Editing English Standard Version (section)

{{Short description|English translation of the Bible}}
{{Redirect|ESV}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox Bible translation
| title                    = English Standard Version
| image                    = ESV Pew Bible (Hardcover, Black), Oct 2018.webp
| image_size               = 
| image_alt_text           = Image of an ESV Pew Bible
| image_caption            = ''ESV Pew Bible'' (hardcover, black)
| abbreviation             = ESV
| complete_bible_published = 2001
| derived_from             = [[Revised Standard Version]] (2nd ed., 1971)
| textual_basis            = {{Ubl|'''[[Old Testament|OT]]''': ''[[Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia]]'' (5th ed., 1997); additional sources in difficult cases<ref name="esv-ot-basis">{{Cite web |title=Preface to the English Standard Version |url=https://www.esv.org/preface/ |website=ESV.org |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526061435/https://www.esv.org/preface/ |archive-date=May 26, 2020 |access-date=January 4, 2021 |quote=The ESV [Old Testament] is based on the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible as found in ''Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia'' (5th ed., 1997){{Nbsp}}... The currently renewed respect among Old Testament scholars for the Masoretic text is reflected in the ESV's attempt, wherever possible, to translate difficult Hebrew passages as they stand in the Masoretic text rather than resorting to emendations or to finding an alternative reading in the ancient versions. In exceptional, difficult cases, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, the Latin Vulgate, and other sources were consulted to shed possible light on the text, or, if necessary, to support a divergence from the Masoretic text.}}</ref>|'''[[New Testament|NT]]''': [[United Bible Societies|UBS]] ''Greek New Testament'' (5th corrected ed.); ''[[Novum Testamentum Graece]]'' (28th ed., 2012)<ref name="esv-nt-basis">{{Cite web |title=Preface to the English Standard Version |url=https://www.esv.org/preface/ |website=ESV.org |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526061435/https://www.esv.org/preface/ |archive-date=May 26, 2020 |access-date=January 4, 2021 |quote=[The ESV New Testament is based] on the Greek text in the 2014 editions of the ''Greek New Testament'' (5th corrected ed.), published by the United Bible Societies (UBS), and ''Novum Testamentum Graece'' (28th ed., 2012), edited by Nestle and Aland.{{Nbsp}}... in a few difficult cases in the New Testament, the ESV has followed a Greek text different from the text given preference in the UBS/Nestle-Aland 28th edition.}}</ref>|'''[[Biblical apocrypha|Apocrypha]]''':{{Efn|The Apocrypha is not included in editions of the ESV published by Crossway. ESV editions licensed by Crossway that feature a translation of the Apocrypha can be found from various publishers. For example, the ''English Standard Version Bible with Apocrypha'',<ref name=":0" /> published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and the ''ESV with Apocrypha'',<ref name=":1" /> published by Anglican Liturgy Press in 2019 (which features Apocrypha text revisions made by Crossway in 2017).<ref name=":19" /> The copyright for the ESV Apocrypha text is owned by Crossway.<ref>{{Cite book |title=ESV with Apocrypha |publisher=Anglican Liturgy Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-7323448-6-0 |location=Huntington Beach, CA |page=4}}</ref>}} [[Septuagint]] (Göttingen; [[Alfred Rahlfs' edition of the Septuagint|Rahlfs']]); [[Latin Vulgate]]<ref>{{Cite book |title=ESV with Apocrypha |publisher=Anglican Liturgy Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-7323448-6-0 |location=Huntington Beach, CA |pages=1047–1048 |chapter=Preface to the Apocrypha}}</ref>}}
| translation_type         = [[Formal equivalence]]<ref name="logos-bts">{{Cite web |title=Bible Translation Spectrum |url=https://community.logos.com/kb/articles/548-bible-translation-spectrum |access-date=December 11, 2024 |website=Logos Bible Software Wiki}}</ref>
| reading_level            = [[Eighth grade#United States|Eighth grade]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 8, 2005 |title=ESV Readability (Grade Levels) |url=https://www.crossway.org/blog/2005/08/readability-grade-levels/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317032956/https://www.crossway.org/blog/2005/08/readability-grade-levels/ |archive-date=March 17, 2015 |access-date=January 2, 2021 |website=Crossway}}</ref>
| version_revised          = 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025{{Efn|Crossway published an unannounced [[#2002 text correction|revision in 2002]] to make several text corrections.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |last=Decker |first=Rodney J. |date=March 2004 |title=The English Standard Version: A Review Article |url=https://fiec.org.uk/assets/downloadables/ESV_ReviewFull.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418044806/https://fiec.org.uk/assets/downloadables/ESV_ReviewFull.pdf |archive-date=April 18, 2024 |access-date=April 18, 2024 |website=Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches |page=58}}</ref>}}
| publisher                = [[Crossway]]
| copyright                = The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®)
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.
| copies_printed           = 315,000,000<ref name=":16">{{Cite web |date=February 11, 2025 |title=ESV Bible Translation Update |url=https://www.crossway.org/articles/esv-bible-translation-update/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250223032347/https://www.crossway.org/articles/esv-bible-translation-update/ |archive-date=February 23, 2025 |access-date=February 23, 2025 |website=Crossway}}</ref>
| religious_affiliation    = [[Evangelical]]<ref name="logos-bts" />
| website                  = {{URL|https://www.esv.org}}
| genesis_1:1-3            = In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
| john_3:16                = "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
}}
{{BibleHistory}}

