The New American Standard Bible (NASB) 1971, 1977, 1995
I have been using the 1995 edition of the NASB since Feb of 1999, and my wife has been using her 1977 edition since 1986. During the seven years that we were members of the parent church of our Bible college, the NASB was the most commonly used version by the pastor and staff and was strongly recommended. This is noteworthy because Tyndale places a very large emphasis in original languages.
My personal comfort with the NASB undoubtably came from the fact that the NASB reads very much like the King James which I grew up with. I believe this version is very similar to the KJV because both are literal translations, but also because I believe that the NASB was translated with an attitude of conformity to the King James. I qualify this by two factors. First, 'Thy,' Thee,' and 'Thou' were retained in the 1977 edition when referring to God, and secondly, all the verses (or verse portions) which are included in the KJV, but generally excluded from Critical Text Bibles are included (in brackets with translation notes) in the NASB. This is a greatly appretiated feature, and one that makes me quite confident using the NASB.
Text Used
This is a Critical Text translation using the 3rd edition of Kittel's Biblia Hebraica for the Old Testament, and 26th edition of Eberhard Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece for the New Testament.
The Scholarship of the NASB
The NASB represents a 12-year (1959-1971) project with 58 Translators with doctorates in Biblical languages, representing 20 colleges and seminaries, including Wheaton College, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, Bob Jones University, and others. Translators who worked on the 1977, 1995, and 2020 editions are listed on the NASB website (Lockman.org).
The translators come from American Baptist, Southern Baptist, General Association of Regular Baptist, Independent Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Free Methodist, Disciples, Nazarene, Congregational, and other denominations. All support the philosophy of literal translation and the inerrancy of
Scripture, and the Lockman Foundation's fundamental doctrinal statement (below).
It is incidental that I was able to meet one of the translators of the 1995 and 2020 versions, Dr. Paul Enns, Th.M. Th.D. at The Fundamentals for the Twenty-First Century, a two-day symposium (published as a book by the same name) reaffirming the "Fundamentals" of conservative christianity where he taught on the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
Trust: The NASB Publisher's Doctrinal Statement
All Translators of the NASB have agreed to the following Doctrinal Statement:
We believe that the entire Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God; the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
We believe in the sacrificial and vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and that He thereby made perfect substitutionary atonement for the sin of the world. We believe in His literal physical resurrection from the dead.
We believe in the literal, bodily, physical, and premillennial return of Jesus Christ.
We believe that all people are sinners and in an eternally lost condition apart from the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe that acceptance into the family of God and eternal salvation can only be secured by believing in and by faith accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Sin-bearer, Lord and Savior.
NASB 2020 Edition
To date, I have not reviewed the 2020 version. Information from the publisher (Lockman Foundation) states that the 2020 update stays "Gender-accurate," but the new version replaces the generic male pronoun with modern grammatical form. See the detailed Lockman article on NASB 2020 gender renderings. I don't like this trend in translations, but I understand it. Both my trust of the Lockman Foundation and the detailed explanations provided in the linked article make me optimistic about the 2020 update.
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