My favorite translation is the NIV. Some friends favor the ESV. That’s fine by me until they say that the ESV is better than the NIV, being more faithful, more literal, less interpretative than the NIV. That may be so, but it’s debatable on several levels.
So when I find places where the ESV is more interpretative and less literal than the NIV, I find it hard to resist in pointing this out.
The following example which I found today is a trivial one. It does not affect any major doctrine. But it is one, and by no means, not the only one where the ESV is less literal than the NIV.
It is just one Greek word, which literally translated, is “he/she/it says.”
It is found in 1 Cor 6:16. The NIV has:
Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
The ESV has:
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
I can understand the NIV. It changed the active voice into the passive to avoid a gender specific pronoun.
But why did the ESV changed “said” to “written.” I have no idea.
The NLT is more interpretative as expected, but still retains the literal key word “say”:
And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”
The more literal translation is the NASB, but it still interprets by capitalizing the pronoun:
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.”
The NASB thinks that “He” refers to God.
Of course, the most literal but awkward translation is the ASV:
Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh.
But does any of this really matter when Paul himself (the other NT writers as well) do not quote the OT exactly.
All the NT texts have: “The two shall become one flesh.” The words “the two” is not found in the original text of Gen 2:24. Check it out.