Switching to the ESV Bible

  • Pastor Mike Fabarez
  • Sep 23, 2009

    Compass Bible Church is going to the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible starting January 1, 2010. Order your ESV Study Bible from the Focal Point website and a portion of the proceeds go to support Focal Point. See Pastor Mike's blog below.

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    Compass to Use ESV Beginning 2010

    The publishers of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV), have announced that as of 2011 they are no longer going to publish the NIV or the TNIV (Today’s New International Version) but are going to produce a new translation to take the place of these two versions. Their stated goal to “update the language” of these translations will likely move the new NIV even further away from a literal rendering of the original words and phrases which underlie the translation of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew.

    6a00e3981f1e39883301156f06ad10970c-500wi.jpgBecause of this announcement by the NIV publishers, as of January 1, 2010 Compass Bible Church and all of its related ministries and classes will teach from the English Standard Version (ESV). The ESV is an increasingly popular and more literal “word-for-word” English rendering of the original languages of the Bible and will serve as a better experience for the teaching and preaching ministry at Compass Bible Church. While no English translation perfectly captures every nuance of the “God-breathed” texts penned 2,000 to 3,400 years ago, we believe the ESV is the best and most accessible English translation for our use at the present time.

    The leaders of Compass Bible Church have spent many years learning the original Hebrew and Greek languages of the Bible and are not therefore slavishly dependent on any English translation. As we study and teach from the ESV at Compass, we will continue to carefully point out any concerns regarding a translated word or phrase.

    In order to provide us with a more unified and unambiguous learning experience, I ask that beginning on January 1st each member of your family bring an ESV to every event, class, meeting or service at Compass Bible Church. A variety of styles, sizes and formats of the ESV are available online and more are available each week at the Compass Bookstore. It is our prayer that this move to the ESV will help to improve your understanding of God’s timeless truth.

    A more in-depth rationale for this move to the ESV will be presented in the final few sessions of our “Bible Origins” class in the current semester of Compass Night. Those lectures will be available at FocalPointMinistries.org at the close of the Compass Night semester.

    For more information on the English Standard Version see ESV.org and ESVstudyBible.org.

    – Pastor Mike