ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Translation

ASV

The American counterpart to the English Revised Version (ERV, 1885), published in 1901 as a more literal English Bible than the KJV using the then-emerging Westcott-Hort critical Greek text. The ASV is the direct ancestor of the NASB family (NASB, NASB95, NASB 2020, LSB) and a textual ancestor (via the RSV) of the ESV and NRSV. In the public domain in the US.

History

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Sponsored

The English Revised Version (ERV) project began in 1870 to revise the KJV in light of newer manuscript discoveries and Hebrew/Greek scholarship. An American committee participated as advisors; their preferences were recorded as an appendix to the ERV but not adopted in the main text. After the 14-year ERV agreement expired in 1901, the American committee published its own version with their preferences incorporated: the American Standard Version.

  • 1870: ERV project commissioned (UK)
  • 1881: ERV NT
  • 1885: ERV full Bible
  • 1901: ASV (American Standard Version) published
  • 1929: copyright lapsed; ASV in public domain since
  • 1971: NASB (descendant)
  • 1995: NASB95 (the current Codex default)
  • 2001: WEB (modernized successor, see WEB)
  • 2021: LSB (most-recent literalist descendant)

Translators

American committee chaired by Philip Schaff (Union Theological Seminary). Included Marvin Vincent (Union Theological Seminary), William Henry Green (Princeton), Henry Boynton Smith (Union), Ezra Abbot (Harvard Divinity), and ~30 others. Theological character: conservative-Protestant, cross-denominational; substantially overlapping with the ERV's UK committee but with American preferences.

Textual basis

  • OT: Masoretic Text (with footnote consultation of LXX and Vulgate)
  • NT: Westcott-Hort critical Greek text (a major break from the KJV's Textus Receptus); the first major English translation to use the critical text rather than the Received Text
  • Apocrypha: not included (Protestant 66-book canon)

Translation philosophy

Strict formal equivalence. The most literal mainstream English translation of its era. Hebrew/Greek word order preserved where English allowed. Italicized supplied words. Distinguishing features:

  • "Jehovah" used throughout the OT for the Tetragrammaton (יהוה), the only major English Bible to do so consistently. (NASB uses "LORD"; LSB uses "Yahweh"; KJV/most use "LORD".)
  • "Holy Spirit" instead of KJV's "Holy Ghost"
  • Modernized spelling for early-modern English forms while retaining "thee"/"thou" forms for God-pronouns
  • Verse-by-verse paragraphing prioritized for study use

Strengths

  • Most literal mainstream English translation of its era, invaluable for word-study; foundational for the NASB family's continuing literalist tradition
  • First major English translation using critical Greek text (Westcott-Hort), pioneered the modern textual-critical approach later universal in NASB, ESV, NIV, NRSV
  • "Jehovah" throughout the OT, distinctive among major English translations
  • Public domain, freely usable in apps, study tools, derivative works
  • Foundation for NASB lineage, the textual and translational base of the NASB95, LSB, RSV, NRSV families
  • Foundation for WEB, the World English Bible is a modernization of the ASV

Weaknesses

  • Archaic English by modern standards, "thee/thou" for God-pronouns; "doth/saith/shalt/wilt" verb forms; pre-20th-c. vocabulary; awkward by current standards
  • Verse-by-verse paragraphing obscures narrative and argumentative flow
  • "Jehovah" rendering is etymologically a misreading of the Tetragrammaton (the actual vocalization is closer to "Yahweh"; "Jehovah" comes from inserting the Masoretic vowel-points of adonai into YHWH)
  • Limited adoption, never overtook KJV in pew use; superseded by RSV (1952) and then by ESV / NIV / NASB families
  • Westcott-Hort critical text has been refined by subsequent textual scholarship (NA28/UBS5 is the contemporary standard); ASV reflects the 1881 state of the critical text

Notable / problematic verses

  • OT Tetragrammaton, "Jehovah" used throughout the OT (where KJV reads "LORD")
  • Mark 16:9-20, bracketed with note that earliest manuscripts do not include
  • John 7:53-8:11, bracketed (pericope adulterae)
  • 1 John 5:7, Johannine Comma omitted (follows critical Greek text)
  • Acts 8:37, omitted (follows critical text)
  • 1 Timothy 3:16, "He who was manifested in the flesh" (Critical Text reading; KJV/TR has "God was manifest")
  • Isaiah 7:14, "virgin" preserved
  • John 1:1, "the Word was God" (standard rendering)
  • 2 Timothy 3:16, "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable" (interpretive against KJV's "All scripture is given by inspiration of God")

Notable users / influence

  • Foundational text for the NASB family (NASB 1971, NASB95, NASB 2020, LSB), Lockman Foundation's New American Standard Bible was an explicit modernization of the ASV
  • Foundational text for the WEB (World English Bible), a modernization of the ASV released into the public domain
  • Cited extensively in conservative-evangelical study materials of the 20th century (until NASB / NIV / ESV displaced it)
  • Used in scholarly contexts as a public-domain comparison text alongside KJV
  • The American Bible Society printed and distributed ASV in large quantities through the early 20th century
  • Pew use, ASV was a popular pew Bible in conservative Presbyterian and Baptist churches into the mid-20th c.; supplanted by NASB and NIV by the 1980s

Public-domain status

ASV's US copyright lapsed in 1929 and was not renewed. The text is freely usable in any context, websites, apps, study materials, derivative works, commercial republication. This makes it (alongside KJV and WEB) one of the few major English translations that can be redistributed without permission or license fee.

See also

  • NASB95, direct modernized descendant; the Codex's default translation
  • WEB, direct modernized descendant; public-domain successor
  • LSB, most-recent descendant in the NASB literalist lineage
  • KJV, predecessor; ASV's English-tradition starting point
  • ESV, distant descendant via RSV (1952)
  • NRSVue, distant descendant via RSV → NRSV → NRSVue
  • NIV, alternative modern translation (different lineage)
  • NKJV, Textus Receptus alternative modernization
  • Bibles, full catalog

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