In the spirit of wanting to find the good in things, and not just the negatives, I continue on with my “I LIKE” campaign. For the initial rules of my little game, read here. Please understand, this is not to say I am 100 percent in favor of something. When I use opposites, I actually PREFER one thing over the other. But my point is NOT to take a stand and say, “That means the other side is lousy!”

So, today… BIBLE TRANSLATIONS.

At bat: the ESV and the NIV2011.

The ESV stands in the tradition of the RSV, which is a fine translation. Also, there is one edition available with the Apocrypha.

The NIV2011 stands as a work that has been needed to update the 1984 edition. I was not a fan of the 1984 edition. The update is great for congregational reading and it a bit more to the “formal” side, which I prefer for studying.

They are both very good translations, and while I can complain about the downsides of each one (which I hope you won’t on this post), I want to say there are definitely things to LIKE about each one.