The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is a
modern English Bible translation
Modern English Bible translations consists of translations developed and published throughout the late modern period () to present-day (). A multitude of recent attempts have been made to translate the Bible into English. Most modern translation ...
from
Holman Bible Publishers
Lifeway Christian Resources, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is the Christian media publishing and distribution division of the Southern Baptist Convention and provider of church business services. Until the end of their physical retail presen ...
. The
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
was published in 1999, followed by the full Bible in March 2004.
Beginnings
The roots of the HCSB can be traced to 1984, when Arthur Farstad, general editor of the
New King James Version of the Bible, began a new
translation project
A translation project is a project that deals with the activity of translating.
From a technical point of view, a translation project is closely related to the project management of the translation process. But, from an intercultural point of vi ...
. In 1998, Farstad and
LifeWay Christian Resources
Lifeway Christian Resources, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is the Christian media publishing and distribution division of the Southern Baptist Convention and provider of church business services. Until the end of their physical retail presenc ...
(the publishing arm of the
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...
) came to an agreement that would allow LifeWay to fund and publish the completed work. Farstad died soon after, and leadership of the editorial team was turned over to Dr. Edwin Blum, who had been an integral part of the team. The death of Farstad resulted in a change to the
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
source text underlying the HCSB, although Farstad had envisioned basing the new translation on the same texts used for the
King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
and
New King James Version. He followed the Greek Majority Text which he and
Zane C. Hodges
Zane Clark Hodges (June 15, 1932 – November 23, 2008) was an American pastor, seminary professor, and Bible scholar.
Some of the views he is known for are these:
*"Free Grace theology," a view that holds that eternal life is received as a fre ...
had authored. After Farstad's death, the editorial team replaced this text with the consensus Greek New Testament established by twentieth-century scholars.
Translation philosophy
Holman Bible Publishers assembled an international,
interdenominational
Interdenominationalism is an evangelical Protestant movement of cooperation among various Christian denominations.
History
The movement has its origins in the founding of the London Missionary Society, a missionary society, in 1795 by variou ...
team of 100 scholars and proofreaders, all of whom were committed to
biblical inerrancy
Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible "is without error or fault in all its teaching"; or, at least, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact". Some equate inerrancy with biblical i ...
.
Formats
The HCSB is available in electronic form for
WORDsearch
A word search, word find, word seek, word sleuth or mystery word puzzle is a word game that consists of the letters of words placed in a grid, which usually has a rectangular or square shape. The objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all ...
and Bible Explorer software.
[Edwards, ElShaddai. ''He is Sufficient.']
"HCSB: 2nd Edition text available."
Copyright 2007-2009 ElShaddai Edwards, retrieved July 25, 2009. An ''HCSB Study Bible'' became available in October 2010.
Retrieved December 31, 2009. The HCSB is available online. It is marketed in
Christian publications as an
apologetics
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
Bible and has a version specifically for the
Microsoft Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation o ...
called Bible Navigator X.
Updates
The 2nd edition HCSB appeared in 2010. The most significant change was the expanded use of the covenant name of God, known as the
tetragrammaton
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew language, Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', ''he (l ...
, rendered as "Yahweh," rather than the traditional English "
." In the first edition Yahweh was found in 78 places; the update increased that to 495 instances
[Gillis, John W., ''MaybeToday.org.']
"The HCSB 2nd Edition and the Tetragrammaton." MaybeToday.org
Retrieved July 25, 2009. (the tetragrammaton appears in over 6,800 places in the Old Testament).
In June 2016 B&H Publishing announced a revision of the translation called the
Christian Standard Bible
The Christian Standard Bible (CSB) is a modern English Bible translation of the Christian Bible. Work on the translation was completed in June 2016, with the first full edition released in March 2017. The translation was updated in February 2020 ...
(CSB).
B&H to Launch Christian Standard Bible (CSB) Version in 2017
B&H Publishing Group
Comparison of Psalm 83:18
HCSB:
CSB:
Notes
References
Further reading
*Perry, John. (May 7, 1999
"Broadman & Holman Publishers announces new Bible translation"
Retrieved March 14, 2005.
*Walker, Ken. (July 20, 2001
"Holman Christian Standard Bible New Testament now available"
Retrieved March 14, 2005.
*Dewey, David, 2004. ''A User's Guide to Bible Translations'' (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2004). .
External links
HCSB Official website
Archive
(the HCSB website now redirects to the CSB website)
{{English Bible translation navbox
2004 books
Bible translations into English
2004 in Christianity
Southern Baptist Convention