National Council of Churches USA - New Revised Standard Version Updated Bible : With Deuterocanonical and Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament

Contains the Old and New Testaments and the Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament About This Product New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition eBible Copyright 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. e-ISBN: 978-1-7330759-4-7 Published by Friendship Press, Inc. 2021, 110 Maryland Avenue, NE, Suite 108, Washington, DC, 20002-5605 www.FriendshipPress.org Table of Contents National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USASociety of Biblical LiteratureFrom the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA Motivated by love and respect for Scripture, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) hopes that you will find this New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) suitable to inspire, inform, and guide daily living. The goal of the NRSVue is to offer a readable and accurate version of the Holy Bible to the global English-speaking community for public worship and personal study, for scholarship and study in classrooms, and for informing faith and action in response to God.

Together with religious leaders from diverse communities of faith, we join in the conviction that the Scriptures offer good news of Gods lovewisdom to guide, hope to sustain, truth to empower, forgiveness to change, and peace to bless all of creation. The NRSVue extends the New Revised Standard Versions (NRSV) purpose to deliver an accurate, readable, up-to-date, and inclusive version of the Bible. It also continues the work of offering a version as free as possible from the gender bias inherent in the English language, which can obscure earlier oral and written renditions. The NRSVue, like the NRSV, follows in the tradition of the King James Bible, [introducing] such changes as are warranted on the basis of accuracy, clarity, euphony, and current English usage,... as literal as possible, as free as necessary (NRSVs preface To the Reader). As also stated in the NRSV preface, the Bibles message must not be disguised in phrases that are no longer clear or hidden under words that have changed or lost their meaning; it must be presented in language that is direct and plain and meaningful to people today.

Why an Update? The NRSV has been called the most accurate of English-language translations, based on the available manuscript evidence, textual analysis, and philological understanding. In the more than thirty years since its first publication, hundreds of ancient manuscripts have been studied in exacting detail. The NRSVue is informed by the results of this research. Laboring through this material has deepened scholarly insight into Jewish and Christian sacred texts and advanced understanding of ancient languages. With new textual evidence, historical insights, and philological understandings (which include exploring the meanings of ancient texts in light of the cultures that produced them), the NRSVue brings greater precision in interpreting Scripture today. The goal of these practices has been to translate the ancient texts as accurately as possible while reflecting the cultural differences across time and conditions.

Such a translation approach permitted the Editorial Committee to present the text as literally as possible and as freely as necessary. The Update Process The current updating process involves scores of scholars and leaders from multiple faith communities, inclusive of gender and ethnic identities, with the unwavering goal to render an accurate version of original source texts into the most current understandings of contemporary language and culture. It is for this reason, too, that the NCC commissioned the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), the leading international association of biblical scholars, to review and update the NRSV. The SBLs mandate and process were single-mindedly intended to ensure the currency and integrity of the NRSVue as the most up-to-date and reliable Bible for use and study in English-language religious communities and educational institutions. A Final Word Since its beginnings in the early 1950s, the NCC has supported the work of scholars who dedicate their lives to the study of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Likewise, the NCCs steadfast aim has been to encourage readers to study the Scriptures so they will be inspired and informed in their faithful action to love God with their hearts, souls, minds, and strength and to love each other as God loves.

The communions of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA have undertaken this work as a sacred trust. From the Society of Biblical Literature Purpose of the Revision First published in 1611, the King James Version slowly but steadily attained a well-deserved stature as the English languages Authorized Version of the Scriptures. At the same time, the scholarly foundation that produced the King James Version shifted as new manuscripts came to light and philological understandings improved. As a result of these scholarly advances, the Revised Standard Version was authorized to improve the translation, based on more evidence of the original texts and early translations of the Bible, the meanings of its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, as well as ancient translations into Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian Greek, Syriac, and Latin), and changes to the English language itself. The forty years between the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version likewise witnessed many developments in biblical scholarship, textual criticism, linguistics, and philology. The same has occurred over the last thirty years, including the publication of all the biblical texts discovered near the Dead Sea, and these developments warrant this update.

As with its predecessors, the NRSVue can claim a well-known line from the 1611 preface to the King James Version: We never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation... but to make a good one better. The National Council of Churches, which holds the copyright of the New Revised Standard Version, commissioned the Society of Biblical Literature to direct the NRSVue revision project thirty years after its original publication. The editors of this edition encourage readers to read the excellent prefaces to both the Revised Standard Version (1952) and the New Revised Standard Version (1989); some elements of the latter have been incorporated herein. This preface also outlines the process of the update and the mandate under which it was conducted. Process of the Revision The review managed by the Society of Biblical Literature included seven general editors and fifty-six book editors, with several general editors serving also as book editors.

The general editors were divided into three teams: Old Testament (also known as the Hebrew Scriptures), Apocrypha (also known as the Deuterocanon), and the New Testament. In addition to the seven general editors, the National Council of Churches appointed two members of its Bible Translation and Utilization Advisory Committee to serve as liaisons to the committee of general editors appointed by the Society of Biblical Literature. Three members of the Societys staff participated in and managed the project. Beginning in 2017, each book of the Bible was assigned to one or more book editors. Over the course of two years (20182019), the book editors submitted their proposed updates to the general editors. Each of the three teams of general editors met at least once a month for two years (20192020) to review and discuss the proposed updates submitted by the book editors.