The Holy Bible: Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)
A New, Faithful Bible Translation — Now Available!
Translated faithfully from the original Greek and Hebrew, the EHV proclaims the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The expressions, imagery, and style of the original texts are there, giving readers a lasting picture of God’s grace and mercy for a lost human race.
New Resources: The Story of God’s Love: A Summary of the Holy Bible and Your Kingdom Come
About the Wartburg Project
“The Wartburg Project” is a group of Lutheran pastors and professors who have worked together to produce a new translation of the Bible, the “Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)®” and the EHV Study Bible. We are thankful to God for all that has been accomplished!
Preface
What is the Evangelical Heritage Version® (EHV®)?
Our translation is called Evangelical because its highest goal is to proclaim the good news of the gospel of salvation through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, God’s eternal Son.
Our translation is called Heritage because this word looks to the past, the present, and the future.
Heritage expresses our respect for the generations of Christians and for the faithful translators who have passed the Bible down to us. We are aware that we in the present are building on the foundation which they have laid.
The term Heritage also looks to the future. The gospel is a precious inheritance that is to be passed from generation to generation until Christ returns. Our goal and motto is expressed in the hymn verse:
God’s Word is our great heritage
and shall be ours forever.
To spread its light from age to age
shall be our chief endeavor.
Through life it guides our way.
In death it is our stay.
Lord, grant, while worlds endure,
we keep its teaching pure
throughout all generations.
To this end, our goal is to produce a balanced translation, suitable for all-purpose use in the church.
We seek a balance between the old and the new. Our translation can be called revised or traditional insofar as it builds on the tradition of Bible translation that goes back to the King James Version, to Martin Luther, and beyond. It is new in that it is not based on any one template, and it introduces new terms in those places where the traditional terms no longer communicate clearly.
We seek a balance between the poles of so-called literal and dynamic equivalent theories of translation.
We seek a balance between formality and informality. The Bible contains many types of literature and different levels of language, from the very simple to the very difficult. For this reason, the translator should not be too committed to producing one level of language but should try to reproduce the tone or “flavor” of the original.
The Evangelical Heritage Version is designed for learning and teaching. The Bible is a book to be read, but it is also a book to be studied. Our footnotes are designed to assist in the process of learning and teaching.
The Evangelical Heritage Version is not an interpretative translation. Our duty and goal is to understand and to reproduce as closely as possible what the original text says and to say no more and no less than what the text says.
We offer this translation to the church as a balanced translation, suitable for all-purpose use in the church.
Our expanded Introduction provides a more detailed, expanded version of this preface. Also see our booklet “Introducing the EHV”.
This chart from BibleGateway.com includes the EHV in a comparison of translation styles. We agree with their assessment. To receive the full “Bible Basics Infographic” you can sign up for free for the Bible Gateway Visual Verse of the Day. Compare the EHV to other translations for yourself at BibleGateway or with the following Wartburg Project publications:
Parasynodical
The Wartburg Project is a 501(c)(3) [parasynodical] organization in fellowship with ELS and WELS, with our own EIN#.
Feel free to contact us for more information.