The Revised Standard Version

Extract

The publication on 30th September, 1952, simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, of this new edition of the Bible is without a doubt a most important event in the history of English biblical translation.

It is the result of fifteen years’ work by a committee of American scholars, numbering thirty-two in all, assisted by an Advisory Board representing forty Protestant denominations in the United States. Many of the foremost biblical scholars of America have been concerned, and the story of their labours is one of remarkable co-operation between represenatives of almost every shade of Protestant opinion in the land. A Jew was on the committee of the Old Testament side. The New Testament ad been published in 1946, and with it an interesting booklet describing the methods of work and the principles involved. Now the Old Testament has been finished and the Bible published as a whole, but the corresponding book of introduction to the Old Testament was delayed until January, and this is the principal reason for the delayed appearance this review, since it is obviously better to judge a translation in the light of the translators’ own principles, and the committee is to be congratulated on having made this possible.