NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION

The 'New Revised Standard Version' ('NRSV') of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV).
There are three editions of the NRSV:
# the 'NRSV' standard edition, containing the Old and New Testaments (Protestant canon);
# the 'NRSV with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books' in addition to the Old and New Testaments (this edition is sometimes called the 'NRSV Common Bible';
# the 'NRSV Catholic Edition' containing the Old Testament books in the order of the Vulgate.
There are also Anglicised editions of the NRSV, which modify the text slightly to be consistent with British spelling and grammar.

Contents

History

Principles of revision

Improved manuscripts and translations

Elimination of archaism

Gender inclusive language

Translating the deuterocanonicals

Approval of the NRSV

Controversies

Conservative reactions

Study editions

References

External links

History

The NRSV was translated by the Division of Christian Education (now Bible Translation and Utilization) of the National Council of Churches, an ecumenical Christian group. There has also been Jewish representation in the group responsible for the Old Testament.
Only one of the translators of the RSV, Harry Orlinsky, was also involved with the NRSV. However, the Chairman of the NRSV translators, Bruce Metzger, had been involved with the RSV Apocrypha in 1957.
As yet another revision in the tradition of the King James Version, the American Standard Version, and of course the RSV, the name for the new version was selected because the ASV, sometimes simply called the "Standard Bible" because of its prevalent use in seminaries through the 1970s; and just as the RSV had been a "revision of the Standard Bible", the NRSV was a "new revision of the Standard Bible".

Principles of revision

Improved manuscripts and translations

The Old Testament translation of the RSV was completed before the Dead Sea Scrolls were generally available to scholars. The NRSV was intended to take advantage of this and other manuscript discoveries, and to reflect advances in scholarship since the RSV had been released.

Elimination of archaism

The RSV retained the archaic second person familiar forms ("thee and thou") when God was addressed, but eliminated their use in other contexts. The NRSV eliminated all such archaicisms.

Gender inclusive language

In the preface to the NRSV, Bruce Metzger wrote for the committee that "many in the churches have become sensitive to the danger of linguistic sexism arising from the inherent bias of the English language towards the masculine gender, a bias that in the case of the Bible has often restricted or obscured the meaning of the original text." [1] The RSV observed the older convention of using masculine nouns in an inclusive sense (e.g. "man" instead of "person"), and in some cases used a masculine word where the source language used a neuter word. The NRSV by contrast adopted a policy of gender-inclusive language: "The mandates from the Division specified that, in references to men and women, masculine-oriented language should be eliminated as far as this can be done without altering passages that reflect the historical situation of ancient patriarchal culture."
One of the conventions NRSV uses is to expand gender exclusive phrases. For example, if a translation used "brothers" to refer to a group that is not known to be all male, NRSV may use "brothers and sisters." Where such adjustments are made the more literal translation is noted in a footnote.

Translating the deuterocanonicals

The RSV translation of the deuterocanonical books was made after the fact as an ecumenical gesture. The NRSV translated these works as part of its initial effort, though the standard edition omitted these books.

Approval of the NRSV

Many Protestant churches officially accept the NRSV or commend it to their members. For example, the Episcopal Church added the NRSV to the list of translations in Canon II.2 which are approved for reading in church services, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) website commends the translation. It is also the official pew Bible of the United Methodist Church, the Unity Church, and the United Church of Christ.
Although the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approves only the New American Bible for liturgical use, the NRSV is quoted in the English-language edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and is authorized for liturgical use in Canada because it was approved in episcopal conferences there prior to the Vatican barring it for liturgical use elsewhere. Several versions of the Bible, including the NRSV, carry an imprimatur.

