English Standard Version


The English Standard Version 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 evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
Crossway says that the ESV continues a legacy of precision and faithfulness in translating the original text into English. 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." It also describes the ESV as a translation that "emphasizes 'word-for-word' accuracy, literary excellence, and depth of meaning."
Since its official publication, the ESV has received endorsement from numerous evangelical pastors and theologians, including John Piper and R. C. Sproul.
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History

Pre-publication

During the early 1990s, Crossway president Lane T. Dennis engaged in discussions with various Christian scholars and pastors regarding the need for a new literal translation of the Bible. In 1997, Dennis contacted the National Council of Churches and proceeded to enter negotiations, alongside Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professor Wayne Grudem, to obtain rights to use the 1971 text edition of the Revised Standard Version as the starting point for a new translation. In September 1998, an agreement was reached with the NCC for Crossway to use and modify the 1971 RSV text, thereby enabling the creation of a new translation. Crossway moved forward from this position by forming a translation committee and initiating work on the English Standard Version. Having announced the ESV as a new translation in February 1999, Crossway officially published the ESV in September 2001. The first ESV print edition to be released was the ESV Classic Reference Bible. It was published on October 31, 2001, being the 484th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
In 1999, World magazine reported on "feminists" noticing links between Crossway and the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Members of the CBMW had earlier been involved in criticizing plans made by Zondervan's New International Version translation committee to publish a gender-neutral edition of the NIV. Grudem, who was president of the CBMW at the time, responded by stating, "This is not a CBMW project."

Translation oversight committee

Chaired by Dennis, the fourteen-member translation oversight committee was aided by more than fifty biblical experts serving as review scholars. The translation committee also received input from the advisory council, having more than fifty members. J. I. Packer served as general editor of the translation, and Leland Ryken served as literary stylist. Grudem states that the NET Bible study notes were one resource that the translation committee consulted during the translation process. He also states that the translation committee meets approximately every 5–7 years to consider text revisions.
The translation committee, as originally constituted, featured the following notable individuals:
By 2011, Robert H. Mounce and William Mounce had become emeritus members. Having served as the ESV New Testament chair, Bill Mounce's role was assigned to Vern Poythress. Writing on his personal blog in 2009, Mounce described his relationship to the ESV, having accepted a position on the NIV translation committee:
By late 2023, Paul R. House, J. I. Packer, Leland Ryken, Gordon Wenham, and Bruce Winter had retired from the translation committee. In addition, the following individuals had joined by this time:
  • Josh Dennis, CEO and president of Crossway
  • Dane Ortlund, senior pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church
  • Jon Dennis, senior pastor of Holy Trinity Church, Chicago
  • Justin Taylor, book publisher, Crossway
  • Don Jones, chief publishing officer, Bible publisher, Crossway
  • Douglas O'Donnell, senior vice president of Bible publishing, Crossway
  • Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor, Christ Covenant Church

Post-publication

In 2008, Crossway published the ESV Study Bible, which sold more than one million copies. In 2009, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association named the ESV Study Bible as Christian Book of the Year. This was the first time in the award's 30-year history to be given to a study Bible. By September 2024, the ESV Study Bible had sold more than 2.5 million copies.
In 2011, Crossway published a special limited edition, the ESV New Classic Reference Bible, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version first being published. With a foreword by Leland Ryken, it features a selection of artwork created by Makoto Fujimura for The Four Holy Gospels, a separate edition produced to match the size of the original KJV printing.
Crossway, which operates as a not-for-profit, states that most ESV copies are "given away freely through ministry partners around the world." According to Crossway, the total number of printed ESV Bibles that have been distributed since 2001 are as follows:
  • 2015: 100 million
  • 2021: 250 million
  • 2023: 290 million
  • 2024: 300 million
  • 2025: 315 million
In October 2024, the ESV was the number one selling Bible translation on the ECPA Bible Translations Bestsellers monthly chart. This was the first time the ESV had reached number one in the chart's history, and the first time the NIV had lost its number one spot in five years. In 2026, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge reported that the ESV was the best-selling Bible translation in the United Kingdom for 2025.

