ESV

When the MacArthur Study Bible hit Grace Community back in the mid to late 90's, it was huge. I wound up getting a paperback copy I never used, a hardback copy that MacArthur himself signed ('cuz I used to volunteer regularly at Grace To You-- he showed up one day and they were giving out free hardbacks that same day so I asked him to sign it), and a leather copy my folks gave to me for 6th-grade Graduation that has my named engraved on it. The thing is, they're all NKJV, and while the NKJV has a special place in my heart because all the hundreds of AWANA verses I memorized were out of the NKJV, it still reads a little stuffy.

I went to a Christian School for 13 years that mandated each student have an NIV. To be honest, the school's theology was weak-sauce, so I pretty much grew up associating the NIV with crummy theology. To be honest, that's an unfair association, but in reality, I just don't like the NIV's near paraphrasing of most of the Bible.

When I got to Master's, I started hearing about this new translation called the ESV. Dr. Boyd actually made us memorize out of it for OT2 and I found out that most of the Bible Department really liked it, so I decided that I was gonna get a copy. At Shepherd's Conference of 2005, The Reformation Study Bible went for sale, and it was an ESV translation with study notes edited by RC Sproul. My dad picked me up a hardback copy. I liked the way it read so much that I got a tiny bonded-leather edition and had my name engraved on it as well.

Then a friend who is way smarter than me sat down with me one day and we looked at the study notes the Reformation Study Bible had to say on certain passages that pertained to Eschatology, specifically the future fate of Israel as predicted in some of the minor prophets. She pointed out that Sproul and the guys who wrote a lot of the study notes took a very non-literal (i.e., AMILLENIAL) approach to the passages regarding Israel (which they said were basically for "all believers" and "the church"-- even though it says "Israel"). Consequently, I set down my Reformation Study Bible.

Recently, the MacArthur Study Bible came out in NASB, which I have always enjoyed as a readable translation (more so than NKJV, but less "modnernized" than the NIV). So I bought a copy discount from Grace To You. I really do like it and have enjoyed studying it, but I've become more and more convinced that the ESV is a way better translation. In fact, I was just talking about this the other day with my good friend Ben Blakey. We just plain like the ESV the best. So I've been doing my devotions from my little leather ESV and if I have a question, instead of skimming down to the study notes, I'll check out some commentaries on the passage.

Ok, so basically everything I just said John Piper says better here. I hope you enjoy the article.