Apprentice 2 Jesus

I am working to sort out two great translations in English. I have long been a fan of more formal, or literal, translations. In Bible college I began using the NASB as my Bible. No one else was using it, which was a problem. My only solace was reading it in a sermon allowed people reading their KJV Bibles to follow along better than if I was reading the NIV.

From Bible college I had just enough Greek to make me dangerous. I was not a fan of the NIV for several reasons.

Now, as our church and ministry embarks on an effort to commend one translation to our church body, I find myself debating the differences between the TNIV and the ESV. One reason for the TNIV is pragmatics. That is a horrible reason for choosing a translation. However, there are other reasons for looking at the TNIV.

For a long time the TNIV was not attractive to me because of the gender-issue controversy. I thought for the longest time all the TNIV did was update the text to bring it gender neutral. If that was the case, I was not interested because that meant the other issues in the NIV were not resolved and I wasn’t going to like it anyway.

The ESV came on the scene and gained some popularity in a way the NASB had not been able to capture. It helps when a ministry the size of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis adopts the ESV and endorses it wholeheartedly. The ESV is more formal so I was examining that translation.

The TNIV popped back up on my radar because I heard a lecture from Gordon Fee, one of the translators. A student of the great Bruce Metzger, Fee detailed some key updates in the TNIV that had NOTHING to do with gender inclusiveness. I then picked up a copy of the TNIV and read through some key areas and found they had indeed worked harder to make some translation issues more clear.

As I am sorting through these issues (basically on my own) I want to have some information on hand that is helpful to me. John Piper is very clear as to why they chose the ESV at Bethlehem Baptist. I have been looking for some help in that area with the TNIV.

Currently, I am comparing two views. John Piper, of course, articulates the ESV usage very well.
On the side of the TNIV, Craig Blomberg, professor at Denver Seminary, points out the significant improvements in the TNIV over the NIV. He cuts through the smoke screen of the gender-inclusive issue and helps me see just how the TNIV really did improve.

Add to the side of thoughtful comments on ESV an article by Alan Jacobs.

Thoughtful comments on the ESV that are NOT so kind come from Allan Chapple.