Dear Friends,
I am curious to know what Orthodox Christians think of the English Standard Version of the Bible, and the second Catholic RSV Bible.
The ESV is a very light revision of the RSV, only a 6% text change, and it is now available with an Apocrypha. I think it is pretty good, except in 1 Timothy ch. 3, it says that the church is a pillar and bullwark of truth, rather than THE pillar & bulwark of the Truth.
I know that the Antiochian Archdiocese use to link to it from their web site, but no more. I wonder if that is because of the adjoining links to Crossway Books, which is very Evangelical & Reformed.
The RSV II Catholic edition like the first Catholic RSV Bible uses "hail full of grace" in Luke ch. 1, instead of "highly favored one," which I like.
The RSV II replaces "you" & "yours" for "Thou", "thee", "thy" and "thine," and uses the term "virgin" instead of "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14. It also uses the term, "only-begotten Son" in John 1:18 & John 3:16, which I prefer to "only son."
It is getting increasingly difficult to find the standard RSV, pretty much the only version available is the New Oxford Annotated Bible.
I know a lot of Orthodox prefer New King James, the Orthodox New Testament, and the Orthodox Study Bible. I have all of those too, but I have always been an RSV man, even though it is not based on the Septuagint & Byzantine Text.