Revised Version
| Revised Version | |
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| Full name: | English Revised Version |
| Abbreviation: | RV (ERV) |
| Translation type: | literal |
| Copyright status: | Public domain |
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. |
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The Revised Version (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. The work was entrusted to over 50 scholars from various denominations in Britain. American scholars were invited to cooperate, by correspondence.[1] The New Testament was published in 1881, the Old Testament in 1885, and the Apocrypha in 1894.[1] The best known of the translation committee members were Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort; their fiercest critic of that period was John William Burgon.
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[edit] Features
The stated aim of the RV's translators was "to adapt King James' version to the present state of the English language without changing the idiom and vocabulary," and "to adapt it to the present standard of Biblical scholarship." Further, it was to be "the best version possible in the nineteenth century, as King James' version was the best which could be made in the seventeenth century." To those ends, the Greek text used to translate the New Testament was believed by some to be of higher reliability than the Textus Receptus used for the KJV. The readings used were compiled from a different text of the Greek Testament by Edwin Palmer.[2]
While the text of the translation itself is widely regarded as excessively literal and flat, the Revised Version is significant in the history of English Bible translation for many reasons. At the time of the RV's publication, the nearly 300-year old King James Version was still the only viable English Bible in Victorian England. The RV, therefore, is regarded as the forerunner of the entire modern translation tradition. And it was considered more accurate than the King James Version in a number of verses.[3]
[edit] New version
The revisers were charged with introducing alterations only if they were deemed necessary to be more accurate and faithful to the Original Greek and Hebrew texts. In the New Testament alone more than 30,000 changes were made, over 5,000 on the basis of what were considered better Greek manuscripts. The work was begun in 1879, with the entire work completed in 1885. (The RV Apocrypha came out in 1895.)[1]
The Revised Version of 1885 was the first post-King James Version modern English Bible at the time to gain popular acceptance;[4] and it was used and quoted favorably by ministers, authors, and theologians in the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as Andrew Murray and Clarence Larkin, in their works. Other important enhancements introduced in the RV include arrangement of the text into paragraphs, printing Old Testament poetry in indented poetic lines (rather than as prose), and the inclusion of marginal notes to alert the reader to variations in wording in ancient manuscripts.
In the United States, the RV was adapted as the "Revised Version, Standard American Edition" (better known as the American Standard Version) in 1901. The American Standard Version is largely identical to the Revised Version, the most readily noticeable difference in the 1901 Version being the use many more times of the word "Jehovah", throughout the Old Testament text, much more so than the Revised Version contains it, rather than the traditional "the LORD" to represent the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Marlowe, Michael D. "English Revised Version (1881-1895)". Retrieved March 22, 2004.
- Hall, Isaac H. (ed.) "History of the English Revised Version (1881)". Retrieved March 22, 2004.
- Palmer, Edwin Palmer, ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1843560232
- Ryken, Leland (2002). The Word of God in English. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN 1-58134-464-3
- Burgon, John William (1883). The Revision Revised. [5]
[edit] Further reading
- Wegner, Paul D. Journey from Texts to Translations, The: The Origin and Development of the Bible, Baker Academic (August 1, 2004), ISBN 978-0801027994 – The Revised Version is described in pages 314ff.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Revised Version - CAMBRIDGE - At the University Press - London: Cambridge University Press, 200 Euston Road, N.W., Synopsis
- ^ Palmer, Edwin, ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament] with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1843560232
- ^ HyperHistory - The Development of Bible Translations
- ^ GREATSITE - English Bible History This English Bible History Article & Timeline is ©2002 by author & editor: John L. Jeffcoat
- ^ Google Books: Revision Revised
[edit] External links
- The text of the RV online
- Look Higher ! - Download the 1885 Revised Version in PDF format
- Prefaces to the English Revised Version (1881-85)
