ASV Strikes Back

[Georgiadis]

Not the Revised Standard Version. Not the New American Standard. It’s the Refreshed American Standard Version! I may be showing up late to the game but this is the first I’ve heard of it.

rasv.org

Does anyone know who all is behind this? Is it a team of scholars or just an individual? I can’t seem to get a straight answer, which could be a red flag.

Honestly, I never really gave the ASV much thought but the editors of the RASV hold some strong convictions about its usefulness and they’ve got my attention.

Between the old ASV, NASB (‘77, ‘95, 2020), and forthcoming LSB, I’m curious to see what space the refreshed version can fill. Which begs the question: do we need another wooden translation? And I mean “wooden“ in the best possible way. It’s not a “knock” on the translation (see what I did there?). Sorry, just trying to keep the mood light!

 

[Jake]

One distinctive seems to be is that it retains the ASV's use of "Jehovah."

 

[B.L.]

@VictorBravo - I noticed Tom Lyon of Providence Reformed Baptist Church gave an endorsement for the RASV.

Do you by chance know any of the folks behind this translation?

Does anyone know who all is behind this? Is it a team of scholars or just an individual? I can’t seem to get a straight answer, which could be a red flag.

 

[VictorBravo]

@VictorBravo - I noticed Tom Lyon of Providence Reformed Baptist Church gave an endorsement for the RASV.

Do you by chance know any of the folks behind this translation?

EDIT: B.L. I'm very sorry. I went on and on below about the ASV before understanding your question. For what it's worth, I know nothing about the RASV. First time I heard of it was by this post.


(Irrelevant answer to the what I thought the question was follows):

I know it as the ASV. Tom was my pastor for a long time before we moved out to Eastern Washington. I have an ASV as well.

I like the translation overall, but now I prefer the AV (KJV). The translation committee for the ASV had numerous well-respected scholars, and their goal was a formal equivalent translation that retained some of the loftiness of the KJV.

But...there were several Unitarians on the translation committee. I first discovered this when my wife, who had been a Unitarian in her youth, started studying Greek at WRS in Tacoma. She came home one day and said, "did you know that Henry Thayer wrote a prominent Greek lexicon and helped translate the ASV?"

I asked, "who is Henry Thayer?"

She said, "why, he was an influential Unitarian. We used to read his tracts when I was going to that group in my teens."

Tilt...

So I looked into it a bit more, and yes, this was true. He and Abbot were very good Greek scholars, but they didn't believe what they translated.

I do believe the translation remains faithful to the text. But the footnotes bear caution. At least one does. In John 9:38 after the blind man had been healed by Jesus and then cast out, he encounters Jesus again. When Jesus basically told him his was speaking to the Son of God, the blind man worshipped him.

So the footnote says: "The Greek word denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature (as here) or to the Creator."

So it goes....

 

[C. M. Sheffield]

As laudable as the effort may be, I really think it will just find itself among the many translations that are only available online. It will likely only be in print (if at all) in a very limited way. That's not an argument for them not to undertake the effort. It is just the reality of the "Bible market."

 

[Georgiadis]

I do believe the translation remains faithful to the text. But the footnotes bear caution.

@VictorBravo was commenting about the ASV footnotes there and it appears as though the RASV shares this concern to some degree. Although they stated it was for stylistic choices, the footnotes have been greatly reduced. This is from their FAQs page:

rasv.org/faqs

With the goal of increased simplicity and focus on the English text, ASV marginal footnotes have been reduced to mark only those variants significant enough to warrant attention, i.e. where text is omitted, disputed, or deemed theologically sensitive.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

I am not sure another reboot of the ASV is entirely necessary. Bibliotheca "refreshed" the ASV a few years ago. The end product was the ALV.

BIBLIOTHECA

A true reader’s Bible designed for enjoyable, immersive reading, Bibliotheca is an alternative to customary Bibles, without chapter & verse numbers—just the story, spread across multiple volumes designed to be read like novels. Meant solely to reestablish the powerful literary thrust of the grea

www.bibliotheca.co

From their website:

Featuring The American Literary Version, a fresh, scholar-reviewed update of The American Standard Version.

While archaic language has been updated (thou to you, doth to does, etc.), the exceptional accuracy and literary quality of the base translation has been carefully preserved.

 

[Taylor]

In my opinion, “refreshing” this translation defeats its very purpose. Taking away the very specific pronouns renders the ASV useless to me.

 

[Georgiadis]

I am not sure another reboot of the ASV is entirely necessary. Bibliotheca "refreshed" the ASV a few years ago. The end product was the ALV.

This is also the first I’ve heard of the ALV. I wonder if they’ll make it available online. It looks like the multi-volume print option is the only choice. That may be part of the reason the RASV came into being. Interestingly, the ALV actually appears to be more literal than the ASV in some of its renderings according to this site:

Review of the American Literary Version of the Bible

The American Literary Version (ALV) is an update to the American Standard Version (ASV) that was published in 2016 as a part of the Bibliot...

pngboyd.blogspot.com

Perhaps that nudges the ALV towards being a revision more than a refresher. Regardless, it’s nice to hear of a translation getting a more literal update for once!

Taking away the very specific pronouns renders the ASV useless to me.

I know what you mean. It’s something I’ve never understood about modern literal translations. Why remove them? I would think that the thees and thous would be preferred by readers who choose a word-for-word translation. It may sound a little strange in public reading but so does trying to preserve the Hebrew/Greek sentence structure, tense, etc... something which literal translations often pride themselves on.

 

[Ed Walsh]

Does anyone know who all is behind this?

Sorry no. I see they kept their trademark name for GOD as "Jehovah." I have used the ASV off and on for 40 years.

 

[arapahoepark]

I am not sure another reboot of the ASV is entirely necessary. Bibliotheca "refreshed" the ASV a few years ago. The end product was the ALV.

BIBLIOTHECA

A true reader’s Bible designed for enjoyable, immersive reading, Bibliotheca is an alternative to customary Bibles, without chapter & verse numbers—just the story, spread across multiple volumes designed to be read like novels. Meant solely to reestablish the powerful literary thrust of the grea

www.bibliotheca.co

From their website:

Featuring The American Literary Version, a fresh, scholar-reviewed update of The American Standard Version.

While archaic language has been updated (thou to you, doth to does, etc.), the exceptional accuracy and literary quality of the base translation has been carefully preserved.

Thanks for reminding me! Just ordered it.