“It attempts to reverse the historic trend in translation history from the 19th and 20th centuries in which some Christian communities and scholars of the Bible were historically excluded from the translation endeavors of our English Bibles.”
Bob Buller, director of SBL Press, said the new version also reflects “thorough and professional copy editing” that removed outdated aspects of the language and made other improvements.
“For example, the NRSV lowercased the names of some Jewish holidays and holy days, such as Passover, Sabbath and Festival of Unleavened Bread,” he said. “This could be interpreted as a sign of disrespect for these Jewish holy days, so we capitalized them just as we would for other religious communities.”
He noted the new edition does not use the word “girl” when referring to a young woman. Mark 14:69 now speaks of a “female servant” instead of a “servant-girl.”
Over two years, seven general editors and 56 book editors used Dropbox, track changes and other tools to organize their rationales for proposed revisions. They held 76 two-hour meetings about the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and the Apocryphal/deuterocanonical books, frequently used by Catholic and Orthodox communities, before a final review of their recommendations. The NCC governing board approved the NRSVue in October.
“When we embarked on this journey our goal was to bring forth research for which Bible scholars hold a consensus,” Jim Winkler, NCC president, said in a statement. “This update with its attention to accuracy and clarity has far exceeded our highest expectations.”
The new version is expected to be released by publishers on or after May 1, 2022. Friendship Press, a subsidiary of NCC, plans to make an e-Bible of the new version available on its Word@Hand app before Christmas 2021.
This article originally appeared here.
