Response for questions on page 3
What do you mean by "the ESV is probably closer than you think"? Closer to what?
I don't think many English versions of today use as much slang as you think.
What? Compare the RSV to the ESV?
Man, wrote whole reply my daughter called and I deleted it accidently. Doncha just luv technology?
Rippon, I will answer your questions in order the first two and middle comment first:
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1 and 2 and comment all together.
To the original manuscripts. When I first bought an ESV, I picked it up for 3 bucks at Lifeway in large paperback. Very nice and good marketing.
Anyway, I read it through and did notice that I was picking up things I had not before and questioned its accuracy. So, I went to my preacher with all of my questions (who, at the time had a good Greek background plus multiple Greek compilations using all the major manuscripts from Byzantine to Alexandrian.
Strangly, as we compared, and he helped me (my Greek is weak although I do study it even now) to see if the ESV held to the manuscripts. In 99 percent of the verses I questioned, I could see no difference and it appeared the editors and translators were using a mixture of older and newer English. When I say older I mean maybe RSV time-frame, not 200 years ago.
Now, let me answer why I say that it is different. You had a verse that said in the ESV "the man's stomach turned" or something close. Well, in context it is obvious that this means he had an upset stomach or as half of the 30ish to younger would say "My stomach feels like I'm going to puke."
This is what I meant by "slang" changing into normal conversation.
I'm 53 (last month) and my mother would have slapped my face if I told her "I was going to the bathroom to pee." To her, it was vile and slang. Today, I still do not use it. I have heard people who are good Christians, yet much younger than me (40 down) say, in church right in front of the preacher, who is youngish: "I'll be right with you as soon as I go and pee." Back in the 60's I would tell my parents: "I need to go to the rest-room." If asked why, I would use "Number 1 or number 2."
My point is:
English words change. Now I am not a grammatical expert although I do write fiction under a pseudonymn and it is good enough to get through today's editors who will not rewrite it as they used to in the past due to the high costs. So, I have to make my characters sound real and this is very difficult and my youngest daughter (22) helps me with the dialogue. Dig it?
Eventually, this changes the style of even written language almost every generation a certain amount. Words that would never be used by an educated person are now used to communicate verbally. Go into an office and listen to a Master or Phd say: (I AIN'T gonna go there.) He is using, what we might call slang now, but may become actual language required to communicate with younger generations. Wow, is he using "Ain't"? Yes, he is making a point. Is he not going to physically "go" somewhere? Absolutely not; he is simply responding to someone who brought up a subject during a conversation and he is saying: "I am not going to discuss that because it will either get me in trouble by my response, or "we will get into a conversation we had best stay clear of."
Most people do not realize it, but most new translations are to bring the language to a modern generation rather than make that generation learn a different style of English. I must say, it is much harder for me to bring a young person to the Lord using an NIV than a KJV. They just struggle and give up because they, unlike many of us, did not grow up in church where we memorized the KJV.
It is utterly worthless to make people re-learn the old meaning of changing words, even children. Even a child in Sunday school would have his or her time used better to teach what God said, rather than how to read a KJV.
I have heard so many people say their children can read the KJV at 6 and understand it. I know for a fact when I read the KJV and gave up after a few verses because I just didn't enjoy reading it. When the Living Bible (Paraphrase) came out with its mistakes and all, I devoured it to the point my mom kept telling me to quit reading those wonderful stories and listen to the boring preacher. This lasted all the way through high-school and I'm not the only one. I was reading novels starting in Jr. High and through high school----not "young adult" novels that sell so well today because our educational system (I feel) has let our kids down in reading, math and technical skills.
If we want to reach these people and this generation we must keep updating our Bibles. It may not be right, but it is just fact. Someday I suspect in most of the Southern Middle and California, there will be a mixture of Spanish and English. We have workers from Puerto Rico who are smarter than I and I occassionally use their words such as "Buenos Dias" or "Adios". I don't know Spanish at all, but it makes me feel closer to them as friends when I use their language when I can.
Today's e-texts and e-mails are creating shorthand languages that will eventually spill into the main-stream---although not as much as I mentioned above with "I ain't gonna go there.", but changes in spelling and grammar may well occur as English evolves.
Which ancient texts to use is another matter, but today, very knowledgeable Christians feel we have within 99% of the original manuscripts through all of the comparisons and study of old documents. God's Word is living, Rippon, and it is not the period at the end of the page--it is the God's revelation to us, or what he wants us to know about him. It is up to us to use our God created brains (said to be the most complex machines found in the universe so far) to keep these living Words and Messages alive today. So, in fact, the use of his Word in the Bible may not be a good translation today. Although I am not a translator, it might be better understood as God's Message. Can't you see the change?
Finally, I said that yes, compare the RSV and ESV if you wish to study WHY the translators used the mixture of words, they did. With E-Sword you can do that side-by-side and even compare it to several Greek compilations and the KJV if you wish.
All your hundreds of lists of comparisons mean nothing to me because I have read old novels, books and letters (I'm not talking about KJV days right here.) and I pick up the meaning and I don't see your point because the meanings are the same. I have read several, getting tired of your endless quotes, to the point my eyes were tired and have yet to find one that is not the same basic meaning to the educated English reader.
Maybe you need to buy a new dictionary and an old dictionary and compare your individual words and read some letters from the civil war and try to learn the language spoken during that era.
Don't get me wrong, everybody else especially; I am not saying the ESV is an old Bible. I think it is a great translation and I love to read it and I do trust it.
Rippon if you do find a real difference, have you considered the ESV is in its first or second publication and maybe the don't have the fortune the NIV has made by their outlandish prices and marketing background to correct and reprint right away?
How many changes did the KJV go through since 1611?
Don't worry, God will preserve what He wants to tell us, he promised us he would. Maybe we need to review the language used to tell people what "jot and tittle" really meant when it was written by the man who probably spoke Aramaic and was writing in Greek. God allowed the personalities of the authors to be maintained, if you don't agree look at the quality of the Greek in Revelation compared to the book of John. Even Paul's letters are different. Go to bibletraining.org and take a live class on "heurmeneutics" sp?
I think you will go away with a much better understanding of what I am trying to tell you.
Thank you and have a great day, Lord's day and Holiday!
Phillip