New Revised Standard Version

As its name suggests, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) descends directly from the King James Version through the Revised Standard Version.

The creation of the NRSV was guided by two chief principles: faithfulness to the ancient Biblical languages, and reverence for the literary and formal tradition begun by the King James Version.

The New Revised Standard Version first appeared in 1989, and has received wide acclaim and support from academics and church leaders, who consider it to be one of the most ecumenical of the modern English translations.

The ecumenical NRSV Bible Translation Committee consists of thirty men and women who are among the top scholars in America today. They come from Protestant denominations, the Roman Catholic church, and the Greek Orthodox Church. The committee also includes a Jewish scholar.

The translators of the New Revised Standard Version accepted the challenge to consider issues of gender-inclusive language, eliminating exclusive language when it could be done without destroying the meaning of the original languages. For this effort, the NRSV has been severely criticized. An edition published by Oxford University Press went even further, and was dubbed the PC Bible.

The RSV was the only major translation in English that included both the standard Protestant canon and the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books that are traditionally used by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Standing in this tradition, the New Revised Standard Version is available in three ecumenical formats: a standard edition with or without the Apocrypha, a Roman Catholic Edition, which has the so-called "Apocryphal" or "Deuterocanonical" books in the Roman Catholic canonical order, and The Common Bible, which includes all books that belong to the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox canons.

For the most part, scholars have considered the New Revised Standard Version to be a success. Demonstrating a high opinion of this version, publishers of the Oxford, Cambridge, and HarperCollins chose the NRSV as the basis of their study editions.

The greatest strength of the New Revised Standard Version is that it achieves a more modern translation that retains a similarity to that of the KJV. It updates the language of the RSV while preserving continuity.

In the beginning when God created F1 the heavens and the earth, -- Genesis 1:1

the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God F2 swept over the face of the waters. -- Genesis 1:2

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. -- John 3:16