Controversies

While the NRSV quickly became the ''de facto'' standard in many denominations, some of its translation decisions were criticized.
The NRSV retained the RSV decision to translate the Hebrew "almah" in Isaiah 7:14 as "young woman" instead of "virgin", though a footnote acknowledged that the Greek Septuagint read "virgin" (that is, "parthenos"). The Gospel of Matthew also translated the word into Greek as "parthenos" (virgin), and English translations prior to the RSV had followed the Greek. The traditional translation of the phrase "will conceive" was also rephrased as the present tense "is with child" as its counterpart in Matthew 1:23 did. Other nontraditional translations were also criticized (e.g. preferring "wind" for "rûach" in Genesis 1 instead of "spirit").
The gender-inclusive language policy of the NRSV was also criticized. Previous translations in this tradition (from the RSV to the Tyndale Bible) valued strict adherence to the original text over concerns about readability or gender neutral language. The NRSV departs from this tradition. In particular, the NRSV frequently--but not always--substitutes the word "person" or "adult" when the literal text reads "man." For example, 1 Corinthians 13:11 in the RSV read: "when I became a ''man'', I gave up childish ways," while the NRSV rendered this passage "when I became an ''adult'', I put an end to childish ways." (Italics added for emphasis.) Because the NRSV frequently departs from a literal translation of the text to serve modern concerns about gender-inclusiveness, critics argue it departed from the heritage of preserving the literal text of scripture that was the distiguishing feature of translations in the Tyndale/King James tradition. (There were already a very large number of modern translations on the market that utilized gender inclusive language.)
Some critics argued that the translation inappropriately reflected modern feminist concerns. For example, the NRSV tends to translate ''adelphoi'' as "brothers and sisters". Critics claimed that this rendering was a condescension to feminism. In fact, it represents an accurate translation, since the Greek word ''adelphoi'' can mean either "brothers" or "siblings" (i.e., "brothers and sisters"), depending on the context. However, conservatives charge that since the context is not always clear on whether or not women were included in the original audience (particularly in the Epistles), the translators should have erred on the side of caution and used the word "brothers" or "brethren" (the term used by the old RSV).
Some conservatives have accused the NRSV of tampering with the text to promote wealth redistribution, as with the translation of Acts 4:32. The reading of the old RSV was:

★ ''"Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common."''
But the NRSV translated the verse as follows:

★ ''"Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, 'and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions', but everything they owned was held in common."'' (emphasis added).
This could be seen as simply a more readable, literary rendering. On the other hand, it could be seen to bias the reader toward the interpretation that the early Christians rejected private property and embarked on a communal lifestyle.

Conservative reactions

Conservative evangelical dissatisfaction with the NRSV, combined with a desire for a more up-to-date translation in the Tyndale-King James tradition, led to the publication in 2001 of the English Standard Version (ESV). It eschewed the gender-inclusive terminology the NRSV, and reversed many controversial RSV and NRSV translation decisions; for example, in Isaiah 7:14 it returned to the translation of "almah" as "virgin", as against the RSV/NRSV rendering, "young woman".
In spite of Orthodox participation in the translation, Orthodox churches have mostly been cool to the NRSV. Annotated versions of the RSV were accepted by some Orthodox, but the Orthodox Study Bible chose the New King James Version New Testament as a starting point, and the Old Testament committee chose to make a new translation of the Septuagint rather than use any existing English translation or returning to the original Hebrew. Orthodox criticism of the NRSV generally followed conservative Protestant lines, but in addition criticized the use of the Masoretic text as the Old Testament textual basis. In 1990 the synod of the Orthodox Church in America decided not to permit use of the NRSV in liturgy or in Bible studies.^[1]

Study editions

★ ''The Harper Study Bible'' (1991, ISBN 0-310-90203-7)

★ ''The HarperCollins Study Bible with Apocrypha'' (1997, ISBN 0-06-065527-5)

★ ''The Spiritual Formation Bible'' (1999, ISBN 0-310-90089-1)

★ ''The Access Bible with Apocrypha'' (1999, ISBN 0-19-528217-5)

★ ''The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha'', 3rd edition (2001, ISBN 0-19-528478-X)

★ ''The New Interpreter's Study Bible with Apocrypha'' (2003, ISBN 0-687-27832-5)

★ ''The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible with Apocrypha'' (2005, ISBN 0-06-067108-4)

References

1. Bishop's Pastoral Letter on the New Revised Standard Version

External links

★ National Council of Churches: About the NRSV

★ Preface to the NRSV from the National Council of Churches website

★ oremus Bible Browser

★ THE NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION: A REVIEW by Arthur L. Farstad in ''Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society'', Autumn 1990—Volume 3:2 (a conservative POV on the translation)

★ Pastoral letter of Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco explaining the 1990 decision of the OCA Synod not to permit use of the NRSV

★ Sixty-Four Shadows of Man in the NRSV, criticism of gender-inclusive language in the NRSV

★ A searchable online New Revised Standard Version