Revised Standard Version

Revised Standard Version
Full nameRevised Standard Version
AbbreviationRSV
OT published1952
NT published1946
Derived fromAmerican Standard Version
Textual basis
Translation typeFormal equivalence
Reading levelHigh school
Version revision1971 (NT only)
Copyright1946, 1952, 1971 (the Apocrypha is copyrighted 1957, 1977) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Religious affiliationProtestant, Ecumenical, with Catholic acceptance since mid-1960s
Websitersv.friendshippress.org
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.[1] This translation itself is a revision of the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901,[2] and was intended to be a readable and literally accurate modern English translation which aimed to "preserve all that is best in the English Bible as it has been known and used through the centuries" and "to put the message of the Bible in simple, enduring words that are worthy to stand in the great Tyndale-King James tradition."[3][4]

The RSV was the first translation of the Bible to make use of the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, a development considered "revolutionary" in the academic field of biblical scholarship.[2] The New Testament was first published in 1946, the Old Testament in 1952, and the Apocrypha in 1957; the New Testament was revised in 1971. The original Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) was published in 1965–66, and the deuterocanonical books were expanded in 1977. The Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE) was published in 2006.

In later years, the RSV served as the basis for two revisions—the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of 1989, and the English Standard Version (ESV) of 2001.

  1. ^ "About the RSV". National Council of Churches. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b Sarna, Nahum M. (October 2018). "Biblical literature - The Revised Standard Version". Encyclopædia Britannica. Edinburgh: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  3. ^ Daniel J. Harrington (1979). Interpreting the New Testament: A Practical Guide. Liturgical Press. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-0-8146-5124-7.
  4. ^ Metzger, Bruce M. (2007). "To the Reader". In Coogan, Michael D.; Brettler, Marc Z.; Newsom, Carol A.; Perkins, Pheme (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (3rd, Augmented ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. xvii. ISBN 978-0-19-528955-8.