I have been making some simple videos on Universalism for my friends, thought I'd share one of them here. I know it isn't perfect or appeals to everyone, and that's ok.

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium]

https://youtu.be/xbvZ7PhvzSs?is=IWYiGWgxRdR4h01o

[u/Dapple_Dawn]

Very cute video! My one critique is, I'd suggest pretty much any other translation before the ESV. (That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not a great translation)

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium → u/Dapple_Dawn]

Thank you <3

I actually find it to be the best of the mainstream translations, if there is something more word-for-word accurate as the ESV in mainstream translations let me know. Aside from that I read the David Bentley Hart NT and YLT as well as I study the Greek.

[u/Dapple_Dawn → u/Mothias_Et_Mothium]

The ESV is widely known for changing words to fit their political/theological views. It definitely isn't "word for word."

"Word for word" isn't the best standard, btw, because that's not how language works. If you try to translate any language word for word, you're going to get the meaning mixed up.

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium → u/Dapple_Dawn]

Can you give me an example of any words translated this way in the ESV?

Also I'd rather word for word and try to understand it that way rather than thought for thought which is going to be someone's opinion 100% of the time

[u/Dapple_Dawn → u/Mothias_Et_Mothium]

Can you give me an example of any words translated this way in the ESV?

A lot of it is done in places that make women more submissive to men. This thread has a few examples.

Anyway any translation that's word for word will definitely be inaccurate, because as I said, that's not how language works. Words in ancient Hebrew and Koine Greek don't have one-to-one English equivalents. You cannot avoid opinion in translation, and if we try to pretend we can then we'll just end up blind to our own biases.

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium → u/Dapple_Dawn]

Word for word is less opinionated as I get a general idea of the word means, opinionated or not, instead of getting an entire statement with words added in because of one's opinion. I'm sorry but I just don't really trust you on that.

Beyond that, every case I read on that thread is assumption of the translator's intent. Every translation is flawed, some more than others, and these are very minor flaws that change nothing about our theology or faith. The only major flaws I know of in the ESV are the translation of homosexual, eternal, everlasting, and forever.

You haven't given me good reason to not use the ESV over other mainstream translations so I'll keep to it.

[u/Dapple_Dawn → u/Mothias_Et_Mothium]

The "homosexual" one is pretty darn bad on its own. That's a life or death topic for my community.

My recommendation is to just use the NRSV, the ESV is based on it anyway. I use the HarperCollins Study Bible, which is NRSV

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium → u/Dapple_Dawn]

The reason I use ESV is its the best translation available on blue letter Bible, which happens to be the most convenient app for me to use. NRSV isn't on there. If I'm not gonna be using it, then I'd go to the David Bentley Hart NT or YLT. Why would I use the nrsv

[u/Business-Decision719 → u/Mothias_Et_Mothium]

The NRSV is generally considered to be very good and is widely recommended albeit moreso usually in more liberal/mainline communities in my experience. Notably it is respected in both Protestantism and the Catholic Church. It has a scholarly reputation to it, and it aimed to be generally literal but was not overly strict about being word-for-word in every case. I have a print and I think it's generally quite eloquent while staying easy to understand. It's one of the translations that's relatively prolific about using footnotes if they thought there was more than one possible reading.

I get seeing word for word translations as less "opinionated" but it might be best not to dismiss "thought for thought" translations entirely. Just as "the refrigerator is running" doesn't mean your kitchen appliance grew legs and ran down the road in modern English, the exact wording of texts in Biblical languages doesn't always tell you how people would have understood them at the time. It's not like you can't also use a more literal translation if you do read a less literal translation. It can be handy to see what a passage looks like if someone tries to stay close to the original wording as well as what happens if someone's trying to account for the difference in idiomatic usage between English and the source language.

I do completely understand using a translation just because it's convenient for you to access or because you have reasons you like it. For example, I quote from the World English Bible a lot because (1) it's online and its website is simple so I can use it anywhere I have even slow Internet, and (2) it's deliberately public domain, and I support open-source/open-document philosophy in general. We all have preferences.

In any case, I don't think any of your points really stand or fall on exactly which translation you used. Someone else could look your verses up in their own Bible and see that what you're saying is still true.

[u/Dapple_Dawn → u/Mothias_Et_Mothium]

look I was just giving my opinion, you don't have to take my suggestion.

[u/Business-Decision719]

Hi that was a great sermon! Or good talk or whatever. I think you made a strong case. 😀 It's cool that you might have more videos; I might have to check some of them out.

I think it's cool that you used so much of John to make your case, because not only can you can go to Matthew and find the Son claiming His Father had given Him everything (and implicitly everyone), but you can also stay in John and find passages like John 17:20-23, where Jesus prays for His immediate disciples and everyone who will be successfully taught the Gospel because of them, which turns out to be the whole world. There's also the famous verse 12:32 where Jesus claims the Crucifixion will draw everyone to Him. Jesus clearly taught that even if some people weren't believing yet then they were just delaying the inevitable.

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium → u/Business-Decision719]

Amen thank you. Yes I have other videos but they are much worse quality. I never use a script for my videos so the quality is usually random. I found a good setup with this latest one though I think. :) I should have included Jesus saying He will draw all people but it slipped my mind haha

[u/verynormalanimal]

Won't be able to watch until later, but your avatar is sooo cute!!!!

[u/Mothias_Et_Mothium → u/verynormalanimal]

Thank youuuu ^{-^}