One of the Bible versions I have had an on-and-off again relationship with is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. It has always made too much use of contractions and also the name Yahweh in reference to the Lord God, in my opinion. (I’m not saying that Yahweh is not truly the actual name of God and pronounced the way we think it is, but nobody can really know for sure). The tried and true LORD in all-caps works for me when referring to God.

While I know little about the new version coming out in March, I have read and seen certain things. For one, I have read that all 645 uses of the word Yahweh have been replaced with LORD. Also, I noted when viewing the text online (and reading it) that any pronoun referring to Deity is no longer capitalized. I would prefer that they would be, but I can live with that — as it is more in line with proper English and exactly the way the King James Version handled it. I also read the the bullet points for which the HCSB is famous are no more. Holman has been dropped from its name and it will be known simply as the Christian Standard Bible or CSB as the title of this post uses. I never did understand why it was necessary to attach the name Holman in the first place.

Supposedly an almost entirely new translation team has taken a look at the text and has rebuilt it from the ground up. It will be interesting to see what they have done with it. I am always happy to consider alternatives to the 2011 NIV — which so many people seem to be willing to settle on. I prefer a more conservative approach to Bible translating that does not seek to alter the text to be popular with modern Christians. To change the text because of what you think it should say instead of what it does actually say is obviously wrong.

I find the NLT (New Living Translation) and the Holman Christian Standard to both be excellent translations. However, the NLT is more dynamic and comes as close to a paraphrase as one can get without taking on the moniker. Let’s hope that the new CSB continues in the tradition of being a solid translation that stays true to the text while at the same time remains easy to read. March is right round the corner. Can’t wait to look at it? The text is online and may be accessed here: http://csbible.com/read-the-csb/