Why I Preach and Teach from the Christian Standard Bible (Pt 1)

Back in 2019, I wrote this article for my old book review blog. At the time, I believed every single word I wrote. In the five years since I wrote it, I believe every single word with even more force than I did when I wrote them. As I relaunched my website, I decided to expand that article – hope it is a blessing to you!

My Introduction to the Translation Wars

I grew up on the King James Version of the Bible. 

I can actually explain the difference between thee, thou and thine vs. ye, you and yours. I know what peradventure means and if you ask me to 1 John 5:7, my brain still spits out, “For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one” (I literally typed that from memory by the way.)

You get the idea.

Growing up using the Authorized Version (as we call it in the UK), I knew two things to be true:

1. The Bible is God’s very Word
2. God apparently speaks in a form that is nothing like normal people speak (but he’s God so…I guess)

Of course, I am being somewhat tongue-in-cheek about that second point but not a whole lot.

I remember the first time I read a modern language translation. I was 11 and my Dad gave me an paperback edition of the 1984 NIV he had gotten from somewhere. I had never heard of the New International Version but Dad gave it to me and, in our house, you didn’t argue with Dad. I read it – and I have to say, I really liked it. It sounded…normal. I could read it and understand it because it sounded a lot like how I spoke.

All was good and right with the world. That was until I read from that Bible one day in our daily devotions. I – the generally designated reader in our family worship – was asked to read Isaiah 10:27:

“In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.” (Isaiah 10:27, NIV)

All good, right? Small problem, that’s not what Isaiah 10:27 says. I found that out when my dad exploded in rage at me mocking the Word of God. You see, in the KJV, it says:

“And it shall come to pass in that day, That his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, And his yoke from off thy neck, And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” (Isaiah 10:27, KJV)

My dad wanted to make a point based on the phrase in bold – and the NIV didn’t make that point. As he put it once he realised I wasn’t clowning around, “They’ve killed the power of the Scriptures.”

Little did I know as a pre-teen kid in east London, I had just had my first taste of the “Bible versions” debate.

(Side note: Interestingly, Dad still let me use that NIV and I still had to read (since I was the oldest) but after that, he would read from the real Bible.)

Since that day, I’ve used the NIV, NKJV, gone back to the KJV, moved to the NASB and then the ESV.

So how did I land on the CSB? I’ll get to that part of the story in my next piece.