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 Greek text used to translate the New Testament was 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.

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 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.

Apart from criticisms of the RV's excessive literalism, many Christians denounced the RV as being based on faulty manuscripts, the early murmurings of what would come to be known as the King-James-Only Movement which would gain more momentum after the publication of the Revised Standard Version in 1952.

Because of the RV's perceived loss of linguistic beauty, the King James Version would remain the standard translation of English-speaking Christians until the mid-20th century.

In the United States, the RV was adapted as the Revised Version, Standard American Edition (better known as the American Standard Version) in 1901. It is largely identical to it, with the most readily noticeable difference being the use of the word Jehovah rather than the traditional "the LORD" to represent the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton.

Sources

• Marlowe, Michael D. "English Revised Version (1881-1895)" Retrieved March 22, 2004.
• Hall, Isaac H. (ed.) "History of the English Revised Version (1881)" Retrieved March 22, 2004.
• Palmer, Edwin Palmer, ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1843560232
• Ryken, Leland (2002). The Word of God in English. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN 1-58134-464-3

Notes

• Palmer, Edwin Palmer, ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1843560232

External links

• Digital Facsimile from The DCL.
• HTML version from lookhigher.net
• The text of the RV New Testament online