Debate surrounding translation philosophy

At the 2008 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mark L. Strauss presented a paper titled "Why the English Standard Version Should Not Become the Standard English Version: How To Make a Good Translation Much Better." In the paper, Strauss criticizes the ESV for using dated language, among other perceived issues, such as using gender-neutral language inconsistently in translation. ESV translator Bill Mounce responded to Strauss's criticism:
Strauss invited Mounce to engage further through participation at the following annual meeting. In 2009, Mounce presented his formal response paper titled "Can the ESV and Today's [New International Version|TNIV] Co-Exist in the Same Universe?" In the paper, Mounce describes various points regarding his view of the need for both formal and functional translations.
In 2017, Eastern Orthodox philosopher David Bentley Hart, in the preface to his translation of the New Testament, argues that "in some extreme cases doctrinal or theological or moral ideologies drive translators to distort the text to a discreditable degree. Certain popular translations, like the New International Version and the English Standard Version, are notorious examples of this." Hart's translation brought various praise, but also criticism—most notably from N. T. Wright, who also produced his own translation of the New Testament.
In October 2019, University of Oklahoma sociology professor Samuel L. Perry published a journal article titled "The Bible as a Product of Cultural Power: The Case of Gender Ideology in the English Standard Version." In the article, Perry attempts to demonstrate "how a more critical approach toward 'the Bible' can provide richer, more sophisticated sociological analyses of power and cultural reproduction within Christian traditions." Perry argues that Crossway's ESV translation committee made "intentional, systematic changes" into the ESV for the purpose of being able to "publish and mass-market a text more amenable to conservative, complementarian interpretations." Perry further argues that the ESV translation committee "have engaged in more covert means of cultural reproduction, not only disseminating their interpretation of the biblical text, but manipulating the text itself." The ESV Study Bible often details in its study notes why a complementarian interpretation of the original text may have been rendered in translation.
In 2020, the Ireland-based Catholic Priests">Catholic Church">Catholic Priests, an independent and voluntary association of Catholic clergy, criticized the ESV for its position on the use of gender-neutral language, perceiving the use of terms such as "mankind" and "brothers" to be "out of sync with modern usage culturally regarded as diminishing and disrespectful of women."
In June 2021, Samuel L. Perry published a journal article titled "Whitewashing Evangelical Scripture: The Case of Slavery and Antisemitism in the English Standard Version." In the article, Perry attempts to demonstrate how "the ESV editors, while modifying certain RSV renderings to establish transitivity for their text among complementarian/biblicist Christians, sought to establish intransitivity between the text and more pejorative social interpretations by progressively re-translating lexically ambiguous terms and introducing footnotes to obviate the Bible's ostensible promotion of slavery and antisemitism." In turn, Perry was interviewed by Salon regarding the content of the article. Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, points out that Perry makes "a significant error" in referring to Grudem as the general editor of the ESV. In July 2021, Bible Study Magazine editor Mark Ward published an article to his personal blog in response:
At the 2025 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Denny Burk presented a paper titled "Imprecision in the ESV's Rendering of μονογενής: Retrieving the Nicene Interpretation of John." In the paper, Burk states that in the 19th and 20th centuries, the traditional rendering of monogenēs in the Gospel of John and 1 John was challenged by biblical scholars B. F. Westcott, Francis Warden, and Dale Moody to mean "only." As a result of their work, the RSV Bible chose to adopt the new rendering, having been inherited by the ESV. Uncontested by D. A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies and the first edition of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, Burk argues that "Charles Lee Irons has produced a series of essays that have completely undermined the 75-year consensus among New Testament scholars... Oskar Skarsaune has demonstrated elsewhere that μονογενής serves as a 'precising' term in the .... the term functions in the same way in John's writings themselves Nicene Fathers are merely following John's usage." Following this, Burk argues that "the ESV's stated justifications for the 'only' rendering are inadequate, and the translators should reconsider their decision."

One Million Bibles Initiative

In November 2022, Crossway began an effort to fund and distribute one million ESV Bibles throughout English-speaking regions in the Global South, with a primary focus on Africa and Asia. Having been designed on a funding model where Bibles produced at cost are either donated or strategically subsidized, the project was initiated to resource Christians and pastors in low-income communities with study Bibles and various other editions, aiming to prevent "biblical illiteracy, spiritual malnourishment, and the transmission of false teaching run rampant." Crossway states that its ministry partners were in the process of distributing more than 435,000 Bibles by the end of 2023, increasing to 656,000 Bibles by the end of 2024. The project reached funding for all one million Bibles by the end of December 2024.
In November 2025, Crossway revived the One Million Bibles Initiative to fund and distribute an additional one million ESV Bibles throughout the Global South.

