Here I Go Again

In 2007 I became aware of the English Standard Version of the Bible as I was settling in to a new church home in the Presbyterian Church of America. Since becoming a Christian in the late 1970's I have never been able to settle on one English translation of the Bible to suit me. Usually I would go with the one my pastor was preaching from at the time and supplement my studies with other translations.

My journey of "primary" Bibles since I was saved over 30 years ago is all over the place and one can probably guess what kind of church or denomination I was a part of at any given time. The first Bible I purchased upon my conversion was the (at the time a brand new translation) NIV (New International Version). Then I moved for a short time to the NKJV (New King James). Then, if memory serves me, it was KJV (King James), NASB (New American Standard), KJV and NKJV again, NIV again, NLT (New Living Translation), NIV again and finally the ESV (English Standard Version). That covers about 28 years (1979-2007)! For the past four years my Bible of choice has been the ESV. For the record, one translation that stuck with me through all the changes and could possibly be considered my "secondary" Bible would be the NASB. I tend to prefer the more "literal" or "word-for-word" translations when push comes to shove (OK, I know, I'm a Bible geek). I recently discovered a great online Bible source called YouVersion. It offers a parallel feature where you can read two versions at the same time. It was through this parallel reading I came to realize the ESV and the NASB were practically identical. I wondered, with this new revelation, was the ESV even necessary? I hope the folks at Crossway (publishers of the ESV) don't pick up on this blog because they might be a little unhappy with me. It was less than four years ago they picked up on my glowing review of the ESV and published it on their blog (without my permission I might add).

Now a relatively new translation has captured my attention. It is the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). The HCSB first popped up on my radar last year while I was surfing the net. I didn't give it much thought at the time as I filed it away under "This translation is a Southern Baptist Bible since it has Holman in its name". I now believe that assessment was hasty at best and unfair at the worst. Published in 2004 and updated in 2009, the HCSB seems to strike a happy medium between the NASB and the NIV, at least, for me. What I mean by "happy medium" is the HCSB provides a balance between the "word-for-word" approach of the NASB as compared to the "thought-for-thought" philosophy of the NIV. The HCSB translators call it "Optimal Equivalence". They say the primary goal of optimal equivalence translations is "to convey a sense of the original text with as much clarity as possible". I am impressed with what I've seen of the HCSB so far, but I've also come across passages where I'm not too sure about some of the word selections as well. I've already got a nice leather-bound, single-column edition picked out if I decide to add a copy of the HCSB to my collection, but I don't believe I will abandon my ESV and NASB any time soon. At the present time, with our interim pastor teaching from the NIV, I am carrying my 1995 updated version of the NASB to church and thinking about purchasing a Kindle.