{"id":10376,"date":"2007-06-13T21:42:27","date_gmt":"2007-06-14T02:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=10376"},"modified":"2025-11-22T16:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T22:08:32","slug":"what-do-you-think-about-the-international-standard-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-international-standard-version\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you think about the International Standard Version?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

What do you think about the International Standard Version?<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

I just happened to be doing a lesson at the time on various Bible translations, their good points, and their bad points, so I checked into the International Standard Version<\/a>. What I found was awful. Never have I seen a more inconsistent translation. There are verses that are very literal, such as Matthew 16:19, but the verse before is heavily altered. “I tell you that you are Peter, and it is on this rock that I will build my church, and\u00a0the powers of hell will not conquer it<\/strong>. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you prohibit on earth will have been prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven.<\/em>” But many verses are just paraphrases, such as Acts 20:7, “On the first day of the week,\u00a0when we had met<\/strong>\u00a0to break bread, Paul began to address the people.<\/em>” The translation claims to be literal with only a few idiomatic changes to make reading easier, but I constantly found severe changes in the oddest places.<\/p>\n

Consider the qualifications of an elder, “Therefore, an elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, stable, sensible, respectable, a lover of strangers, and\u00a0teachable<\/strong>. He must\u00a0not drink excessively<\/strong>\u00a0or be a violent person, but instead be gentle. He must not be argumentative or a lover of money<\/em>” (I Timothy 3:2-3). The word translated as “teachable” actually means having the ability to teach, but this translation reverses the meaning! And the words translated as “not drink excessively” is literally “not near wine” in the Greek; thus changing avoidance of alcohol into permission to use so long as it isn’t “excessive.”<\/p>\n

In contrast, I just ran across the World English Bible<\/a>. So far, every problem verse that I found fault with in other translations is beautifully rendered in WEB. I found fewer errors in it than in the ESV. It used the ASV as its base English text, and the precision shows:<\/p>\n

“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.<\/em>” (Matthew 5:17).<\/p>\n

“I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.<\/em>” (Matthew 16:18-19).<\/p>\n

“On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.<\/em>” (Acts 20:7).<\/p>\n

“For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.<\/em>” (Romans 4:3).<\/p>\n

“who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,<\/em>” (Philippians 2:6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even more impressive, the translators have released WEB in the public domain!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: What do you think about the International Standard Version? Answer: I just happened to be doing a lesson at the time on various Bible translations, their good points, and their bad points, so I checked into the International Standard Version. What I found was awful. Never have I seen a more inconsistent translation. There…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[954,311,955],"class_list":["post-10376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-international-standard-version","tag-translations","tag-world-english-bible"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-bible-translations-are-the-best\/","url_meta":{"origin":10376,"position":0},"title":"Which Bible translations are the best?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Which Bible translations have the highest accuracy? Answer: At one time, Bible translations were an arduous task that took years, if not decades, to complete. Now translations are appearing in rapid succession, and it is becoming difficult to keep up with the many that are available. I'll restrict my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8848,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-would-be-a-good-translation-for-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":10376,"position":1},"title":"What would be a good translation for children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to buy a new Bible for my children that is easy to understand but is still in keeping with the Word of God. They currently have the King James Version. There are so many translations out there; you just don't know which version to buy. Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-one-translation-would-you-recommend\/","url_meta":{"origin":10376,"position":2},"title":"Which one translation would you recommend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been searching for articles online regarding which English version of the Bible would be best (most accurate) for me to purchase and use to study.\u00a0 I happened across your web page: Which Bible translations are the best?\u00a0But I don't think one version was actually picked out above\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86411,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-new-testament-translation-should-i-read\/","url_meta":{"origin":10376,"position":3},"title":"Which New Testament translation should I read?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning. I wish to ask you which New Testament to read: one written by a Catholic publisher or one written by a Protestant publisher? Thank you very much. Greetings from Argentina. Answer: It isn't as much a matter of who printed the pages as it is the accuracy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11810,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-translation-should-i-use\/","url_meta":{"origin":10376,"position":4},"title":"Which Translation Should I Use?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: John 17 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A question that I\u2019m asked repeatedly is which translation is best? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is a good question because in English alone, one brother made a list of 128 different translations. The majority of them have been compiled in the last 100 years. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Part of the reason for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28669,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-matthew-2314-missing-in-some-versions\/","url_meta":{"origin":10376,"position":5},"title":"Why is Matthew 23:14 missing in some versions?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How come every single Bible I have ever seen (I mean every kind, every version, every one) has a verse missing. The verse is Matthew 23:14. It's like it doesn't exist, the Bible goes 13 then 15 but no 14. Look at any Bible and I can almost guarantee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}