We were perusing the preface to the 1971 RSV Bible the other day and were struck at how much the RSV translators (like the ESV translators) placed their work in the Tyndale-King James translation line.
The King James Version has with good reason been termed “the noblest monument of English prose.” Its revisers in 1881 expressed admiration for “its simplicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression … the music of it cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm.” It entered, as no other book has, into the making of the personal character and the public institutions of the English-speaking peoples. We owe to it an incalculable debt.
Is a New Translation Necessary?
The translators also had to consider whether a new translation (after the ASV of 1901) was even necessary:
The Council appointed a committee of scholars to have charge of the text of the American Standard Version and to undertake inquiry as to whether further revision was necessary. For more than two years the Committee worked upon the problem of whether or not revision should be undertaken; and if so, what should be its nature and extent. In the end the decision was reached that there is need for a thorough revision of the version of 1901, which will stay as close to the Tyndale-King James tradition as it can in the light of our present knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek texts and their meaning on the one hand, and our present understanding of English on the other.
Restoring “the LORD” to the text
The RSV translators discuss why they restored “the LORD” of the KJV from “Jehovah” of the ASV:
A major departure from the practice of the American Standard Version is the rendering of the Divine Name, the “Tetragrammaton.” The American Standard Version used the term “Jehovah”; the King James Version had employed this in four places, but everywhere else, except in three cases where it was employed as part of a proper name, used the English word Lord (or in certain cases God) printed in capitals. The present revision returns to the procedure of the King James Version, which follows the precedent of the ancient Greek and Latin translators and the long established practice in the reading of the Hebrew scriptures in the synagogue.
The Bible is a Living Book
Finally, the RSV translators recognized the literary, historical, and spiritual importance of the Bible:
The Bible is more than a historical document to be preserved. And it is more than a classic of English literature to be cherished and admired. It is a record of God’s dealing with men, of God’s revelation of Himself and His will…. The Bible carries its full message, not to those who regard it simply as a heritage of the past or praise its literary style, but to those who read it that they may discern and understand God’s Word to men. That Word must not be disguised in phrases that are no longer clear, or hidden under words that have changed or lost their meaning. It must stand forth in language that is direct and plain and meaningful to people today.
Copyrights
The preface also makes an allusion to the “unhappy experience” of copyrights with the first revision of the KJV, the English Revised Version (RV). According to Wikipedia, some Bible publishers decided to incorporate textual suggestions from American scholars into the text of the RV. People who read the RV therefore couldn’t tell whether the Bible they were reading was really the RV the translators intended. Therefore, the ASV (1901) became the first major Bible translation to be copyrighted in the U.S.
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