Revised Version 1895

[Maral Mende]

TheRevised Version (RV) or English Revised Version (ERV) of the Bible is a late-19th-century British revision of the King James Version. It was the first (and remains the only) officially authorised and recognised revision of the King James Version in Great Britain. The work was entrusted to over 50 scholars from various denominations in Great Britain. American scholars were invited to co-operate, by correspondence.[1] Its New Testament was published in 1881, its Old Testament in 1885, and its Apocrypha in 1894.[1] The best known of the translation committee members were Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort; their fiercest critics of that period were John William Burgon, George Washington Moon, and George Saintsbury.

The New Testament revision company was commissioned in 1870 by the convocation of Canterbury.[2] Their stated aim 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." To those ends, the Greek text that was used to translate the New Testament was believed by most to be of higher reliability than the Textus Receptus. The readings used by the revisers were compiled into a new edition of the Greek Testament by Edwin Palmer.[3]

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 the main Protestant English Bible in Victorian England. The RV, therefore, is regarded as the forerunner of the entire modern translation tradition. It was also considered more accurate than the King James Version in a number of verses.[citation needed]

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 1894.)[1]

In the United States, the Revised Version was adapted and revised as the "Revised Version, Standard American Edition" (the American Standard Version) in 1901. The American Standard Version is largely identical to the 1885 Revised Version, with minor variations in wording considered to be slightly more accurate. One noticeable difference is the much more frequent use of the form "Jehovah" in the Old Testament of the American Standard Version, rather than "the LORD" that is used more so in the 1885 Revised Version, to represent the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton.

The American Standard Version was the basis for many revisions in the first hundred years after it was released. The RV itself has never been the basis for any revision except for the American Standard Version and the Apocrypha in the Revised Standard Version.

As the Revised Version is out of copyright worldwide, it is widely available online and in digital and e-reader formats (although it is significantly less popular than the KJV or the ASV in this manner). However, interest in the 1885 Revised Version has grown in recent years due to the internet, for general research and reference, and study of history of English Bible translations.[7] It is sparsely available in printed published form today, with only Cambridge University Press publishing it in the form of a KJV/RV interlinear.

Old Testament 1885. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the original tongues : being the version set forth A.D. 1611 compared with the most ancient authorities and revised. Oxford: University Press, 1885. 4 vols.

The revisers were not appointed to prepare an interlinear translation for incompetent schoolboys, but to remove acknowledged blemishes from a noble version. In conclusion we reiterate our disappointment with this Revised Version as a whole. It will remain a monument of the industry of its authors and a treasury of their opinions and erudition; but, unless we are entirely mistaken, until its English has undergone thorough revision it will not supplant the Authorised Version. After all, the chief use of the present attempt will be as a work of reference in which the grammatical niceties of the New Testament diction are treated with laboured fidelity. 2

Along the same lines, the influential Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon compared it unfavorably with the King James Verison:With regard to the Revised New Testament, in answer to many enquiries we are only able to go thus far. It is a valuable addition to our versions, but it will need much revision before it will be fit for public use. To translate well, the knowledge of two languages is needed: the men of the New Testament company are strong in Greek, but weak in English. Comparing the two, in our judgment the old version is the better. 3

The Revisers were not ignorant of English, of course; but they believed that literal accuracy was more important than English style. In a book defending the Revised Version against the charge of excessive literalism and pedantry, Brooke Foss Westcott explains:

5. Difficulties and differences of opinion necessarily arise in determining the relative claims of faithfulness and elegance of idiom when they come into conflict. But the example of the Authorised Version seems to show that it is better to incur the charge of harshness, than to sacrifice a peculiarity of language, which, if it does nothing else, arrests attention, and reminds the reader that there is something in the words which is held to be more precious than the music of a familiar rhythm. The Bible, indeed, has most happily enriched our language with many turns of Hebrew idiom, and I believe that the Revision of the New Testament does not contain anything unusual either in expression or in order which is not justified by the Old Version. 4

The parallel Bible. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: being the Authorized Version arranged in parallel columns with the Revised Version. Cambridge: The University Press, 1885.

The Holy Bible Two-version edition: being the Authorised version with the differences of the Revised version printed in the margins so that both texts can be read from the same page. Oxford University Press, 1899.

Geoffrey Cumberlege, ed., The Interlinear Bible: The Authorised Version and the Revised Version, Together with the Marginal Notes of Both Versions and Central References. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1906. A convenient comparison of the ERV with the KJV.

Frederick Field, Notes on the Translation of the New Testament, Being the Otium Norvicense (Pars Tertia) by the late Frederick Field, Reprinted with Additions by the Author. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1899.

Isaac H. Hall, ed., The Revised New Testament and History of Revision, giving a literal reprint of the Authorized English Edition of the Revised New Testament, with a brief history of the origin and transmission of the New Testament Scriptures, and of its many versions and revisions that have been made, also a complete history of this last great combined movement of the best scholarship of the world; with reasons for the effort; advantages gained; sketches of the eminent men engaged upon it, etc., etc. prepared under the direction of Professor Isaac H. Hall, LL.B.; Ph. D. Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers; Atlanta: C.R. Blackall & Co.; New York: A.L. Bancroft & Co., 1881.

Henry Ierson, Notes on the Amended English Bible, with Special Reference to Certain Texts in the Revised Version of the Old and New Testaments Bearing upon the Principles of Unitarian Christianity. London: British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 1887.

F.H.A. Scrivener, ed., The Parallel New Testament, Greek and English: The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Being the Authorized Version Set Forth in 1611, Arranged in Parallel Columns with the Revised Version of 1881 and with the orginal Greek According to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version, with the Variations Adopted in the Revised Version. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1882.

The Revised Version (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. The New Testament was published in 1881, the Old Testament in 1885, and the Apocrypha in 1894. 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.

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 corrupted Greek text used to translate the New Testament was falsely 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.

Most modern version supporters claim that no doctrines are affected by the changes of modern versions, George Vance Smith was a Unitarian scholar who worked on the RV translation committee and wrote a book explaining that the new RV readings favor Unitarian doctrines. He called it: Texts and margins of the revised New Testament: affecting theological doctrine briefly reviewed. Hort insisted that a Unitarian serve on the Revision Committee of the RV New Testament.

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 corrupt modern translation tradition. 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.

3a8082e126