Christian History: First American Standard Version Bible comes out on August 26, 1901

Today marks the 117th anniversary of this version of the Bible.

On August 26, 1901, the world's first American Standard Version Bible (ASV) was released.

Today marks the 117th anniversary of the ASV Bible also known as the Revised Version, Standard American Edition of the Bible.

According to Gotquestions.org, it was published by Thomas Nelson & Sons in 1901. The site says it was based on four different versions - the Revised Standard Version (1946–1952/1971), the Amplified Bible (1965), the New American Standard Bible (1963–1971/1995), and the Recovery Version (1999).

 

The release of this version eventually led to Kenneth N. Taylor's Bible paraphrase, The Living Bible, which was published in 1971.

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How ASV works

Gotquestions.org explains: "The ASV relies on the translation method known as formal equivalence or word-for-word translation. The New Testament texts used in the ASV of 1901 were the Westcott-Hort and Tregelles Greek texts. The 2015 edition of the ASV New Testament follows the Nestle-Aland, 28th edition."

What differentiates this particular version is the fact that God (the Tetragrammaton YHWH) is called "Jehovah." This makes it well suited for the Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

Another unique thing is that people are referred to as who and that while the third member of the Trinity is called the Holy Spirit, not the Holy Ghost.