Apprentice 2 Jesus

Yet more grist for the mill of translations. Derek Vreeland has a blog detailing why he is now using the ESV for preaching, and links to Mark Driscoll of the prominent Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Driscoll has a VERY detailed message on why the ESV has become their main text.

I am still scrolling through examining churches who have adopted the TNIV as well. The website for the TNIV has many testimonials from pastors who detail their decision to use the TNIV.

In comparing some passages, I thought I had stumbled on something that would swing me to the TNIV for sure. I was reading Psalm 91 in the ESV to a shut-in I was visiting. While the words rolled off just like the KJV I was going through words like “fowler” and “pestilence” and “pinions.” While that is beautiful prose, I thought, “I have to look these definitions up!”

So, I thought I would open up the TNIV and it would at least give more up-to-date words. The comparison was interesting.

“Pinions” in ESV is “feathers” in TNIV, but pestilence and fowler are still there. In one respect, that makes the TNIV even MORE attractive to me. They really aren’t as “dynamic equivalent” as I thought. On the other hand…WHAT IS A FOWLER?? (I looked it up. It’s a bird hunter.)

What I am convinced of is these really are two very good translations. The TNIV is solidly conservative and evangelical. It is in many ways FAR better than the NIV. I was never a fan of the NIV, even though I tried to be because as a pastor it was what most people were reading. The ESV is also evangelical and conservative. Both have a high view of the Word of God.

Now if I could only figure out “pestilence”…