Synopses & Reviews
THE NEW COMMONLY CALLED THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST REVISED STANDARD VERSION TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BEING THE VERSION SET FORTH A. D. l6ll REVISED A. D. l88l AND A. D. 190 COMPARED WITH THE MOST ANCIENT AUTHORITIES AND REVISED A. D. 1946 THOMAS NELSON SONS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY THOMAS NELSON SONS COPYRIGHT RENEWED, 1929, BY THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TO INSURE PURITY OF TEXT J. S. Gushing Co. Berwick Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. PREFACE fTlHE Revised Standard Version of the New Testament is --an authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version, published in 161 1. The King James Version was itself a revision rather than a new translation. The first English version of the New Testa ment made by translation from the Greek was that of Wil liam Tyndale, 1 525 and this became the foundation for suc cessive versions, notably those of Coverdale, 1 535 the Great Bible, 1539 Geneva, 1560 and the Bishops Bible, 1568. In 1582 a translation of the New Testament, made from the Latin Vulgate by Roman Catholic scholars, was published at Rheims. The translators of the King James Version took into account all of these preceding versions and comparison shows that it owes something to each of them. It kept felicitous turns of phrase and apt expressions, from whatever source, which had stood the test of public usage. As a result of the discovery of manuscripts of the New Testament more ancient than those used by the translators in 1611, together with a marked development in Biblical studies, a demand forrevision of the King James Bible arose in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1 870 the Convo cation of Canterbury authorized a revision, and organized a 2- 1AY 3 committee oflBmtis ifW rs. to undertake it. With this com mittee was associalecl By correspondence a committee of American schpfe s organized a year later. In 1881 the English Revised Version of the New Testament was published, with an appendix containing recommendations of the American Committee which had not been approved by the British Com mittee. In 1901, at the expiration of an agreed period, the American Standard Version was published, embodying these recommendations and printing in an appendix the British readings which they replaced. The American Standard Version was copyrighted to pro tect the text from unauthorized changes and in 1 928 Thomas Nelson and Sons, its publishers, transferred the copyright to the International Council of Religious Education, in which the educational boards of forty of the major Protestant de nominations of the United States and Canada are associated. This body appointed a committee of scholars to have charge of the text, and authorized it to undertake further revision if deemed necessary. The charter of the Committee contains the provision that all changes in the text shall be agreed upon by a two-thirds vote of the total membership of the Committee a more conservative rule than that which had governed revision hitherto, which required only a two thirds vote of members present. In 1 937 a comprehensive revision of the American Standard Version of the Bible was authorized by vote of the Council. Conversations with British scholars looked toward corre-IV PREFACE spondence with a similarcommittee to be organized in Great Britain but this proved to be impracticable during the years of war. The Committee has worked in two Sections, one dealing with the Old Testament and one with the New Testament. As with former revisions, the work upon the New Testament has been completed first and the revision of the Old Testa ment will take about four years more...