Waiting for Translation Revisions
Q. Do you know when/if R.L. Allan will offer its ESV Reader's Edition in the updated ESV 2011 text?
Off the top of my head, I'm afraid not. Questions like this are best directed to the good folks at R. L. Allan themselves. My guess, based on past translation revisions, is that it will take some time to trickle down. In the case of the Reader's Edition, which is not based on a current Crossway/Collins text block, that may take longer.
The question you have to ask yourself is how important having the updated text is. The last time the ESV was updated, I recall getting questions about whether it would be better to wait before buying an ESV. After all, a quality Bible is a lifetime investment. You don't want to lock yourself into version 1.0 when there's a version 1.1 on the verge of being released. (This is the logic that has led me to hold onto my iPhone 3GS instead of upgrading to the iPhone 4 when I qualified to do so.)
In hindsight, the changes to the ESV weren't significant enough to make the wait worthwhile. And even if they had been, imagine holding out for the last revision before making that lifetime commitment, then getting the word that version 1.2 was coming down the pipeline. And suppose there's going to be a 2013 revision, too?
Obviously, you've got to decide for yourself whether the extent of the revision is sufficient to justify a new purchase. For what it's worth, it would take a major revision of English prose style (moving away from the RSVs more awkward locutions) before I could see myself "needing" to switch.
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.