Free ESV Bible!
What’s your favorite Bible translation? When I became a believer on Oct. 3, 1970 during a week of prayer at Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University), all I knew was the good old King James Version. So I went down the next morning to Potomac Book and Bible House and brought a leather-bound KJV with the HMS Richards study helps.
Little did I know that 13 years later I would work for the Voice of Prophecy, and that my office would be right next to the Chief’s (as he was affectionately known, even in those retirement years). l had no idea that 30 years after that I would have opportunity to seek to have his study Bible digitized into Logos Bible Software as the SDA product manager here—it's still uncertain whether I’ll actually be successful in having the HMS Study Bible incorporated into the Logos ecosystem, but it’s one of many exciting initiatives I’m working on here behind the scenes (much of them inspired by suggestions on this Forum).
Meanwhile, back to favorite Bibles. When I became an evangelist in 1979, I took up with NIV. Tthen upon moving to Orange County, California, I found NASB New Testaments in the pews—as a gift of the man who founded the Lockman Foundation, producer of that version. He sold many acres of orange orchards to fund its grand translation enterprise. Shortly before he died he engaged the services of a cardiologist in my congregation, and thus came to our congregation the gift of the testaments.
When the full NASB came out, it became my new favorite Bible. By then (the early 1980s) I was into computer Bible study (Logos didn’t exist yet) and longed to have the NASB digitized. I remember pleading with the president (or CEO) of Lockman Foundation, for the sake of the faithful old man who founded their organization, to get their Bible turned into software.
Later that year NASB did indeed release its venerable version in digitized format, albeit a clunky edition that they had self-published. Finally they saw value in licensing their product to other vendors. That circle came to include Logos Bible Software.
Which brings me to my new favorite Bible, the signature version in the Logos arsenal: the English Standard Version. It’s readable (more so than the NIV or its later siblings, in my opinion) and yet accurate to the original autographs—about as nearly perfect a blend of literal and dynamic translating as possible.
That’s just my opinion, at least—but a lot of people more scholarly than I am would concur. All of us have the right to our own preferences, of course. The Bible is the Word of God in whatever translation we read it. But I would venture to say that you owe it to yourself to at least check out the ESV (most of you already have, no doubt).
For a limited time (as of today, July 24), the ESV is available free of charge. You can download it along with the Faithlife Study Bible by Logos—the world’s largest study Bible. (If you printed it out the paper would be something like five feet tall!) And it’s expanding as new information is added—you can grow with it. And now Logos is giving it to you with one of the most universally loved and respected Bible translations, ESV.
To get your copy of both the Faithlife Study Bible—and for a limited time, ESV as well—download or update the Faithlife Study Bible app and sign in with your Logos account. You’ll see the ESV under your Resources tab.
Comments
-
When I was a student and just begun to attend the local SDA church in Hull (UK) as a new contact, I went to the local Christian bookshop and picked up a NT translation just out - the GNV - and bought it as an alternative to my KJV. I took it out in my student room and turned to the beginning of Acts and started to read it. I could not put it down. I had never dreamed that the bible could be so exciting! I have used many translations since that time and my original version dropped to pieces years ago but that translation is still a favorite of mine - the little pics help as well!!
0
