(BA) Revised Version

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23 July 2022

The Revised Version or RV of the Bible is an English revision of the KJV which appeared in 1611. Although mostly retaining the older vocabulary and English style of the KJV, it did substantially move the translation in a direction that reflected the scholarly progress that had been made in the over 270 years that had passed since the production of the KJV.

The RV updated a variety of the most difficult English words, corrected some of the mistakes of the KJV translators, and based their New Testament on significant advances in textual criticism that had come to pass since the production of the KJV, which after all had been translated a bit less than a century into the Protestant Reformation, and before anything like modern biblical studies had matured. So from the standpoint of scholarship, it was undoubtedly a step forward.

However, there were a couple of sources of contention. For one thing, it was quickly discovered that many in the English-speaking world had a strong sentimental attachment to the KJV. And even among those in favor of revision, a split had occurred between the American and British committees that were involved in the production of the RV.

The RV was an essentially British project, and the British side of the pond dominated its production. The American side was dissatisfied on a number of points, and a compromise was reached that the British side would make all the final decisions, but would print in each Bible an Appendix containing the most important objections by the American Committee. In exchange, the Americans would not produce a competing product for fourteen years, a term that ran out in 1899.

Almost immediately afterward, the ASV, or American Standard Version was born, with its New Testament appearing in 1900, and its Old Testament in 1901. I think it's fair to say that the ASV was another advance, and more of the further advances after 1901 used the ASV, rather than the RV, as their basis.