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.

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 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 Association of 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."