Evaluation of the ESV

A friend of mine sent me this evaluation of the ESV:

While no translation of the Bible is flawless, the ESV is the preferred choice at LHEF. Why? I don't see how I could improve on Dr. Poythress' explanation...


The English Standard Version: Explanation by Dr. Vern S. Poythress

The English Standard Version is an essentially literal translation. It
strives to preserve the actual wording of the original whenever this
accurately conveys the meaning, but also strives to preserve the literary
excellence and readability associated with the historic English Bible
tradition represented by the KJV and RSV.

1. Accuracy

Every verse has been checked for accuracy to the original languages by
evangelical scholars with special expertise in each book.

Inerrantist evangelicals make up the translation team.

The ESV is a conservative revision of the RSV that fixes the theological
problems associated with the latter.

Theological vocabulary and complexity of thought follow the original, rather
than being artificially limited in order to make it easy for beginning
readers.

Where more than one reasonable interpretive option exists, the ESV has tried
to preserve the options by an English rendering that allows for them all;
or, where this is not possible, has put the more probable option in the text
and included the other option(s) in a footnote.

ESV endeavors to represent the autographic text as accurately as can be
determined by textual criticism. It usually follows the MT in the OT and the
standard Greek text of UBS in the NT, but there are a few exceptions in
difficult cases.

Footnotes are added in cases where textual variations create significant
uncertainty and affect meaning.

Key thematic words that reoccur throughout a book or a number of books have,
where feasible, been translated consistently, so that concordant relations
and thematic relations between passages are more evident in English. NT
quotations from the OT have been checked to make sure that the
correspondence is as clear in English as in the original.

2. Literary excellence
The ESV preserves cadences and poetic diction of poetic portions, such as
characterized the KJV and the RSV.

It preserves where feasible the familiarity of the historic English Bible
tradition from Tyndale, Geneva, KJV, RV, ASV, and RSV.

3. Contemporary English
Obsolete English has been replaced (for example, no "thee" or "thou" is
left).

English words that have changed meaning over time have been inspected to see
whether they need replacement.

Male meanings in the original have been preserved in translation, but the
expression "any man" has been replaced by "anyone" when the latter is the
meaning of the original. The ESV is not "gender-neutral," but conforms to
the Colorado Springs Guidelines on the issue of gender in English.
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A. For further reading on the ESV...

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/2004/1534_Good_English_With_Minimal_Translation_Why_Bethlehem_Uses_the_ESV/

B. Reading ESV Bible online...

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/

C. English word search of ESV Bible online (open studylight page; switch to
ESV Bible in the drop-down menu; type English term in the search bar;
search)...

http://www.studylight.org/