Why the Legacy Standard Bible

Pastor David M. Green

This article was originally published on the FaithDelivered blog at blog.faithdelivered.net. I have shared it here for our church family and visitors who want to understand why we use the Legacy Standard Bible at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.

But you, continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (LSB)

There are many good Bible translations out there in the English language, but today I want to review the Legacy Standard Bible and tell you why it is my "go to" favorite translation.

Literal Word for Word

The translators have done their best to be faithful in translating from the original languages. Disclaimer here, I am no scholar of the original languages, but we do have many tools to use, such as other translations, lexicons, etc. As I have poured over the pages of the LSB, I have found this translation has met the goal (as the forward to the LSB puts it) of being "a window to the original text" in a way that no other translation has done consistently.

God's Name

And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" And God furthermore said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation." Exodus 3:14-15 (LSB)

One of the best features of the Legacy Standard Bible is the recovery of God's covenant name, which is rendered in the text as Yahweh rather than LORD (KJV and others). In Exodus 3:14-15, we read how that God considered it important for His people to know His name, not just for the people of thousands of years ago but for all generations. Revealing Yahweh in the way He was in the original shows clearly He is distinct from all other gods. (For a word from the translators, see the YouTube video Why the Legacy Standard Bible Translates "Yahweh" in the Old Testament.)

Cutting a Covenant

As I was reading through the Old Testament, I noticed the LSB translates כָּרַת…בְּרִית (karath…brith) in passages such as Genesis 15:18 as "cut a covenant." The translators were consistent so I found they do this other places as well. They also are very transparent, so I went to their translator notes at tyndale.tms.edu and found this:

"The phrase 'cut a covenant' is a literal translation of the Hebrew phrase כָּרַת…בְּרִית (karath…brith). While many translations opt to gloss this phrase with a simpler rendering like 'made a covenant,' a literal rendering with 'cut' helps call to mind what a covenant at the time entailed. In the Ancient Near East, covenants were ratified by the two respective parties cutting animals in two and then together walking between the bloody, severed halves. The significance of this practice is that each party is essentially saying they may likewise be cut in two if they break their side of the covenant. The difference here is that Yahweh (presumably pictured in the oven and torch) passed between the animal pieces alone while Abram was in a deep sleep (cf. v. 12). This established a unilateral covenant which Yahweh alone was responsible to keep. By God's grace, there was nothing Abram needed to do to keep the covenant in effect nor was there anything he could do to jeopardize it."

Units of Measure and Currency

The LSB is really designed to bring the reader back to the original writing, so the text maintains the unit of measurement and currency as used in the original writing. There are charts provided for conversions.

To give a personal example, a few weeks ago I was preaching from Mark 12:15 from the KJV which mentions a coin as penny, which is a coin of little value but the LSB translates it this way:

"Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." Mark 12:15 (LSB)

The coin was a denarius. It is misleading to think of it as a common penny, but a denarius was no penny. In fact it was a Roman silver coin, and was approximately a laborer's daily wage! This is lost in other translations but not the LSB.

Gender Language

There has been some debate of late in pulpits and in translation committees as to whether to be more "gender neutral" with the Bible, especially where the text could mean brothers and sisters, or men and women for instance. The Legacy Standard Bible has stuck to the original text and precisely translated what was written in the original languages.

Hebrew Acrostics

As I was taking a class for Biblical Hebrew, I came across this one. It may seem small, but if every portion of God's Word matters, this matters too. In Hebrew poetry, the authors sometimes structured their writings where each section began with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 119 is the most famous of these, but there are others.

As I compared the Hebrew Bible with my English translations that I own, the LSB was the only one who consistently had them in the text! (See Psalm 9-10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145, Proverbs 31:10-31, Lamentations 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as Nahum 1:2-8.) The translators discuss this in the YouTube video: An LSB discussion: What to expect from the OT, Hebrew Acrostics, Song of Songs, and more.

Slaves

In the LSB, the Greek word δοῦλος (doulos) is translated slave (other versions translate it as servant or bondservant). This really is more consistent with the Greek. Christians were once slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to Christ.

Modern English

I like the LSB because it is in modern English, including proper punctuation which is the language I speak and read. The translators have done a great job of being literal, but also being readable in English.

The Translation Team

I cannot write a review of the Legacy Standard Bible without including a good word about the translation team. The translation committee consisted of a group of Biblically qualified, faithful men from the Master's University and Seminary, all of whom are scholars and preachers. I appreciate them for their work and for their transparency. In all the years of English Bible translations, going back to before the KJV and since, I don't believe there has ever been a more orthodox group of men to be gathered together as this group for any other English Bible translation. And that says something. Truly God is still blessing the English speaking people and I thank God to have this Bible.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the reasons I love the Legacy Standard Bible. If you haven't gotten a copy, go over to lsbible.org and get one. Read it, study it, preach it. You will be blessed.

Come Worship With Us

At Sovereign Grace Baptist Church we preach verse by verse through books of the Bible from the Legacy Standard Bible. If you'd like to visit, see our Service Times page for days, times, and location details, or check out our New Here? page.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor David M. Green

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