English Standard Version
English translation of the Bible
The English Standard Version (ESV) 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 (NCC) 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 (RSV) 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.
“English Standard Version” enters the record as english translation of the Bible. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what English, Standard and Version can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1572685. The Library of Congress control number is n2002096275. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2001, 1997, 1971 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “English Standard Version” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.