Speculation about a revision to the ESV goes all the way back to May of last year when it was announced that the Translation Oversight Committee would be meeting "to consider suggestions that have been made concerning the ESV text." A few weeks back, I tried to get solid information from Crossway regarding the rumored forthcoming revision to the English Standard Version. It seems that the powers-that-be at Crossway are near omniscient regarding such speculation on the internet because I was told in an emailed response that my suggestion in the comments on another blog about the "any day" revision release was inaccurate. I had never mentioned in my initial email to Crossway my speculation about such things. I was told that my message would nevertheless be forwarded higher up for a more official response, but I've yet to hear anything. This is not too big of a surprise. Rumors of Bible revisions, like that of new computer models, can eat into the sales of existing inventory.

Then yesterday, in a post on the Bible Translation Discussion List, David Dewey, author of A User's Guide to Bible Translations, wrote these words:

There has been increasing speculation about when a revised ESV might appear. The answer looks like being next month. There is a clue - even hard evidence - on the ESB blog site. A few entries ago (on August 2) they posted details of the forthcoming reverse interlinear. This includes a reproduction of the start of Acts 1. Close observation reveals that verse 3 has been revised. The existing ESV (including even the new journalling edition) has, 'To them he presented himself alive...' The interlinear has the rather more natural, 'He presented himself alive to them.' Does this suggest that most of the revisions will be to awkward word order? And if one revision is found in just four verses, how many changes might there be in total?

Am I not suprised that Crossway have included their revisions in the interlinear. To have kept the unrevised text would have been foolish: typesetting an interlinear is enormously expensive and it is not something you are going to want to drop for a second edition in a hurry.

You've got to hand it to Dewey. I had seen the post on the ESV Blog myself, but I certainly didn't take the time to compare the text in the photo to the actual ESV text currently available.


But he's certainly right. The rather awkward phrasing of Acts 1:3 in the current ESV, "To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God" has been changed in the ESV Reverse Interlinear to "He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God" [emphasis added to designated revised wording].

One has to wonder if the writer of the ESV Blog displayed this particular page from the first chapter of Acts on purpose as a hint of the forthcoming release or if it was something that just slipped through? Regardless, the text has been changed in v. 3, and I would agree with Dewey's speculation that a revised ESV text may be released very soon, or at least released initially by way of the ESV Reverse Interlinear since this volume is now being printed. It will be interesting to see if the revision won't merely be introduced quietly--with no fanfare--so as not to cannibalize sales of current editions.

Nevertheless, the question regarding how extensive the revision will be is of most interest to me and undoubtedly many others. I will admit that although I regularly use the ESV as a parallel text for comparison's sake, I've never really warmed to it as a Bible translation. I have nothing personal against the ESV, but I've never been quite as excited about it as a number of my peers (I have much greater preference for the HCSB as a recent formal equivalent translation, and I teach from the HCSB at church). I've described the ESV elsewhere as often feeling rushed--that is, certain archaic renderings left over from the RSV (and some even from the KJV) that I feel should have been updated in a 21st Century English translation were simply left as is. I realize that the backers of the ESV were going for a more traditional translation, but it just often seems to be awkwardly traditional in places. For some specific examples, see the "ESV Translation Problems" section on Wayne Leman's ESV Links Page.

Special thanks to Wayne Leman, moderator of the Bible Translation Discussion list and contributor to Better Bibles Blog, for sending me Dewey's post last night hours before I received it this morning in the list digest.

Tags: ESV