Switching from NIV84 to ESV

One of the changes I will be making in the new year is switching the Bible translation I use in preaching – from the New International Version (NIV) to the English Standard Version (ESV). I have used the NIV (1984 version) for about 20 years because it was widely considered the best combination of an accurate translation and easy to understand English. 

The people responsible for translating and publishing the NIV have released an updated version that is commonly referred to as the NIV 2011 (Zondervan no longer publish the NIV 1984 edition). This new NIV 2011 has not been well received by many evangelical scholars. Most of the criticism has been aimed at its problematic “gender-neutral” language. For example, masculine words in the original Greek and Hebrew like “man” and “he” have sometimes been translated to gender-inclusive terms such as “humankind,” “’human being,” “person,” etc. in the NIV 2011. 

Of even greater concern is how the NIV 2011 fails to translate the Hebrew and Greek words literally, as the NIV 1984 did, and as most major translations do. Some critics have also expressed concern that the translators of the NIV 2011 appear to have been too concerned about being “politically correct” at the expense of translation accuracy. (A more detailed objection to the NIV 2011 may be found in an article by Si Cochran titled “A fair analysis of the new NIV” at https://world.wng.org/2013/12/a_fair_analysis_of_the_new_niv). 

The ESV, on the other hand, is an “essentially literal” translation that seeks as much as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on “word-for-word” correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original. 

I have spent the past three years reading and studying Scriptures based on the ESV. While I am still fond of the NIV84 (old habits die hard), I find the ESV is ideally suited for in-depth study of the Bible. Indeed, with its emphasis on literary excellence, the ESV is equally suited for public reading and preaching, for private reading and reflection, for both academic and devotional study, and for Scripture memorization. 

Rev. James Chin