“the text of the ESV Bible will remain unchanged in all future editions printed and published by Crossway.” The goal behind this decision to make the text permanent was to stabilize the English Standard Version, serving its readership by establishing the ESV as a translation that could be used “for generations to come.” We desired for there to be a stable and standard text that would serve the reading, memorizing, preaching, and liturgical needs of Christians worldwide from one generation to another. . . We have become convinced that this decision was a mistake.
You can find the four changes (2007, 2011, 2016, and now 2025) online or you can look at them here, here, here, and here. I will admit that four revisions in over 24 years is not much but it is significant to Christians who do not like people playing with the Biblical text. While most of these are minor and should not excite anyone but the Neaderthals among us, others are not. Curiously, some of them are returns to an original rendering undoing previous changes.
Since the LCMS uses the ESV as a typical though not official version, it has stirred things up on the blogosphere. Social media is replete with voices from those who are indignant about such changes. For what it is worth, the LCMS uses the 2001 original in its worship, lectionary, and study Bibles. Some pew versions may use another date but I suspect we have limited ourselves to the 2001 version and to our own edits which Crossways allowed back then.
I know of no version which satisfies everyone. It does not have to. Regardless of what we do to the Word of God or how we hear it, the Word of God does not change. Versions do not negate this principle even though they do establish just how hard it is to create a text which cannot be misunderstood. Language is not static and words evolve in meaning in our usage -- none of this affects what God has said but it does affect how we hear it. Curiously, so many of the things we think will make things clearer only obscure the meaning further. The key to the Scriptures is not a flawless translation but Christ. The Scriptures read outside of Christ are not the same Scriptures read in Christ -- not because the words are different but the meaning is. We ought not be preoccupied by finding or even producing a perfect translation since the language changes and every translation will eventually wear out not because it is wrong but because it is no longer addressing the same people and the same time. So it is good to remember that no translation ought to be a hill on which we are ready to die. On the other hand, we ought to strive in every place and at every time to be as faithful to the Word that endures forever no matter how language changes or translations revise. If you are using a version that ends up requiring some pastor to say What the Bible really says..., you are probably using the wrong one. Every Lutheran pastor worth his salt will say to you What this means is... That said, is you use a reliable translation, the places where there are problems really a few and they do nothing to affect the truth that endures forever.
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