Skip to main content

Issues with the ESV translation of the Bible

Here is a non-exhaustive list of issues with the ESV translation of the Bible.

It is not a translation from scratch, but an edit of the RSV

In many instances, the word order should be revised to reflect the natural word order of modern English.

In many places it breaks the conventions of English idiom to, unhelpfully, follow the language of the original: "stands in the way of sinners" (in modern English this suggests "obstruct" rather than "mimick")

Similarly, the phraseology suggests something different from the intended meaning "he puts the lonely in a home" (Ps 67)

Damaris is described as a "man" in Acts 17; in modern English the Greek anthropos would be human or person, while man means "male adult". 

Likewise in modern English, we say, "everyone should bring their own lunch", not "everyone should bring his lunch". See the ESV translation of, for example, John 6:57. 

1st century Capernaum, with an estimated population of a few thousand at most, is described as a "city"

While in some cases, such as "city", words are translated consistently, but in other places it is inconsistent.  

Romans 9:5 "race" here is very unfortunate, and inaccurate 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The history of the Christian Church in twenty places

α. Jerusalem (30 or 33 AD) The place where Christ, the Son-of-God-become-man, died on the Cross, was raised from the dead on the third day, and from where he ascended back to heaven. This is also where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first disciples. Sometime after AD 44 (Acts 12), Peter, John and other Apostles dispersed across the world to bear testimony to the risen Christ. 1. Ephesus (approx. 100 AD) The place where the Apostles, Paul and John, handed over to the next generation of Christian leaders, which included the “Apostolic Fathers”. One such “Apostolic Father”, Ignatius of Antioch, passed through Ephesus on his way to martyrdom at Rome, and addressed a letter to the church at Ephesus. 2. Athens (second century) The centre of Greek thought, which Justin Martyr and other Second Century Apologists addressed in their presentations of the Christian faith, proclaiming Christ as the Logos (the Word or principle underlying the universe). 3. Lyon (from 177) The church in ...

Wilfrid of Ripon (634-709)

Our family recently visited Ripon in Yorkshire, an historic town associated with a figure called Wilfrid. On our visit to the Cathedral, it turned out that there was no biography available in the Cathedral shop, so I am minded to write my own. While this history is full of unfamiliar roles and concepts, nevertheless, these were our, albeit imperfect, Christian forefathers. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, warns of "boasting in men" and then goes on to say, "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." It is in that spirit that I have penned the present brief life of Wilfrid of Ripon. The 600s is a long time ago, and at that time the map of our country looked quite different to the way it looks today. Just 200 years earlier, settlers (the Angles, Saxons and Jutes) had sailed across the North Sea from what is now Germany, Denmark and the...

George of Lydda ("Saint George")

Saint George, the patron saint of England, was an historical figure, although many things ascribed to him are not historical.  George of Lydda was born into a noble family in an area called Cappadocia (now Turkey), which at the time was populated by Greek speaking citizens of the Roman Empire. George was born around 280. His mother appears to have come from Diospolis/Lydda (now known as Lod, near Tel Aviv), the place where he was later to die. When his father died, George and his mother moved back to the town of her birth.  George was a soldier in the Roman army at the time of Emperor Diocletian. When the protracted persecution of Christians unleashed by Diocletian began to be directed at Christians in the army, George was martryred by decapitation at Lydda in the year 303.  George's death was said to have inspired Empress Alexandra of Rome (d. 314) to become Christian.  The later stories of dragon-slaying are not historical and do not appear in early hagiographies (...