Revised Version - New Version

New Version

The revisers were charged with introducing alterations only if they were deemed necessary to be more accurate and faithful to the Original Greek and Hebrew texts. In the New Testament alone more than 30,000 changes were made, over 5,000 on the basis of what were considered better Greek manuscripts. The work was begun in 1879, with the entire work completed in 1885. (The RV Apocrypha came out in 1895.)

The Revised Version of 1885 was the first post-King James Version modern English Bible at the time to gain popular acceptance; and it was used and quoted favorably by ministers, authors, and theologians in the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as Andrew Murray and Clarence Larkin, in their works. 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. In its Apocrypha, the Revised Version became the first printed edition in English to offer the complete text of Second Esdras, inasmuch as damage to one 9th century manuscript had caused 70 verses to be omitted from previous editions and printed versions, including the King James Version.

In the United States, the RV was adapted as the "Revised Version, Standard American Edition" (better known as the American Standard Version) in 1901. The American Standard Version is largely identical to the Revised Version, the most readily noticeable difference in the 1901 Version being the use many more times of the word "Jehovah", throughout the Old Testament text, much more so than the Revised Version contains it, rather than the traditional "the LORD" to represent the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton.