Featured Why is the New Revised Standard Version Bible so popular among mainline Protestant denominations?

The NRSV is a revision of the RSV.

• It eliminated the archaic thee’s and thou’s as well as other little understood words.
• It was among the first major versions to reduce gender-inclusive wording.
• and it incorporated a great many textual and archeological advances.

I’ve heard it jokingly said that Presbyterians are simply Baptist’s that can read.
These characteristics in the NRSV made it a scholars Bible but also doomed it among the perhaps, less scholarly users.

One change is worth noting because it illustrates how these changes effected its use among denominations.

In Isaiah 7:14 they translated the Hebrew word, ‘almah as “young woman” rather than “virgin”. This change, while technically correct brought intense criticism, even wrath upon the translators by conservatives. To this day, most versions will use “virgin”, and provide a footnote allowing the meaning, “young woman”, even after a compelling argument for “young woman” is presented.

Just a note, the Bible researcher is a good resource for basic information - here is the review on the NRSV

Rob

 

From the link .....

"The editorial committee made thousands of changes, some quite substantive, to the translation of the Old Testament made by the full committee, and when members of the full committee became aware of the extent of these changes, many were outraged, feeling that much of their own work on the translation over the years had been irresponsibly gutted."

An Evaluation of the NRSV: Demystifying Bible Translation, by J.J.M. Roberts

 

The OT is translated from the Masoretic text, commonly called the BHS.
The oldest copy being from around 600-700 c.e.
Many of the myths of OT Hebrew text transmission come from these masoretic scholars. They standardized the OT that we use today.

Then along comes the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated from ~200, b.c.e. and later.
It established the reliability of the Masoretic text BUT did provide some surprising changes.

One of the big changes that the NRSV did is to incorporate some of these changes into the version.

My favorite is an acrostic psalm, which is missing the letter N (nun) in the BHS.
Compare Psalm 145, verse 13 in many modern versions with the NKJV you will see it.
This is a DSS addition.

...and it’s true some of these changes are disputed and controversial.​

Rob

 

"The Burns family ran a general store in a one store town and still managed to do badly. They were Methodist, a denomination my father always referred to as Baptists who could read."
--- A River Runs Through It

The author's father was Presbyterian.

 

My guess? The mainline denominations had their roots in the historic center of American education, the northeast. They sent their seminary students to Germany for their doctorates, when it was a hotbed of theological liberalism. The Oxford Annotated Bible in the NRSV has been a staple of those northeast schools for a while now, so I would expect pastors using it would trickle down to the flocks.

 

A rather bawdy book but it's in my collection.
The author apparently heard the line too.
I enjoy the way the book meanders - like a river.

One of the major translators was Bruce Metzger, a Princeton Scholar (not too far from where I live).
Once renowned for such names as B.B. Warfield; it has strayed from its foundation.

Rob

 

Psalm 145:13 old thread link

 

The NRSV is big improvement over the RSV. But it is still a very liberal translation. Fixes for few examples, Genesis 1:16; Romans 9:5; Revelation 13:8.

 

Because the conservative Protestant denominations do not use it.

I am serious.

 

Great movie!

 

Due to it being the first modern version to go big time into inclusive gender language!

 

The CEB is gaining ground too. It has displaced the NRSV. Calvin College and Seminary and I think the CRC are all using the CEB.

 

Excellent reformed scholar --D.A. Carson has said that the NRSV is : "a jolly good translation."