The Christian Reformed Church’s Bible Translation Committee said that the Easy to Read Version (ERV) is suitable for new believers and children’s worship but not for public worship. Synod 2025 agreed.
The translation committee said the ERV does a good job of rendering biblical text for “those who have a limited experience with English, including children and people who are just learning English.” Nevertheless, the committee wrote, “where greater faithfulness to the original languages or textual precision is necessary, the translation is not suitable.”
The committee’s criteria for evaluating translations has several parts, including whether the translators are committed to the authority and infallibility of the Scripture, are experts recognized in their field, and are involved in a local church.
The committee doing the translation must have a diversity of members, invite input from scholars, pastors, and laypeople, and be independent from marketing and funding influences.
The translation must remain faithful to the original meaning of the text, but use language that sounds as clear and natural to the modern reader as the Hebrew or Greek did to the original readers.
Synod 2025, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is meeting June 13-19 on the campus of Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont. Find daily coverage from The Banner at TheBanner.org/synod. Visit crcna.org/synod for the agenda, advisory reports, recordings of plenary sessions, and to subscribe to the daily Synod News email.
About the Author
Gayla Postma retired as news editor for The Banner in 2020.