Literary attributes

Relationship to the Revised Standard Version

The ESV is derived from the 1971 text edition of the Revised Standard Version. ESV translation committee member Wayne Grudem states that approximately eight percent of the 1971 RSV text being used for the ESV was revised as of first publication in 2001. Grudem also states that the committee removed "every trace of liberal influence that had caused such criticism from evangelicals when the RSV was first published in 1952." Although, Grudem also states that much of the 1971 RSV text left unchanged by the committee "is simply 'the best of the best' of the KJV tradition."

Style

Theologian Tim Challies has praised the ESV for its commitment to literary excellence:
Crossway states that the ESV "retains theological terminology—words such as grace, faith, justification, sanctification, redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, propitiation—because of their central importance for Christian doctrine and also because the underlying Greek words were already becoming key words and technical terms among Christians in New Testament times." It also states that the ESV seeks to let the distinct writing style of each biblical writer come through the translated text.

Fonts

For print editions, Crossway primarily uses the Lexicon serif typeface, published by the Enschedé Font Foundry. For the ESV.org website and ESV Bible app, it uses the Sentinel serif typeface as the default font, along with offering Gotham as a sans-serif alternative.

Position on gender-neutral language

In the late 1990s, controversy erupted among evangelical scholarship with regard to the pending publication of a gender-neutral version of the NIV. Prior to the publication of the ESV in 2001, ESV translators Vern Poythress and Wayne Grudem detailed their approach to the gender-neutral language debate in The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy: Muting the Masculinity of God's Words, having been published by Broadman & Holman in 2000. In the book, Poythress and Grudem argue that contemporary feminist philosophy has affected the predispositions of some English Bible translators and theologians toward the original text, which in turn has affected the trajectory of the NIV, being the most eminent evangelical Bible translation. An updated edition was published in 2003 by Christian Focus Publications, featuring new chapters on the TNIV. In 2004, a second edition was released by Broadman & Holman, having been republished as The TNIV and the Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy.
As a formal translation, the ESV positions itself in the Bible publishing market by opting to avoid gender-neutral language. With regard to this issue, the ESV translation committee states that "the goal of the ESV is to render literally what is in the original." The committee further states that its objective is "transparency to the original text, allowing the reader to understand the original on its own terms rather than in the terms of our present-day Western culture."

Revisions and other editions

2002 text correction

In 2002, Crossway published an unannounced revision to the original 2001 text to make several corrections, these being in areas where it was believed "that a mistake had been made in translation." This includes a revision in Romans 3:9, changing "under the power of sin" to "under sin."

Anglicized edition

In 2002, Collins published the English Standard Version: Anglicized Edition in the United Kingdom. It is abbreviated as ESVUK.

2007 text edition

Crossway published a revision of the ESV text in 2007 as "ESV Text Edition: 2007." The revision makes minor changes to the 2002 corrected edition.

Oxford Apocrypha edition

In 2009, Oxford University Press published the English Standard Version Bible with Apocrypha. This edition includes the Apocrypha, placed at the back of the Bible, intended for "denominations that use those books in liturgical readings and for students who need them for historical purposes."

2011 text edition

Crossway published a revision of the ESV text in 2011 as "ESV Text Edition: 2011." The revision changes fewer than 500 words in total throughout 275 verses from the 2007 text. The changes were made in each case to "correct grammar, improve consistency, or increase precision in meaning." A notable revision was made in Isaiah 53:5, changing "wounded for our transgressions" to "pierced for our transgressions" in the revised text. In addition, the ESV translation committee decided to modify the use of the word "slave" on a case by case basis throughout the New Testament, being retranslated to either "bondservant" or "servant" to disambiguate the context of the situation.

Gideons edition

In 2013, Gideons International permanently transitioned from the New King James Version to the ESV as their translation of choice for free of charge distribution Bibles. In addition to being granted licensing for the ESV text, Crossway gave Gideons International permission to modify the text to use alternative readings based on the Textus Receptus. The Gideons edition uses more than 50 alternative readings.

2016 text edition

Crossway published a revision of the ESV text in 2016 as the "ESV Permanent Text Edition." The revision changes 52 words in total throughout 29 verses from the 2011 text. In addition, it also features an update of the textual basis for both the Old Testament and New Testament. A notable revision was made in Genesis 3:16 to use a complementarian interpretation of the original text: switching "shall be toward" with "shall be contrary to" in the revised text. The previous rendering can be found in the footnotes. The ESV Study Bible details in its study notes the revised interpretation in relation to a parallel understanding of 3:16 with both 4:7 and Ephesians 5:21–32.
Coinciding with the release of the revision, Crossway announced that "the text of the ESV Bible will remain unchanged in all future editions printed and published by Crossway." However, in a statement from Lane T. Dennis the following month, the new policy was abandoned "to allow for ongoing periodic updating of the text to reflect the realities of biblical scholarship such as textual discoveries or changes in English over time." In the statement, Dennis responded to public discourse surrounding the policy: "We have become convinced that this decision was a mistake. We apologize for this and for any concern this has caused for readers of the ESV." The revision was subsequently republished as "ESV Text Edition: 2016."

