We have decided to use the English Standard Version

At Northview this fall, you will experience a small difference in our services that would probably go unnoticed unless someone pointed it out to you. We have decided to use the English Standard Version of the Bible instead of the New International Version in our weekend services. There are a few reasons for this change, some philosophical and others merely pragmatic…

1. Different ministries in our church wanted to share the same Bible. In the past, our children’s ministry was using the New International Reader’s Version, the middle school was using the New Living Translation, the high school was using the English Standard Version, and the weekend services had the New International Version. All of these versions of the Scriptures are good ones, excelling in one area or another, but we wanted to agree on one version from which we would teach across the ages. The ESV was our choice, not because of errors in the others, but because it has the most strengths, in our opinion.

2. The translation philosophy of the ESV is stronger than that of many other translations. The NIV, in particular, uses a philosophy called “dynamic equivalence” when translating. This means that it tries to translate idea for idea instead of word for word. Dynamic equivalence tends to lead to a more interpretive and readable translation, but it can easily lead the reader to think a particular passage means one thing when the meaning in the original Greek or Hebrew is more debatable. For study, word for word translations, like the ESV, tend not to lead interpreters down as many theological paths. Preaching from a word for word translation allows the preacher to explain the text without regularly questioning the interpretive path taken by the Bible he is reading from.

3. The NIV that we currently use will no longer be printed in the coming years. We had to make a shift to a new translation one way or another as the 1984 version of the New International Version is going to be phased out and replaced by the new update done last year. This change has forced us to consider which new translation we would like to use in the coming years. After some discussion, the ESV has been our choice.

There are more reasons that could be listed here, but these three are really the biggest ones. Kevin DeYoung has written a good explanation of why he and his church switched from the NIV to the ESV a number of years ago and his thoughts are worth reading if you are interested. The link is below.

http://static.crossway.org/excerpt/why-our-church-switched-to-the-esv/why-our-church-switched-to-the-esv.pdf

In Christ,

Jeff Bucknam
Lead Pastor