The
New American Standard Bible (NASB), also informally called
New American Standard Version (NASV), is an
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
.
The
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
was first published in 1963. The complete Bible was published in 1971. The most recent edition of the NASB text was published in 1995. Copyright and trademark to the NASB text are owned by the
Lockman FoundationThe Lockman Foundation was started in 1942 by F. Dewey Lockman and his wife Minna Lockman. It is a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian ministry dedicated to the translation, publication, and distribution of the New American Standard Bible, Amplified Bible, La Biblia de las Américas, Nueva...
.
The NASB was published in the following stages
- Gospel of John (1960)
- The Gospels (1962)
- New Testament (1963)
- Psalms (1968)
- Complete Bible, Old and New Testaments (1971)
- Modified Editions (1972, 1973, 1975, 1977)
- Updated Edition (1995)
The New American Standard Bible is widely regarded as the most literally translated of 20th-century English Bible translations.
The
New American Standard Bible (NASB), also informally called
New American Standard Version (NASV), is an
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
.
The
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
was first published in 1963. The complete Bible was published in 1971. The most recent edition of the NASB text was published in 1995. Copyright and trademark to the NASB text are owned by the
Lockman FoundationThe Lockman Foundation was started in 1942 by F. Dewey Lockman and his wife Minna Lockman. It is a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian ministry dedicated to the translation, publication, and distribution of the New American Standard Bible, Amplified Bible, La Biblia de las Américas, Nueva...
.
The NASB was published in the following stages
- Gospel of John (1960)
- The Gospels (1962)
- New Testament (1963)
- Psalms (1968)
- Complete Bible, Old and New Testaments (1971)
- Modified Editions (1972, 1973, 1975, 1977)
- Updated Edition (1995)
Translation philosophy
The New American Standard Bible is widely regarded as the most literally translated of 20th-century English Bible translations. According to the NASB's preface, the translators had a "Fourfold Aim" in this work:
- These publications shall be true to the original Hebrew
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
, AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
, and GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
.
- They shall be grammatically correct.
- They shall be understandable.
- They shall give the Lord Jesus Christ
Jesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
His proper place, the place which the Word gives Him; therefore, no work will ever be personalized.
As its name implies, the NASB is a revision of the
American Standard VersionThe Revised Version, Standard American Edition of the Bible, more commonly known as the American Standard Version , is a version of the Bible that was released in 1901...
of 1901. This translation was begun as an alternative to the
Revised Standard VersionThe Revised Standard Version is an English translation of the Bible published in the mid-20th century. It traces its history to William Tyndale's New Testament translation of 1525...
(1946–1952/1971), itself a revision of the ASV, but considered by many to be theologically liberal. Using the ASV as its English base, the NASB's translators revised the ASV as literally as possible.
The Hebrew text used for this translation was the third edition of Rudolf Kittel's
Biblia HebraicaBiblia Hebraica is a Latin phrase meaning Hebrew Bible. It is traditionally used as a title for printed editions of the Tanakh ....
, as well as the
Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea scrolls consist of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Qumran Wadi near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.The texts are of great...
. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia was consulted for the 1995 revision. For Greek, Eberhard Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece was used; the 23rd edition in the 1971 original, and the 26th in the 1995 revision.
Seeing the need for a literal, modern translation of the English Bible, the translators sought to produce a contemporary English Bible while maintaining a word-for-word translation style. In cases where word-for-word literalness was determined to be unacceptable for modern readers, changes were made in the direction of more current
idiomAn idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has figurative meaning — its implication comprehended only through common use; whereas the literal definition of the idiom, itself, does not communicate its meaning as a figurative usage.In linguistics, idioms are usually presumed to be figures of...
s. In such instances, the more literal renderings were indicated in footnotes.
The greatest perceived strength of the NASB is its reliability and fidelity to the original languages, which, along with other literal translations, also allows for ambiguities in the text's meaning. Its corresponding weakness is that its readability and literary style sometimes prove confusing to the average reader. In addition, its printing of verses as individual units instead of paragraphs makes the text appear fragmented (though more recent editions are available in paragraph format).
Updated NASB (1995)
In 1992, the Lockman Foundation commissioned a limited revision of the NASB. In 1995, the Lockman Foundation reissued the NASB text as the
NASB Updated Edition (more commonly, the
Updated NASB or
NASB95). Since then, it has become widely known as simply the "NASB", supplanting the 1977 text in current printings, save for a few (Thompson Chain Reference Bibles, Open Bibles, Key Word Study Bibles, et al).
In the updated NASB, consideration was given to the latest available manuscripts with an emphasis on determining the best Greek text. Primarily, the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece is closely followed. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is also employed together with the most recent light from
lexicographyLexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
, cognate languages, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The updated NASB represents recommended revisions and refinements, and incorporates thorough research based on current English usage.
VocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
,
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
, and sentence structure were meticulously revised for greater understanding and smoother reading, hence increasing clarity and
readability- In reading, writing and typography :Readability is defined as reading ease, especially as it results from a writing style. Extensive research has shown that easy-reading text improves comprehension, retention, reading speed, and reading persistence...
. Nonmodern English terms such as "thy" and "thou" have been modernized, while verses with difficult word ordering are restructured. Punctuation and paragraphing have been formatted for modernization, and verbs with multiple meanings have been updated to better account for their contextual usage.
Translators
The revised NASB (1995) involved over 20 translators from a variety of denominational backgrounds who are conservative Bible scholars with doctorates in biblical languages, theology, or other advanced degrees.
Sources
*Marlowe, Michael D. (Oct 2002).
"New American Standard Bible". Retrieved March 19, 2005.
External links