Catholic edition

In 2018, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India published the ESV Catholic Edition, which includes the deuterocanonical books in Catholic canonical order. With permission from Crossway, a team of Catholic scholars reviewed the text of the ESV in light of the Vatican's translation principles as set forth in Liturgiam authenticam, making approved modifications where needed to adhere to Catholic teaching.
In 2019, the Augustine Institute published the ESV-CE in North America as The Augustine Bible. In October 2021, following these developments, the SPCK published its own version of the ESV-CE, newly typeset and with anglicized spelling, in multiple formats.

Anglican edition

After the publication of the 2009 Oxford University Press Apocrypha edition, the Apocrypha text "was subsequently reviewed and approved by members of the ESV Translation Oversight Committee in 2017, including the special cases of Tobit and Esther (with Greek Additions)." In 2019, Anglican Liturgy Press published the ESV with Apocrypha. Like the Oxford edition, it places the Apocrypha at the back of the Bible. It was rereleased in 2023 as a bonded leather hardcover edition.

2025 text edition

In May 2024, Grudem mentioned that the ESV translation committee was planning to meet in Wheaton, Illinois, in July 2024 to consider approximately 120 suggested changes to the ESV text. He estimated that the committee would approve around 30 to 40 of these suggestions, including "little tweaks to the wording make it consistent with where we've translated the same phrase elsewhere."
In February 2025, Crossway announced the 2025 text edition of the ESV. The revision changes 68 words in total throughout 42 verses from the 2016 text. In addition, 57 footnotes were revised, and punctuation was revised in 14 verses. A notable revision was made in reverting the 2016 changes to Genesis 3:16 and 4:7, having been switched back to their previous rendering. Another notable revision was made in John 1:18, changing "the only God" to "God the only Son" in the revised text. The 2025 text edition is scheduled to be released in the second quarter of 2025, aiming to be used in more than 540 print editions by the third quarter of 2026.

Use

Liturgical

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

In August 2006, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod released the Lutheran Service Book, which uses the ESV as its primary Bible text. With permission from Crossway, the LSB occasionally uses an alternative reading of the ESV in accordance with its original translation principles.

Roman Catholic Church

In April 2020, the Catholic Church in India adopted a new English lectionary that uses the ESV Catholic Edition as its Bible text. In July 2020, the Bishops' Conference of Scotland approved the development of a new lectionary using the ESV-CE text.
This was followed by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales receiving the first volume of a new lectionary using the ESV-CE text in November 2020. The new lectionary was fully introduced at the start of Advent in 2024, although a revised version of the Grail Psalms, the Abbey Psalms and Canticles, is still used.

Audio Bibles

In August 2003, Crossway released its first audio Bible, being the New Testament read by Marquis Laughlin. Shortly after, the New York City-based Fellowship for Performing Arts released an ESV audio Bible read by Max McLean, having been produced by Liz Donato and recorded under a licensing agreement. The first format released was the New Testament as a set of 12 cassette tapes, having been published by Crossway on October 31, 2003, being the 486th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. A set of New Testament CDs was published the following month, and the full audio Bible was published in 2004. The full audio Bible was rereleased in May 2024.
In 2008, Crossway released an audio Bible featuring the voice of David Cochran Heath. This was published on October 31, 2008, being the 491st anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
In late 2023, Crossway finished releasing six new audio Bibles, having been read by Conrad Mbewe, Kristyn Getty, Ray Ortlund, Jackie Hill Perry, Robert Smith Jr., and Michael Reeves. The entire project took approximately 6,000 hours of production labor. Ortlund called his recording experience "the most exacting, precise, detailed, and demanding task I've performed since my doctoral work 40 years ago," in addition to being "immensely satisfying." Ortlund used The HarperCollins Bible Pronunciation Guide as a linguistic aid during production.

Study Bibles

The ESV has been used as the Bible text for a number of study Bible editions, including but not limited to: