The ESV and I Are Not Friends... Here's Why
Same with the 1984 NIV Version
The title of my publication is “Gracious Tension,” and I regret to inform you that there won’t be a whole lot of grace today for this translation. I hope it will be interesting, and I promise that I won’t demand you change the translation you’re reading.
Bible translation history is as fun, and strange as any other type of history. Yep, I just said history was fun, and I stand by my statement!
Before I begin, I want to share that I learned a lot from Marg Mowckzo1, Beth Allison Barr2, and Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE)3. I also took part in a class about Women and Men in Ministry while working on my Master’s. Fun fact, it’s the reason I ended up doing a Master of Divinity (3 years), instead of a Master of Theological Studies (2 years). Not only that, a lot of what I came through in my research of spiritual abuse, and healthy church cultures, had to do with women in the church. I’ll share some more books and resources at the bottom of this post for those interested.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk suffrage.
The women’s suffrage movement began in the 1890’s throughout the world. However, I’m going to focus on North America because that’s my context, and it’s the context of translators of the ESV. So, we need to jump ahead to the 1910’s when women were more vocal on this side of the pond.
The suffrage movement demanded that women be given, among other things, the right to vote. The 1910’s gave us what is now considered “first wave feminism.” Scroll ahead a few more years to the 1960’s, and you have the beginning of “second-wave feminism.” This is where the idea behind the ESV was birthed… and yes, I use that term intentionally.
You see… some influential gentlemen got together, and decided they weren’t too keen on these feminist movements. They were worried about how it would impact the Church, so they endeavoured to create the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. They had a few dockets on the agenda, and a translation of the Bible was a high item on their list. One of their main goals was “emphasizing word-for-word accuracy, literary excellence, and depth of meaning…4 by carefully weigh[ing each word] against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity and to avoid under-translating or overlooking any nuance of the original text.”5 Sounds good, right?
Well, let’s take a look at a couple passages, beginning with Romans 12:6-8. Since the ESV proclaims itself as an “evangelical” bible translation, I’m comparing it to another evangelical translations, the NIV 2011 version.
What do you notice? They’re both talking about gifts, and how each gift is to be used. But in the ESV, there’s a little modifier round about verse 7 & 8. Let’s take a closer look.
ESV: “the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation”
NIV: “if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement”
Hmmm, one of these things is not like the other! Where did the masculine pronoun come from in the ESV? In Ancient Greek language, there is no mention of a masculine (or feminine) affiliation to gifts. We just get gifts.
In case you’re concerned that I only compared this passage to one version:
CEB: If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching. If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging.
NLT: If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.
NASB: or the one who teaches, in the act of teaching; or the one who exhorts, in the work of exhortation
NRSV: the teacher, in teaching; the encourager, in encouragement;
But that’s only one instance, you may be saying. Okay, how about the ESV’s treatment of Junia, the apostle?6
Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.
Romans 16:7
The NIV says: “they are outstanding among the apostles”
The CEB translates it as: “they are prominent among the apostles”
Why does the ESV take away their apostle status? I mean, poor Junia! First she was lauded as an apostle, then she became Junius the man, and now she’s finally back to being Junia the woman apostle. She’s not “well known” to the apostles, she is one!
How about the creation account - Gen. 1:26-27?
Let us make man in our image… So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him.
Here’s the thing… the Hebrew word “adam” is translated not as “man” but human, humankind, or mankind, and this is shown in all the versions I mentioned before.7 There is a distinct agenda by the translators of this Bible to maintain male headship, and patriarchy. For these reasons, and many others, the ESV and I are not friends.
I’m not asking that you agree with me. You can love the ESV, and that’s okay! All I’m trying to share are the reasons it’s not my favourite translation, and how Bible translations may impact our understanding of Scripture and our relationship with God.
You may have noticed the little tagline under my title referencing the 1984 NIV.
Here’s a little more translation history for you. About the same time the translators were working on the ESV (late 90’s early 2000’s), Zondervan was updating the NIV to be more gender inclusive. You’ll notice this with terms like “brothers and sisters.” They came out with the TNIV in the early 2000’s, which didn’t go over that well. In 2011, they used a bit of what they’d done with the TNIV, and released an updated NIV. However, some churches still used the 1984 version.
Lets go back to Romans 12:6-8.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
- NIV 1984
I don’t think I need to comment… you likely understood right away why we’re not friends right away.
I recognize that there are no perfect versions when it comes to Bible translations. I don’t expect there to be either. These days I find myself going between the NIV, NRSV, and CEB versions of the Bible depending on my mood. I also love the First Nation’s New Testament. But my ESV Bible remains on my shelf, collecting dust.
If I had to give any advice, research different versions before you decide which one is best for you. Ask people outside your church, and denomination what they like. Visit other churches and see what version they read from. Good luck!
Looking for more resources?
Links to books are part of the Amazon Affiliate program. If you purchase a copy through this link I’ll make a small commission, but it doesn’t impact your shopping experience.
Looking for a really thorough examination of the ESV? Here’s an article by Mark Strauss called Why the English Standard Version Should Not Become the Standard English Version.
The team at Bare Marriage have some great gender-inclusive content.
Sarah Bessey wrote Jesus Feminist.
Aimee Byrd has a few books out, including Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
Carolyn Custis James wrote Malestrom.
Lisa Sharon Harper wrote The Very Good Gospel.
Danielle Strickland just curated a great collection called Need to Know.
Kristen Kobes Du Mez has the ever popular Jesus and John Wayne.
Her blog can be found at https://margmowczko.com/. She shares a ton of information about Bible translations, women in the Bible, and so much more I can’t even remember it all. I highly recommend taking a look at it.
I’m forever grateful to The Making of Biblical Womanhood which shares the history of how we got here today. See specifically Chapter 5.
Discovering Biblical Equality is a great book for those who want to do a more academic deep dive into many different gender related topics in the church. However, Chapter 1 provides a good historical overview of how women have been treated, complete with statistics. They also have a website with lots of information.
https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6MzE0MTIwMQ==
Under “Translation Legacy” https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6MzE0MTIwMw==
See Marg Mowckzo’s post Junia and the ESV
Here’s a link to Gen 1:26-27 in ESV, NRSV, CEB, NASB, and the NIV
Finding marg and bare marriage changed the course of my life!
My big four these days are the NIV, NRSVu, NLT, and CEB. The politics behind the ESV (and the fact that their whole translation committee is male) are infuriating. Surprisingly the CSB, although it is a LifeWay/SBC translation, is fairly gender inclusive (much more than the ESV).