ESV Bible Blog

Kami Mueller from Grace Bible Church in Tempe, Ariz., has set Romans 6 in the ESV to music, writing five songs “in response to encouragements that our entire church body memorize Romans.” Her rendition of Romans 6:5-11, for example, brings out some of the passage’s parallels and clarifies Paul’s occasionally dense prose.

Via hantla.com.

Forrest at Van Til Tool reviews the ESV Literary Study Bible:

By highlighting the importance of the artistic aspect of Scripture the Literary Study Bible should be helpful in bringing to attention the artistic aspect of God Himself. By inspiring the writing of Scripture as a work of literary artistry God shows His concern for the literary arts just as the artistic aspect of His creatures shows His concern for the visual arts. These together with God’s dramatic artistry as the Playwright of history leads us to realize that God is a very creative, beautiful, imaginative, and interesting Person — a great truth which has heretofore usually been egregiously omitted in the Doctrine of God in our systematic theologies.

Matt at The Foolish Galatian reviews the ESV Pocket New Testament:

Overall, this is quite a nice little book. The tru-tone sewn binding makes for a quality look and feel at a MUCH cheaper price than the goat and calf skin varieties. Its readability is far better than I had anticipated when I first purchased it, and the ESV translation is second to none. On a scale of one to ten, I give it a high 9.

We don’t often see reviews of ESV Pocket New Testaments. Thanks, Matt, for the review.

Ken at Ken’s Thoughts shares how accurately he thinks the ESV translates 2 Timothy 2:1:

The original language is clear in this verse, that the very first thing we must realize is that we must be empowered and strengthened by the grace that is in Christ if we are to be effective servants….

So, what does the ESV have to say?

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,”

Exactly what Paul said.

Ken also makes a good case for comparing several translations to get a fuller sense of a verse’s meaning.

Dan at Servant’s Heart Fellowship shares why it took him nearly six years to start using the ESV in his preaching:

So what took so long for me to begin using it from the pulpit? Did I change my mind? No, but even though I loved the translation, I was curious to see if the ESV would become widely accepted by other evangelicals. It did. You can check out http://www.esv.org/ and see for yourself who endorses it. I also hesitated back in 2002 because I have this (perhaps sinful) resistance to jumping on bandwagons…. It turns out my hesitancy was totally unnecessary. The ESV is widely accepted and is quickly becoming the standard for many Christians. Including me.

Rae at raewhitlock.com reviews the ESV Personal Size Reference Bible on the classic continuum of “epic fail” to “epic win” and manages not to use the word “pwn” in his review. His conclusion:

With its combination of a great translation and a fantastic size and layout, I have a feeling that the PSR will be my primary Bible for reading, studying, teaching, and preaching for many years to come (despite the . . . passable binding). I wholeheartedly commend this edition to anyone looking for a new Bible, and recommend one of the TruTone editions if you have no plans to re-bind.

Andrew at The Crazy Australian has Wordled the ESV New Testament (Wordle is a new tag-cloud application):

Here’s a Wordle we created of the complete ESV text:

Note: You need Java to use Wordle directly, but you can appreciate the static pictures in any browser.

Thomas at Still Truth is spending the month of June blogging through the ESV Literary Study Bible. He explains how he got the idea:

I noticed that I could sign up for a thirty day account [for the online Literary Study Bible] for free. This would enable me to have full access to the text, charts and summaries for thirty days. And then I hatched an idea: Why not read through the bible in thirty days? Yes, I mean read through the whole bible in a mere month June hath thirty days so it seems a good month to accomplish my goal. Of course June is also a busy month here in the tcblack household - so it will be a test as well.

Here’s what he’s written so far:

1. Day 1: Genesis
2. Day 2: End of Genesis
3. Day 3: Exodus
4. Day 4: Leviticus and Numbers
5. Day 5: Numbers
6. Day 6: Deuteronomy
7. Day 7: Deuteronomy and Joshua
8. Days 8-12: Judges and 1 Samuel
9. Days 13-14: 2 Samuel through 2 Kings

The blogger at PaulWrites explains how he came to use the ESV:

The English Standard Version is my Bible translation of choice. I may be the only one at my church who uses this translation, I’m certainly the first to teach and preach from it. I first heard about the ESV at a pastor’s conference a few years ago. I picked up a hardback copy at the conference bookstore but didn’t use it much. Then I heard John Piper talk about the translation and I was inspired, but still didn’t use it much. When my wife wanted to get me a new preaching Bible for our anniversary last summer I decided to go with the ESV and have been using it ever since.

He goes on to talk about his reasons for using the ESV.

Download the latest sample from the ESV Study Bible, the Introduction to the book of Revelation. This pre-release PDF provides you a glimpse of what the ESV Study Bible is designed to deliver—namely, tools and information to help you understand God’s Word more deeply.

The Introduction to the book of Revelation explains the book’s author, date, historical setting, and purpose. The introduction also unpacks the key themes of the book, its literary features, and its place in the history of salvation. In addition to a full-color map showing the location of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3, you’ll also find a number of charts that give an overview of the various approaches to interpreting Revelation and the different millennial positions.

Every book in the ESV Study Bible has an introduction like this one, providing essential information to enrich your study of God’s Word. We have also included the first few pages from chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Revelation so that you can see the font size and layout of the ESV Study Bible.

You can learn more about the ESV Study Bible and get a pre-order discount at www.ESVStudyBible.org. Reminder: the 33% pre-order discount ends this Sunday, June 15, 2008.

If you are a pastor or Christian leader, we also invite you to email esvsb@crossway.org if you would like free informational brochures to provide to your church or ministry (while supplies last; U.S. residents only).