History of the New American Standard Bible

New Testament, 1963. Reuben A. Olson et al., New American Standard Bible: New Testament. Pilot ed. La Habra, California: [Foundation Press] Produced and published by the Lockman Foundation, 1963.

Bible, 1971. Reuben A. Olson et al., New American Standard Bible. La Habra, California: Foundation Press Publications, publisher for the Lockman Foundation, 1971.

Updated edition, 1995. New American Standard Bible. Anaheim, California: Foundation Publications, 1995.

As its name implies, the New American Standard Bible is a revision of the American Standard Version (1901). It was produced by a company of conservative scholars who wished to provide a literal and conservative revision of the ASV, as an alternative to the Revised Standard Version (1952), which had proven to be unacceptable to conservative churches. Although the NASB revisers were influenced by the RSV's interpretation in many places,⁽¹⁾ overall the NASB is a good deal more literal than the RSV, and thus it preserves the highly literal character that had made the American Standard Version so useful as a translation for close study. Also unlike the RSV, the NASB deliberately interprets the Old Testament from a Christian standpoint, in harmony with the New Testament.

The publication of the New American Standard Bible began with the Gospel of John in 1960, followed by the four Gospels in 1962, the New Testament in 1963, and the entire Bible in 1971. The Greek edition used by the NASB revisers was the 23rd edition of the Nestle text.

The NASB was widely accepted by conservative churches in the years following its publication, but it was often criticized for its awkward and unnatural English. This was mostly a consequence of the version's strict adherence to the idioms of the original languages, whether or not they were natural in English. But in many cases the awkwardness serves no good purpose and is hard to tolerate.

In general, the words of Charles Spurgeon regarding the English Revised Version (the British counterpart of the ASV) might also be said of the NASB — "Strong in Greek, but weak in English." For this reason, many people used the NASB only for reference when doing close study, while using other more "readable" versions for other purposes. The version became a byword for conservative literalism among liberal critics, who often compared the NASB unfavorably with the RSV. ⁽²⁾

For many years the names of the NASB translators and editors were withheld by the publisher. But in 1995 this information was finally disclosed. Below is the list of names posted on the publisher's website in 2002.

Original NASB translators

The 1995 revision

In 1992 the Lockman Foundation commissioned a limited revision of the NASB which was intended to improve its English style by allowing a somewhat less literal approach. The revision was published as the "NASB Updated Edition" in 1995. The revisers were:

Although the Updated Edition is slightly less literal than the original, The NASB continues to be most literal version commonly used in churches today, and the publisher continues to advertise it as such. The following statement found on the publisher's website, ⁽³⁾ expresses the view (shared by many conservatives) that a proper respect for the Word of God should include a respect for and an interest in the smallest verbal details of the text, and a careful awareness of the difference between a translation and an interpretation of the Bible.

"...Ultimately, what separates the New American Standard Bible from the various available versions is that the NASB is a literal word-for-word translation from the original languages. In contrast, the others stress either a loose, personalized paraphrase, or a free-style, thought-for-thought translation known as a dynamic equivalent. Both of these place the highest priority on ease of reading and a lower priority on word-for-word preciseness. While such versions may produce smooth English, the literalness of the Word of God is sacrificed. This has never been an option for the New American Standard Bible."

LITERATURE

• Preface to the New American Standard Bible (1995)
• Armin J. Panning, "The New American Standard Bible, Is This the Answer?" Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly 70 (January 1973). Panning reports the opinions of the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Translation Review Committee, which rendered a largely favorable verdict on the version. The article discusses at length the criteria for a good version, and applies them to the NASB. Theologically sensitive passages are discussed very thoroughly.
• William L. Lane, "The New American Standard Bible--New Testament," Gordon Review 9 (Spring 1966). An unfavorable review of the NASB. Lane states, "When compared with the Revised Standard Version of 1946 it represents no major incidence of revision. To the contrary, its changes represent slight transpositions of word order, or conflation of the renderings in the American Standard Version and the Revised Standard Version, or a straining for an English equivalent to the rendering in the Revised Standard Version."
• Robert G. Bratcher, review of The New American Standard Bible--New Testament, in Eternity 15 (June 1964). An unfavorable review that recommends the RSV instead of the NASB.
• Zane C. Hodges, review of The New American Standard Bible--New Testament, in Bibliotheca Sacra 121 (July 1964).
• Sakae Kubo and Walter Specht, "The New American Standard Bible," chapter 14 of So Many Versions? Twentieth Century English Versions of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), pp. 172-179. A detailed and even-handed review.
• Jack P. Lewis, "The New American Standard Bible," chapter 7 of The English Bible from KJV to NIV (2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), pp. 165-197. A very detailed and hostile review.
• At the publisher's website: A brief history of the Lockman Foundation, a more detailed history giving background information on the NASB, information on the NASB translation principles and translators, and a comparison of the NASB update with the original NASB and with other versions.

NOTES

1. For the influence of the RSV upon the NASB see especially William L. Lane, "The New American Standard Bible--New Testament," Gordon Review 9 (Spring 1966).

2. See, for example, Robert G. Bratcher's criticism in "The New American Standard Bible--New Testament," Eternity 15 (June 1964). Bratcher was the translator for the American Bible Society's paraphrastic Good News Bible.

3. http://www.gospelcom.net/lockman/trans/nasbcmp.htm, accessed 24 October 2002.