The ESV = a Commie Pinko Bible?

Yikes. I read this and just cringed, Blessed are the conservative in Bible translation.

The Gospel of Luke records that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus showed his boundless mercy by praying for his killers this way: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Not so fast, say contributors to the Conservative Bible Project.

The project, an online effort to create a Bible suitable for contemporary conservative sensibilities, claims Jesus' quote is a disputed addition abetted by liberal biblical scholars, even if it appears in some form in almost every translation of the Bible.

The project's authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible, turning Jesus into little more than a well-meaning social worker with a store of watered-down platitudes.

"Professors are the most liberal group of people in the world, and it's professors who are doing the popular modern translations of the Bible," said Andy Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.com, the project's online home.

As a conservative, theological and political, this is ridiculous and frankly embarrassing. When I read this I start to know what liberals feel like when Dennis Kucinich is speaking. They aren't just aiming at the TNIV and other modern, gender bending translations but even the English Standard Version, a favorite among subversives like me and my fellow Reformed believers (a group known for being lib'rals)

"The phrase 'theological conservative' does not mean that someone is politically conservative," said Schlafly, who lives in Far Hills, N.J.

This liberal slanting, Schlafly argues, ranges from changing gendered language — Jesus calling his disciples to be "fishers of people" rather than "fishers of men" — to more subtle choices, like the 2001 English Standard Version of the Bible, which uses "comrade" and "laborer" more often than the conservative-friendly "volunteer."

When I read the ESV and see "laborer", I automatically think of communism. He is right about this much, a theological conservative is not always a political conservative. I assume that Schlafly doesn't get the irony of twisting the Bible to suit your own agenda in response to liberals doing the same thing. I wonder if anyone has explained the difference between "exegesis" and "eisegesis" to Mr. Schlafly?

(I just noticed that Eric Carpenter beat me to the punch. I must be getting slow.)

Speaking of Study Bibles

Ligonier is giving away the Reformation Study Bible with a donation of any size, today only. I have one, it is a pretty handy study tool. The notes are not really extensive but the topical articles are excellent by and large. It come in the English Standard Version, so if you don't have an ESV and would like one you can get a nice hardbound study Bible for cheap!

The greatest gift you can give your kids

We finally broke down and bought ESVs for all the kids. When we read together, we were using a few ESVs, a few NKJVs and a few KJVs which made it kind of choppy. So we spent a couple bucks and bought each of the kids (except Victoria) their own ESV bibles. It was nice to all be reading from one translation last night, even though in Romans 8: 21 some of our ESVs say "decay" and some say "corruption", so they are a little bit different. The kids are very excited to have their own Bibles that they got to pick out instead of using one off the shelf.

I am also mindful of how blessed we are in America. We have probably a dozen and a half Bibles in the room I am sitting in. How many of our brothers and sisters around the world don't even have one Bible in their own language to read. How often are we neglecting to read the Word when there are people risking their lives to smuggle the Word to people thirsting for it? How many men died fiery deaths at the hands of Rome to bring us this treasure in English? God forgive me for neglecting and taking for granted this most precious gift.