More than 100 scholars from 17 denominations produced what is one of the most significant Bible translations available for modern readers: the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). The HCSB is built upon significant advancements in scholarship, translation theory, and contemporary English usage.
1. English is changing rapidly and Bible translations must keep pace.
More than 1.3 billion people speak or read English as a primary or secondary language, and this widespread usage forces rapid change. Words and phrases that were commonly used are no longer part of contemporary speech, often sounding outdated to modern ears. The HCSB reflects linguistic changes in vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and formatting while it retains meaningful theological terms.
2. Advances in biblical research provide new data for Bible translators.
Biblical scholars today have better information about ancient texts than they did prior to recent important archeological discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. While the most recent translations do not reflect some of these significant advances in research, the HCSB incorporates vast amounts of this information. Peter Flint, Dead Sea Scroll scholar at Trinity Western University, writes, “The Holman Christian Standard Bible is one of the most textually sophisticated English Bibles available anywhere.”
In the HCSB you'll find God's personal name, Yahweh; the use of "Messiah" (rather than the Greek transliteration, Christ); and the use of "slave" in the New Testament (instead of “servant” for the Greek word doulos), just to name a few examples. Also, you'll notice contemporary speech patterns in the HCSB and that words like "behold" and "shall" are not used. Instead, words or phrases that are common today will be found in their place. The list goes on and on.
An important distinction between modern Bible translations has to do with the translation philosophy chosen by their teams of scholars. Traditionally, some have placed a higher value on word-for-word or “literal” accuracy (Formal Equivalence) and others have emphasized a thought-for-thought approach—striving for a greater level of readability (Dynamic Equivalence).
The HCSB employs a translation philosophy we refer to as Optimal Equivalence, which seeks to achieve an optimal balance of literary precision and emotive clarity through a comprehensive analysis of the text at every level. This process assures maximum transfer of both words and meanings contained in the original. The goal of this translation philosophy is to bring as much information from the original text into the reader’s world in language that is as clear and comprehensible as possible. To the extent that we succeed, all glory goes to God alone.
We hope that you'll pick up an HCSB. We pray God will use it to draw you to himself in faith through his Son Jesus Christ.