February 2017 – This Sunday as your pastor stands behind the pulpit to open the Scripture, likely he will encourage you to turn to a particular passage. If it were not for the system of books, chapters, and verses found in most copies of God’s Word, you might have trouble finding passages from lesser known books like Habakkuk or Haggai.

Not only does the index system assist in finding a passage, it also helps with memorization, recall, and in-depth personal study.

Embarrassment of riches
The text of the Bible’s original manuscripts contained no such system. To make matters more difficult, the original text contained no punctuation or space between words, either in the Hebrew (Old Testamant) or Greek (New Testament).

Like many of his contemporaries, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 to 1228, recognized the problem and divided the books of the Bible into chapters. His division is still in use today. Around 400 years later, Robert Stephanus, divided Langton’s chapters into verses.

These divisions are only 500 years old, relatively new considering the history of the Scripture.

When Langton and Stephanus were adding their helpful tools, few translations of the Bible existed, the primary one in Latin. However, today there are numerous translations that use a variety of translation methods. With those translations have come cross references, footnotes, study notes, articles, illustrations, and more. In fact, the volume of additional material in some contemporary versions can compete with the inspired text for the reader’s attention and become a distraction.

“What we have in the English language is an embarrassment of riches,” Dane Ortlund, executive vice president of Bible publishing at Crossway, told AFA Journal.

Looking beyond distractions
Inside the chapters, verses, cross references, and footnotes are the inspired words of God. Most modern translations use the same early sources for their translation efforts, namely the Masoretic text for the Old Testament and the Koine Greek language editions of the United Bible Societies and of Nestle-Aland. Many also consult the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate for difficult passages.

So, if the vast majority of modern translations use the same original language texts, why do they develop such different wording in many verses?

The answer is both simple and complex.

“Translating requires a ton of discernment, maturity, and sophistication by world-class Bible scholars,” Ortlund said. “You cannot take a Greek or Hebrew sentence and plug in one English word for every one word of the original because you would have nonsensical English.”

And that is where emphasis and method make such an impact.

“Translation is part art, part science,” Ortlund said. This is clearly seen in the different approaches Bible publishers take. Many people believe a phrase-for-phrase translation, called a dynamic equivalent, is the best approach for making Scripture readable. Other translators believe a literal approach is more accurate and faithful to the original.

For example, with readability and accuracy at opposite ends of the scale, The Message and New Living Translation score high in readability; however, these do not stick very closely to the wording in the ancient texts. On the accuracy end of the scale are the New American Standard Bible, the King James Bible, and the English Standard Version, which Ortlund oversees.

He said, “With the ESV, we are striving for maximum transparency. Our approach is one of ‘essentially literal’ – meaning we want to help English readers see as clearly as possible what the original text says.”

Ortland believes Crossway has reached that goal with its new ESV Reader’s Bible.

Less is more
“We live in an age of hyper distraction,” Ortlund said. “We wanted to develop a Bible that is the alternative to this highly distracted age.”

Thus, the ESV Reader’s Bible contains the Scripture text and minimal headings.

“If you are reading through a narrative in 1 Kings, you are constantly coming across man-made divisions in chapters and verses that actually encourage you to stop reading,” Ortlund said.

The removal of the extemporaneous was only half the work. Led by Don Jones, executive director for Bible production, the team behind the ESV Reader’s Bible wanted to highlight the special nature of Scripture in minute details to make reading Scripture an entirely immersive experience.

“We wanted to publish the Bible in a way that reflects the supreme value of Scripture itself,” Ortlund said. “There are over 750,000 words in the English Bible, so there is no way to put that many words in a book without sacrificing text size or paper quality. So we decided to expand to six volumes to get just the right font on just the right paper. We developed an award-winning type font and brought in paper from Sweden and printed everything in Italy.”

The craft goes beyond what is on the page. The six-volume set comes in two presentations. One presentation has a permanent slipcase with cloth over board volumes. The other presentation is cowhide over board covers in a walnut slipcase.

“At the end of the day,” Ortlund said, “it is about where the reader’s heart is and what God, by His Spirit, is doing in the life of that reader. All we did was strip away everything that has accumulated in the Bible over the centuries that are beneficial in many ways, but can also become obstacles to overcome. We wanted to help people read the books and letters that constitute the Bible in the way they were originally written, read,
and heard.”   

Spending a few weeks with the ESV Reader’s Bible, I find myself reading longer passages, which makes the overarching narratives shine through, especially for daily study. However, I still use a chapter/verse version in a teaching or preaching situation.

One morning while reading through Ezekiel, I was surprised to find how quickly I had moved from chapter 1 to chapter 14. On the other hand, I found cross referencing texts more difficult.

Beyond the reading experience, Crossway has done an excellent job packaging the six-volume set. The care and attention to detail are obvious.
Teddy James

ESV Reader’s Bible is available in a six-volume set, a single volume, or ebook. Learn more at crossway.org or readersbible.org.