Revised Version

The Revised Version, sometimes English Revised Version, abbreviated RV, is a revision of the King James Bible translation. She came out 1881-1895 in three parts. The revision was done in several working groups and consisted of a total of about 50 clergy and scholars. The King James Bible of 1611, which is officially known as the Authorized Version (AV) has been revised here for the first time after 270 years. There were two points need for revision. First, the Greek text was outdated, which was the old King James is based. Second, the previous form of translation to be maintained as far as possible, but errors become incomprehensible formulations and possible misunderstandings are freed.

The establishment of audit and principles

The new revision began with a synod of the Province of Canterbury in February 1870 and the plan was introduced in both houses of the province. In May, two appointment committees for the Old and New Testament were formed, which recorded the work in June. The inclusion of American scholars has been decided, two additional groups were formed in America to work with the two English groups.

The basic decision of the Assembly in May 1870 in Canterbury included the following points:

The principles of the Appeal Committee by May 25, 1870 were as follows:

The American working groups submitted their proposals, which were included in the considerations, and agreed. Not recorded changes proposed by the American groups are printed at the end of the Old and New Testaments. There was an agreement with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge because of the copyright, which included a provision for the costs incurred by the printing costs. This had the advantage that the publication of the same corporations happened, who were responsible for the AV even before.

The textual basis

The old textual basis the Authorised Version was based on the New Testament nor the faulty readings of the Textus Receptus Greek text of the first editions, in individual cases, on the Latin Vulgate. Decisive for the source text were probably the later editions of Stephanus and Beza and the Complutensische polyglot. Among the scholars existed long agreed that the Textus Receptus ( recieved text ) needed a thorough revision. In the years before the revision of new textual evidence from the Alexandrian text-type came to light. The Bible text got a new and broader basis. The publication of these witnesses brought not only new text editions of the New Testament with him, but also intensive discussions and new approaches to the rules for distinguishing the readings. A revision of the Greek text was necessary as a basis of the translation. Brooke Foss Westcott for many years and Fenton John Anthony Hort were busy preparing a new text output. They were both members of the working groups of the revision and brought their text suggestions. The rule " The text for which outweigh the evidence" made ​​it possible to follow the evidence documented to have to follow without a special printed text output and therefore to avail the best resource for text-critical decisions. At the decisions involved different directions: one part was the Textus Receptus maintained as a basis, some wanted the shorter version of the text according to the Alexandrian text type, such as is found in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. The working groups discussed and decided in the first steps on the textual basis. It was possible from either side of a full discussion of each reading demand and these possibilities have been used extensively. The readings were decided under Rule five in the first phase by a simple majority, then discussed again in the second phase and adopted or rejected by a two -thirds majority. However, there are many places where there could be no clear decision in favor of an interpretation under perfect exclusion of the other. These posts have been included in the marginal notes. It was noted "some ancient authorities" or "many ancient authorities" to see the breadth of support and " authorities" included not only Greek textual witnesses, but also the ancient translations and the Church Fathers. But it was not enough, they make a note in margin text, therefore, subject to this text was also printed entirely in a text output.

For the Old Testament, it remained in the Masoretic text as the basis, at some points supplemented by the Septuagint. The Apocrypha could be supplemented and improved by the inclusion of additional manuscripts.

Special features of the translation

The basic rule for the revision was to introduce as little as possible amendment from the AV. The task was a revision not a new translation. Changes occurred in five categories. First changes that were required by the amended text basis. 2 Changes in places where the AV appeared incorrectly or where it was chosen the less likely playing in doubt. 3 changes of unklarern or ambiguous renderings into those that are clear and distinct. 4 changes where the AV was unbalanced with itself in passages that are similar or parallel. This relates to the Parellstellen the Gospels, but also in the Old Testament the same formulation are unified by the same Übersetuzung. In the same formulations were not translated differently. 5 changes that were necessary in the sequence and that would not have been necessary according to the rule of adherence to the text, for example to avoid unwanted alliteration or Wortdoppelungen. In the language was largely dispensed with the elimination of archaisms, also to changes in the peculiar word order of the AV. Was dispensed changes also when, although a majority of them advocated, but a two-thirds majority was not achieved. Quotes from the poetic books was set in metrical form, as well as the hymns in Luke's Gospel. The punctuation has been reinforced by more and more punctuation marks were used to support the reading ( heavier system of stopping ). Overall, the text translation was closer, but lost some of the previous linguistic expressiveness. The ancient personal pronouns acting as thy and thee remained.

Apocrypha

After the completion of the NT, the members of the working groups worked until 1895 in the Apocrypha on, however, the American labor groups were about no longer involved. The group was divided into three committees in London, Westminster and Cambridge, edited several books each. The drafts were presented to the other groups. By way of derogation from the Old and New Testament, the decisions were taken by a simple majority in the Apocrypha.

American Edition

According to the Revised Version completion the U.S. working groups continued to work on the improvement of the text, the hope of a second improved edition with improvements in the direction specified in Annex proposals did not come to conditions. The working groups finally came out in 1901, the American Standard Version (ASV ), which is also called the American Revised Version or Standard American Edition. It is similar to the RV, but the statements made by the American working groups, but in the RV has not accepted, and set in the Annex proposals have been put into the official text. In the Old Testament, deviating from the AV and RV Jehovah instead of playing LORD in capitals for the name of God. In addition, the grammar and spelling was slightly modernized, the system of reinforced punctuation was reversed.