RSV NT Preface

THE 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 1611.

The King James Version was itself a revision rather than a new translation. The first English version of the New Testament made by translation from the Greek was that of William Tyndale, 1525; and this became the foundation for successive versions, notably those of Coverdale, 1535; the Great Bible, 1539; Geneva, 1560; and the Bishop’s 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 for revision of the King James Bible arose in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1870 the Convocation of Canterbury authorized a revision, and organized a committee of British scholars to undertake it. With this committee was associated by correspondence a committee of American scholars 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 Committee. 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 protect the text from unauthorized changes; an in 1928 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 denominations 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 1937 a comprehensive revision of the American Standard Version of the Bible was authorized by vote of the Council. Conversations with British scholars looked toward correspondence with a similar committee 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 Testament will take about four years more. All changes in the translation of the New Testament have been submitted to the entire Committee, and in a few cases a majority vote in the Section has been reversed by failure to receive the support of two-thirds of the members of the Committee.

This preface does not undertake to set forth the lines along which the revision has proceeded. That is done in a small book entitled An Introduction to the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament, written by the members of the New Testament Section, and designed to help the general public to understand the main principles which have guided this comprehensive revision of the King James and American Standard Versions.

Let it be said here simply that all of the reasons which led to the demand for revision of the King James Version one hundred years ago are still valid, and are even more cogent now than then. And we cannot be content with the Versions of 1881 and 1901 for two main reasons. One is that these are mechanically exact, literal, word-for-word translations, which follow the order of the Greek words, so far as this is possible, rather than the order which is natural to English; they are more accurate than the King James Version, but have lost some of its beauty and power as English literature. The second reason is that the discovery of a few more ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and of a great body of Greek papyri dealing with the everyday affairs of life in the early centuries of the Christian era, has furnished scholars with new resources, both for seeking to recover the original text of the Greek New Testament and for understanding its language. In the Bible we have not merely an historical document and a classic of English literature, but the Word of God. The Bible carries its full message, not to those who regard it simply as a heritage of the past or praise its literary style, but to those who read it that they may discern and understand God’s Word to men. And men need the Word of God in our time and hereafter as never before. That Word must not be disguised in phrases that are no longer clear, or hidden under words that have changed or lost their meaning. It must stand forth in language that is direct and plain and meaningful to people today. It is our hope and our earnest prayer that this Revised Standard Version of the New Testament may be used by God to speak to men in these momentous times, and to help them to understand and believe and obey His Word.