New Revised Standard Version
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| New Revised Standard Version | |
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| Full name: | New Revised Standard Version |
| Abbreviation: | NRSV |
| Complete Bible published: | 1989 |
| Textual Basis: | NT: High Correspondence to Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition. OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia with Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint influence. Apocrypha: Septuagint with Vulgate influence. |
| Translation type: | Dynamic equivalence, with some gender neutral paraphrasing. |
| Reading Level: | High School |
| Copyright status: | Copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA |
| Religious Affiliation: | Ecumenical, but generally mainline Protestant |
| Genesis 1:1-3 | |
| In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. | |
| John 3:16 | |
| For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. | |
The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV).[1]
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.[2]
Contents |
[edit] 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.[3]
This translation is meant to replace the Revised Standard Version, and to identify it in context with the many other English language translations available today. It is called the New Revised Standard Version because it is a revision of the Revised Standard Version,(1952) which was a revision of the American Standard Version,(sometimes called the "Standard Bible"),(1901), which was an American English revision of The Revised Version (or English Revised Version),(1885), which is itself a revision of the King James Version of 1611.
[edit] Principles of revision
[edit] 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.[4]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Gender-neutral 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.").[5] The RSV observed the older convention of using masculine nouns in a gender-neutral 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-neutral 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-specific 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.
[edit] Approval of the NRSV
Many of the older "mainline" 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 widely used by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Canada.
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 (which also quotes from the RSV).
[edit] Controversies
The NRSV translates Isaiah 7:14 as:
- Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
The NRSV thus retained the RSV decision to translate the Hebrew "almah" 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", which likewise is the Greek translation given in Matthew, was rephrased as the present tense "is with child". This and other non-traditional translations were criticized (e.g. preferring "wind" for "rûach" in Genesis 1 instead of "spirit").
Regarding gender-neutral language, Previous translations in this tradition (from the RSV to the Tyndale Bible) adhered to the original text over concerns about readability or gender neutral language; the NRSV departs from this practise. 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-neutrality, critics argue it departed from the heritage of preserving the literal text of scripture that was the distinguishing feature of translations in the Tyndale/King James tradition.
[edit] Conservative reactions
The English Standard Version (ESV), published in 2001, eschewed the gender-neutral terminology of 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, and while annotated versions of the RSV were accepted by some Orthodox, 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.[6]
[edit] 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)
- The Oxford New Revised Standard Version Anglicized Cross-Reference Edition (1995, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-107050-1)
[edit] References
- ^ Preface to the NRSV from the National Council of Churches website
- ^ Amazon.com entry for Anglicised spelling NRSV
- ^ Preface to the NRSV from the National Council of Churches website
- ^ Preface to the NRSV from the National Council of Churches website
- ^ Preface to the NRSV from the National Council of Churches website
- ^ Bishop Tikhon. Bishop's Pastoral Letter on the New Revised Standard Version. Retrieved on 2007-04-22.
[edit] External links
| The Bible in English |
| Old English (pre-1066) |
| Middle English (1066-1500) |
| Early Modern English (1500-1800) |
| Modern Christian (1800-) |
| Modern Jewish (1853-) |
| Miscellaneous |
- 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
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