Starting New Series, Experimenting with New Bible Version

Oct 29, 2009 | Dave Gustavsen

Beginning on November 8, all Campuses will be starting a brand new teaching series on the book of 1 Timothy. This is one of Paul's last letters, and it is filled with Paul's guidance for his young protege, Timothy--specifically relating to Timothy's leadership of the church at Ephesus. We believe with all our hearts that the local church is God's vehicle for transforming the world, and that God has placed Jacksonville Chapel in an incredibly strategic time and place...so this is a perfect time to study 1 Timothy together.

For this series, Ryan and I plan to experiment with a new translation of the Bible, the English Standard Version. Both of us have been using the ESV for our personal use for quite some time, and we want to "road-test" it in preaching. Why not just stick with the NIV? The main reason is that the ESV is a more literal, word-for-word translation of Scripture. The NIV follows a "thought-for-thought" approach, and is an excellent translation. But there are times when it is helpful to use a version that is more "transparent" to the original Greek and Hebrew, such as the ESV. (By the way, the newly published ESV Study Bible may be the best study Bible available...we have copies in our Book Nook).

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Comments

Anonymous on Jan 13, 2010 4:47pm

Dave,

Reading your list of books and your comments brought back memories of a very different time. As a lit major undergrad i read SUN and SALESMAN (the rest weren't written in the 50"s), along with John Dos Passos USA (which probably has as much of sexual exploits/conversation as THIEVES. As a new Christian I had a difficult time with some of it. But my real point here (we old folks talk a lot before saying anything useful) is the difference in the attitude of church lreadership. Charles Anderson would never have confessed to reading that literature. I always found it evocative of the life of people, and thus worth reading--to gain insight into what we contend against, if nothing else.

Thanks.

Jim

Anonymous on Feb 2, 2010 9:17am

Great series on1 Timothy. Thank you. I prefer the NIV over the ESV (force of habit and software use). But I've noticed that words needing explanation in the ESV are better rendered in the NIV.
Dave Beilfuss

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