It’s really strange to me. From the time I started reading the Bible on my own, (with my mother over my shoulder, when I brought home my first Bible, saying, “I hope that’s a CATHOLIC Bible!” ps it wasn’t–no apocrypha for me!) I have accepted the NIV as my preferred version. Sure, I like the TNIV for its gender balance, but I already started memorizing verses in the NIV years and years ago, so I can’t very well switch versions NOW, can I?

Along came the ESV. At first, I wasn’t ready to jump on board just because John Piper liked it . . . but over time, it has started to grow on me. I like the idea that it’s true to the original text . . . a “word-for-word” translation, rather than  “thought-for-thought”. I have had disdain for the flurry of marketing campaigns, and one verse in the New Living Translation ruined things for me when I noticed a specific inconsistency–a verse that used God the Father to describe what was cross-referenced in Revelation as the voice of God the Son. That really bothered me. I was ready to throw out my NLT right then and there.

[Only there are two problems with Bibles . . .

1) I can’t bring myself to throw one away. It seems vaguely blasphemous somehow. And yes, it’s possible that I could donate it, but if I really don’t like the translation, should I be passing it on to others?

2) It is really hard to buy another Bible when I already own no fewer than seven different Bibles . . . and when there are so many people in this world who are desperate for a Bible of their own.]

I can’t deny it, though . . . I definitely am feeling a pull towards the ESV. And apparently I’m not the only one, as this article shows.

 Now the question is, should I just give in and buy myself the GIANT EXTRA LARGE PRINT version, so that I’ll be ready for my eyesight to go, as it seems poised to do in the next three to five years?