The '''English Standard Version''' ('''ESV''') is a translation of the [[Bible]] in contemporary English. Published in 2001 by [[Crossway]], the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] scholars and pastors."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=About the ESV |url=https://www.esv.org/about/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223023218/https://www.esv.org/about/ |archive-date=December 23, 2023 |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=ESV.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Preface to the English Standard Version |url=https://www.esv.org/preface/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526061435/https://www.esv.org/preface/ |archive-date=May 26, 2020 |access-date=February 23, 2021 |website=ESV.org |quote=The ESV publishing team has included more than a hundred people. The fourteen-member Translation Oversight Committee benefited from the work of more than fifty biblical experts serving as Translation Review Scholars and from the comments of the more than fifty members of the Advisory Council, all of which was carried out under the auspices of the Crossway Board of Directors. This hundred-plus-member team shares a common commitment to the truth of God's Word and to historic Christian orthodoxy and is international in scope, including leaders in many denominations.}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Oversight Committee |url=https://www.esv.org/about/oversight-committee/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223023430/https://www.esv.org/about/oversight-committee/ |archive-date=December 23, 2023 |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=ESV.org}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Review Scholars |url=https://www.esv.org/about/review-scholars/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223023521/https://www.esv.org/about/review-scholars/ |archive-date=December 23, 2023 |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=ESV.org}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Advisory Council |url=https://www.esv.org/translation/council |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308210757/https://www.esv.org/translation/council |archive-date=March 8, 2008 |access-date=February 25, 2023 |website=ESV.org}}</ref> The ESV relies on recently published [[critical editions]] of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.<ref name="esv-ot-basis" /><ref name="esv-nt-basis" />

Crossway says that the ESV continues a legacy of precision and faithfulness in translating the original text into English.{{Efn|This lineage follows the "classic mainstream" started by [[Tyndale Bible|William Tyndale's New Testament]], having been continued by "the [[King James Version]] of 1611 (KJV), the [[English Revised Version]] of 1885 (RV), the [[American Standard Version]] of 1901 (ASV), and the [[Revised Standard Version]] of 1952 and 1971 (RSV)."<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=Preface to the English Standard Version |url=https://www.esv.org/preface/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526061435/https://www.esv.org/preface/ |archive-date=May 26, 2020 |access-date=January 4, 2021 |website=ESV.org}}</ref>}} It describes the ESV as a translation that adheres to an "essentially literal" translation philosophy, taking into account "differences in grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages."<ref name=":7" /> It also describes the ESV as a translation that "emphasizes 'word-for-word' accuracy, literary excellence, and depth of meaning."<ref name=":3" />

Since its official publication, the ESV has received endorsement from numerous evangelical pastors and theologians, including [[John Piper (theologian)|John Piper]] and [[R. C. Sproul]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Endorsements |url=https://www.esv.org/about/endorsements/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223023800/https://www.esv.org/about/endorsements/ |archive-date=December 23, 2023 |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=ESV.org}}</ref>