Archive for July, 2007

Andy at The Last Homely House posts a letter explaining why his church switched to the ESV. He says by way of introduction:

As of yesterday, our congregation uses the English Standard Version for the public reading and exposition of Scripture…. In preparation for the switch, we sent a letter to all households explaining why we were doing it. Not only was there an absence of opposition to the switch, there were many people encouraged to hear we were doing it. I have pasted the substance of the letter below.

Pastor Mike Lumpkin from University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ark., gives several reasons why he (and, by extension, his church) uses the ESV. He concludes:

Without going further in detail, these are the reasons I made the switch and am encouraged that so many of you have as well. This is not a matter of good vs. bad translations. God’s word is supreme and because the Spirit enacts its use and brings forth its fruit, we can rest assured that God’s Word (in any mainstream translation) will have its effect. However, we should seek to have the most accurate we can find to date and use it throughout the body and in our families.

I hope that even during this season of switching translations that there would be a new desire and hunger for the word of God among our body. I sense that this is happening regardless of the translation choice and I hope that it is only strengthened as we seek to memorize, meditate upon and practice the Word of God as a biblical community for His Glory!

Fieldfleur at Bo of the Bales writes about the experience of buying a Bible before choosing an ESV Regency Bible. In the process, she coins the phrase “heady holy hermeneutics.”

I saw Bibles for men, children, teens, firefighters, nurses. Pink Bibles for women with pretty fonts grabbed my eye, yet again the didactic lesson-pointers/testimonies ruined the purity of the truth-language.

There were comparative Bibles, thick study ones with Greek and Hebrew, and parallel versions side by side, footnotes filling half the pages. Marginal boundaries crisscrossed all over, aiding the analytical reader in a pursuit of heady holy hermeneutics. Not a relaxing read for my morning coffee at the kitchen table, or on the deck, or in the coffee shop. Too intricate and dizzying.

Then, I saw her. A sweet, flower-embroideried, brocaded fabric with gold threads, and a leather hold which says: Holy Bible: ESV, English Standard Version, Crossway. Opening her pages, I encountered only the words of Scripture (with a few, few footnotes) for me to meditate on as I encounter them. Perfect!

We brought her home, my feminine window into God’s language of wisdom and rescue and love (which isn’t always delicate, by the way), and I’m satisfied. We should be friends for quite some time if all goes well.

Every Regency Bible is unique; no one else has a Bible exactly like Fieldfleur’s.