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Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

Information and Review

From the Forward of the LSB

The Legacy Standard Bible has been produced with the conviction that the words of Scripture as originally penned in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek are the eternal Word of God. The Holy Scriptures speak with authority to each generation, giving wisdom that leads to salvation, that people may serve Christ to the glory of God. Because it is God-breathed (2 Ti 3:16), every word of it is inspired, every word is true, and every word must be conveyed to every nation, tribe, people, and tongue (Rev 7:9), so that every word can be taught and obeyed (Jos 23:14; Mt 28:20; Jn 17:17).

The Legacy Standard Bible is "a direct update the 1995 edition of the NASB." It is a 2024 publication which is "a joint-venture product of The Lockman Foundation (NASB publisher), Three Sixteen Publishing, and the John MacArthur Charitable Trust." Most of information below is from the publisher's website at lsbible.org.

From the publisher description it seems like they wanted to keep the 1995 for its high degree of literal interpretation, and make it even a little bit more literal. The front-material of the Bible discusses translation philosophy in detail and they clearly emphasize representation of the original language as their priority.

In terms of gender handling, the LSB checked against the Colorado Springs Guidelines at 100% compliant, better than the 2020 edition of the NASB and more 'original gender' vs 'gender accurate' than both the NASB 2020 and the ESV. The LSB does use 'Gender accurate' tranlation for some passages.

The LSB brings a few other changes to the 1995 NASB text. First, measures are rendered in their original units with notes providing modern equivalients. For example, Matthew 5:26 says, "...until you have paid up the last ¹quadrans," with the note that a quadran is a Roman copper worth 1/64 of a day's wage. Secondly, the name of God given in the Old Testament (YHWH) is rendered as Yahweh instead using "Lord" with small capitals. This hearkens back to the ASV of 1901 on which the NASB was based, which translated YHWH as Jehovah. Restoring the name of God as given in the manuscripts is a huge improvement, using Yahweh instead of Jehovah is in line with modern scholarship which sees Yahweh as a more accurate translation than Jehovah.

Personally, I am enjoying the LSB. I have done many checks and several comparisons against familar or spot-check verses and have come away satisfied. Many of my test verses comparing the LSB and NASB 1995 were identical. I particularly enjoy the original units of measure and the use of Yahweh. I will be doing a long-term review of this version.

The LSB is available in print from 316publishing.com. I purchased a Giant print hard-cover from Amazon.com. There are also many electronic versions available, including popular options such as e-Sword, Olive Tree, and online at LSBible.org or at Bible Gateway. I did install the free Legacy Standard Bible app. The app is well-done and includes the LSB notes and Greek and Hebrew lexicon references.