sermonindex
Aug 25, 2016
Is anyone using the Holman Christian Standard Bible? If so what us your experience
with it?
Is anyone using the Holman Christian Standard Bible? If so what us your experience
with it?
I have one.
The copy I own is an Apologetics Study Bible HCSB. It was a Christmas gift to me a few years ago. I love the apologetics materials in it.
As for the HCSB, I personally, subjectively, my own opinion and preference do not read it.
I don't find that it is more helpful or enlightening than the other older and newer translations. For several years now I've preferred the NASB or ESV translations; however, I've taken to reading the good old KJV again more recently.
If I rated the HCSB among modern translations, I would put it at least behind the ESV and NASB somewhere, but in any event above all iterations of the NIV.
As I've read the HCSB, it seems to me that the publishers almost try too hard to make it readable. Truth is, I think we've more than exhausted the various ways to phrase things with English synonyms for Hebrew and Greek words/phrases. HCSB is just one more log on the pile.
More recently, I have started also reading the Modern English Version (MEV) at times. It was released last year (or 2014?) by Charisma Publishing. Now, I'm no fan of them, let me say up front. And, I originally thought they were just doing what Holman had done but with a charismatic tint. Well, I was wrong. The MEV is, like the KJV, based on the Textus Receptus in the NT. It reads more closely to the KJV rendering TO ME (bold print!) than any other modern translation. For that reason, I like it. It seems dependable for conservative scholarship purposes while being very readable to the 21st century reader. While the HCSB IS, indeed, easy to read, it almost reads TO ME closer to a paraphrase/Living Bible kind of reading than as a real translation.
That's my view of the HCSB. Not to get into translations generally, because that topic has been exhausted too among us. :) So, if I were to rank HCSB in particular, I'd go:
1. MEV
2. ESV/NASB tie (and very close to a three way tie with MEV)
3. HCSB (distant third)
I would, though, encourage everyone to buy a copy of the HCSB Apologetics Study Bible for the apologetics studies inside. Just as I also encourage all to buy the NIV Archeological Study Bible by Zondervan because it is chock full of lots of informative and helpful materials about biblical archaeology and cultures.
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