Navaroo...
Do you have a list of the Messiah prophecies removed in the OT of the NRSV? I do not want to argue anything. I just would like to see the list.
Thanks.
...Bob
Sure: NRSV is not alone on the list, and it must be noted that the RSV and NRSV are closely related, and were both taken over by the apostate
Metzger:
Deuteronomy 23:17 CHANGE "sodomite" TO "shrine prostitute OR cult prostitute" ("There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.") This change also occurs in 1 Kings 14:24, 1 Kings 15:12, 1 Kings 22:46 and 2 Kings 23:7. NIV, NASB,
RSV
Deuteronomy 32:22 CHANGE"lowest hell" TO "realm of death (et. al)" ("For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.") NIV, NASV,
NRSV, LB, NC
Daniel 3:25 CHANGE "the Son of God" TO "a son of the gods" ("He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.") NIV, NASV,
RSV, NRSV, LB, NC
Daniel 7:10 REMOVE "judgment was set" NIV, NASV,
NRSV, LB, NC
Psalms 8:5 CHANGE "the angels" TO "the heavenly beings (et. al)" ("For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.") NIV, NASV,
RSV, NRSV, LB, NC
Micah 5:2 CHANGE "everlasting" TO "ancient times or ancient days (et. al.)" (""But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.")
Contradicts Psalm 90:2 "...from everlasting to everlasting thou art God..." NIV,
RSV, NRSV, LB, NC
Zechariah 12:10 CHANGE "his only son" TO "an only child" ("And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.") NIV, NASV,
RSV, NRSV, LB, NC
Psalms 9:17 REMOVE "turned into hell" ("The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.") NIV, NASV,
RSV, NRSV, LB, NC
Psalms 12:7
CHANGE "thou shalt preserve them" TO "you will keep us safe and protect us"(et. al) ("Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.)
NOTE: Changes the emphasis of what is preserved in verse 6: "The words of the LORD..."
NIV, NASV,
RSV, NRSV, LB, NC
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However, some verses in the Old Testament are used in the New Testament as prophecy for Jesus being the Messiah.
For example, in the KJV,
Isaiah 7:14 is translated: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." However, in order to be more inclusive, the
NRSV replaced the word "virgin" with the phrase "young woman." This causes a problem, as one of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament was being born of a virgin.
Another example is Matthew 2:2. In the KJV, the wise men came to the stable
"to worship him," which is in accordance with the prophecy in
Psalm 72:10, 15. However, the
NRSV translation says the wise men would "pay homage" to the Christ, a connotation that is strikingly different than what was prophesied.
D.J. Philips Review gives some more background and examples:
So, again: why a new RSV? Two answers may be given.
The first answer is that given in the Preface to the NRSV: to keep up with discovery of ancient manuscripts, and with studies in comparative languages (p. x). Indeed, there have been changes, if the book of Isaiah is any indication. In the NRSV, readings found in the Dead Sea Scrolls are preferred over the traditional Masoretic text some twenty-one times, which is eight times more than in the original RSV.
The second answer may be safely deduced from a close reading of the NRSV, and from an observation of its trends. That reason is ideological. One discerns an apparent desire to import modern thought into the Biblical text, even at the expense of the clear teaching of the Bible. Since Biblical doctrine and some of our culture's favorite notions clash, one or the other has to "give." In the NRSV, it is often the Bible that "gives."
Consider the evidence. One is immediately jarred by Genesis 1:2, where the Hebrew text reads, "and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters." The NRSV, by contrast, has "while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." The margin does offer, "Or, while the spirit of God or while a mighty wind," but neither is a great improvement. One is puzzled to note that "Day" and "Night" are capitalized in 1:5 — but by contrast even the marginal reading "spirit of God " is in lower case!
The Hebrew phrase meaning "Spirit of God/Yahweh" occurs in many other passages, but the NRSV consistently conceals this fact behind such renderings as "divine spirit" (Exodus 31:3; 35:31, etc.), or even occasionally "spirit of God" (Num. 24:2) or "spirit of the LORD" (Judges 3:10; again, note the lower cases). The odd treatment of the Spirit continues through the Old Testament (OT), as we read such bizarre versions as this statement concerning Saul: "the spirit of God possessed him, and he fell into a prophetic frenzy" (1 Samuel 10:10). Similarly, in Psalm 51:11, David prays "do not take your holy spirit from me." Phrases which highlight the personality of the Spirit are simply printed in lower-case ("the spirit of the LORD speaks" in 2 Samuel 23:2, or "grieved his holy spirit" in Isaiah 63:10).
Although this depersonalization of the Spirit is found in dozens of OT passages in the NRSV, the New Testament is quite different, rendering the identical Greek equivalents as "Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:18), and "Spirit of God" (Matthew 3:16) — one of the many inconsistencies of this version. This may be due to the relatively orthodox influence of Dr. Bruce Metzger.
There are other highly peculiar features in the OT. For instance, the violent homosexuals in Sodom politely ask to "know" Lot's angelic visitors (Gen. 19:5), as if they were simply a sort of Middle Eastern Welcoming Committee. But Lot himself says that his (engaged!) daughters "have not known a man" in the next verse. Even among the Biblically illiterate, it is widely recognized that "know" is a Biblical euphemism for sexual intercourse. The translators of the NRSV do not so much as acknowledge this in a marginal note in Genesis 4:1, 24:16, or other passages.
Now, one must wonder — what can explain such reticence, in a "new" version of the Bible? Certainly, modesty cannot be pled in our day of sexual bombardment. Further, the same Hebrew verb is rendered "lie with" (Genesis 38:26), "slept with" (Judges 11:39), and "have intercourse" (Judges 19:22). Thus the sin of homosexuality is concealed in Genesis 19, while the very same verb is translated "wantonly raped" in Judges 19:25. Thus, the treatment in Genesis 19 is quite singular. One must be forgiven for wondering if this is a concession to "gay rights" elements.
...
There are many, many other inconsistencies. The Hebrew text of Exodus 21:22 is fatal for the practice of abortion, but the NRSV conceals this by the rendering "miscarriage," without so much as a footnote.
...
Charismatic Christians may note that glossai is translated "languages" in Acts 2:4, but "tongues" in 1 Corinthians 12:10, 28, etc. First Corinthians 13:10 is, nicely, "but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end." This is a good rendering, bringing out (whether intentionally or no) the predicted cessation of tongues and prophecy at the completion of the Canon. How Charismatics will feel about this is anyone's guess.
Incredibly, the preface claims that the NRSV "remains essentially a literal translation" (p. xi). This simply is not true. The "inclusive language" phenomenon has already been noted. Also, if the translators find a Greek word troublesome, they may just drop it: "therefore" is dropped in Romans 12:6, and the following Greek participle is changed into a finite verb. Conjunctions are frequently discarded without notice, even when they may aid interpretation (e.g. Matthew 17:1). Nouns are regularly changed into verbs (Ephesians 4:12; Colossians 3:22), and moods are changed or introduced at will (Colossians 1:11). Further, the NRSV has no way of letting the reader know when they have supplied words not found in the original text (the King James and New American Standard use italics).