I chose the English Standard Version (ESV) translation of the Bible to use this semester for multiple reasons. For one I believe that we need to love the Bible just as we love our eyes. Without the Bible, you can’t see the glory of God, so therefore having a modern “paraphrased” version of the Bible can make the Gospel very easily understandable to all Christians.
By God’s word being easily understandable, Christians can do our job of discipleship easier to future generation Christians. Another reason that I choose to use the ESV is because although it is paraphrased and can possibly cause some misconceptions, it is still accurate and shows deep respect. Today, the modern meaning of Canon refers to a fixed list of documents recognized as God-inspired Scripture and to be authoritative for the Church and all Christians in general.
Canonized scripture therefore must be very reliable although being passed down by many generations from different cultures. One thing that interested me about the canonization process was how there was a journey of letters and the preservation of scrolls. The journey of letters is very interesting as the ancient letters seemed to originate from pictures of animals and other processed things to the people of the time. For example the modern English letter “A” originated back to the letter “Alef” which was a picture of an ox. In my opinion, just the translation of the alphabet over time with the Bible that has incredible accuracy is truly a first hand piece of God’s work. With the translation of the alphabet also came the preservation of scrolls, which provided some accuracy and protection against loss of parts of the Bible. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls were Hebrew manuscripts found in caves near the Dead Sea. The scrolls were written on papyrus and preserved by being held in clay type chambers.
In conclusion, I agree that this piece of canonization was the most interesting since it truly shows God’s ability to preserve himself and his work no matter what elements are thrown at it.
