bible often portrays our life as a ‘walk’, a journey that we are on. Ephesians frequently uses this expression: ‘walk in love’, ‘walk as children of light’. The NIV translates this with the more abstract and bland ‘live a life of love’ and ‘live as children of light’. ‘Walk’ is not a hard English word to understand, nor is the metaphor a difficult one to grasp. Yet in changing it, the NIV removes some of the power of the word's imagery.

This is a brief summary of the four main problem areas as I see them.

2. Is the ESV every bit as readable as the NIV?

The words ‘readable’ and ‘accurate’ are being flung about by all concerned in discussion about the NIV and the ESV (including Matthias Media in our promotional material!). It's sometimes a little hard to know what people mean by these words.

If by ‘readable’ we mean ‘simple and easy to read’, there is no question that the NIV is more ‘readable’ than the ESV. And accordingly that the Good News Bible is more ‘readable’ than the NIV. And for that matter, that the Read and Grow Picture Bible is more readable than the Good News! The problem is, as noted above, that in striving for simplicity, faithfulness to the actual meaning of the biblical text is often compromised.

The question really is: Is the ESV still readable enough for the average person? The answer to that would have to be ‘Yes’. The English of the ESV is flowing and readable, and is rated at a Year 8 reading level.

3. What is Matthias Media's involvement in the ESV project? Is your promotion of the ESV for commercial motivations?

Matthias Media has had a friendship with Crossway Books (the publisher of the ESV) for some time. We followed with interest the development of the ESV project over the last three years or so, and expressed our willingness to help Crossway publicize, and possibly even distribute, the new version in Australia.

As it turned out, we became an actual distributor of the ESV through a series of unusual circumstances. When it became apparent that, for various reasons, an affordable black-letter edition of the ESV would not be released in Australia, we urgently entreated our friends at Crossway to reconsider. Their response was to agree to print a special black-letter edition (the International Black Letter Edition). However, in return they asked that we commit ourselves to purchasing the whole of that initial IBLE print run, so as to cover the costs and risk of printing the special edition. We agreed to do so, because we were pretty sure that the ESV was the Bible we'd been waiting for, and would be of enormous benefit to Christians and churches around Australia. Judging by the reaction so far, it seems we were right.

In other words, we're promoting (and selling) the ESV for the same reason that we promote and sell all our resources—because we fervently believe that it is a helpful, useful resource for Christians in their lives and ministries, and we want to see it utilised as widely as possible, to the glory of God.

One other point to note: Matthias Media is a non-profit organization, and any surplus that we make goes into funding the production of more resources.