Changes in the Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition

by John Larocque

February, 2011

This document lists variants in various Roman Catholic editions of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. In 1966, a Catholic version of the 1957 RSV was published, which included the Deteurocanonical books (originally prepared for the Episcopal Church in 1957) and several dozen changes to the basic text of the New Testament brought forward by Catholic scholars. As a result of this, the RSV began making inroads in Catholic circles, and later, in 1977, in Eastern Orthodox circles, with the inclusion of 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151 to the RSV Apocrypha/Deteurocanonicals.

The version of the book of Tobit used by the RSV Apocrypha (as well as the Orthodox Study Bible) is the shorter Alexandrinus and Vaticanus text, as opposed to the longer Greek form of the text, critically constructed from Codex Sinaiticus (corrected by Qumran), which forms the backbone of the version used in the NRSV. Both textual families of Tobit are presented side by side in the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS).

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the RSV-CE as a result of Catholics looking for alternatives to existing English language versions currently used in liturgical settings (New American Bible, New Jerusalem, New Revised Standard Version). And more recently, modified Catholic versions of the 1971 RSV (RSV -2nd Catholic Edition or RSV-2CE) have appeared.

I. Changes introduced in RSV-CE (1965)

We reproduce here Appendix 2 of the first edition of the New Testament, RSV Catholic Edition (1965), which purports to list all changes made by the Catholic editors.

List of Changes in the Revised Standard Version New Testament for the Catholic Edition

In 1978, the Vatican published the Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate), a revision of the traditional Vulgate text that brings it in line with the Greek text published in the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland. As a result, many readings are no longer in the official Latin Bible used by the Roman Catholic Church. Five of these deleted traditional Vulgate readings were included in the original RSV-CE of 1965.

a) Changes in the RSV-CE consistent with the 1978 Nova Vulgata:

• Mat 1:19 reads 'send her away' (NASB 'send her away', NRSV 'dismiss her') for 'divorce her'
• 'brothers' reads 'brethren' in Mat 12:46-49, Mat 13:55, Mark 3:31-34, Luke 8:19-21, 1 Cor 9:5
• Mat 21:43-44 restores verse 44 to the main text: 'it (43) And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one, it will crush him."'
• Longer ending of Mark (Mark 16:9-20) was moved from footnote to main text. The RSV-CE reading was adopted by RSV1971.
• Luke 1:28 reads 'full of grace' for 'O favored one' (AVm 'full of grace', ERVm 'endowed with grace')
• Luke 8:43 read 'twelve years and had spent all her living upon physicians,' for 'twelve years'
• The following Western non-interpolations were moved from footnote to main text in Luke 24:6, Luke 24:12, Luke 24:36, Luke 24:40, Luke 24:52. These changes were not adopted by RSV1971, but have since been adopted by ESV and NRSV.
• Two additional Western non-interpolations, Luke 22:19b-20 and Luke 24:51 were restored in both RSV-CE and RSV1971, as well as ESV and NRSV. Luke 24:3 was not restored in RSV-CE, and is absent in any version of the RSV or NRSV, but has since been restored in ESV.
• Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) was moved from footnote to main text. The RSV-CE reading was adopted by RSV1971.
• Rom 5:5, Rom 8:11, Eph 1:13-14 reads 'Spirit who' for 'Spirit which', a reading also adopted by ESV, NASB and NKJV.
• Rom 9:5 reads 'Christ, who is God over all, blessed' for 'Christ. God who is over all be blessed'. ESV has since adopted the RSV-CE wording, while NASB reflects AV, 'Christ, who is over all, God blessed'.
• 1 Cor 3:9 reads 'God's fellow workers' for 'fellow workers for God'. The RSV-CE reading was adopted by RSV1971.
• 1 Cor 4:6 reads 'to not go beyond what is written' for 'to live according to scripture'. The RSV-CE reading was adopted by RSV1971.
• 1 Th 4:4 reads 'control his own body' for 'take a wife for himself'. ESV and NRSV have adopted the RSV-CE wording, while NASB reflects AV, 'possess his own vessel'. The RSV-CE reading is adopted by in-print editions of RSV-2CE (Ignatius, Scepter), although online versions of RSV-2CE retain the RSV1971 reading.
• Heb 11:19 reads 'hence he did receive him back and this was a symbol' for 'figuratively speaking, he did receive him back'. The RSV-CE reading is adopted by in-print editions of RSV-2CE (Ignatius, Scepter), although online versions of RSV-2CE retain the RSV1971 reading.

b) Changes not consistent with the 1978 Nova Vulgata:

• Mat 19:9 appends at end of verse, '; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery'
• Mat 27:24 reads 'righteous man's blood' for 'man's blood'
• Mark 9:29 reads 'prayer and fasting' for 'prayer'
• Mark 10:24 reads 'for those who trust in riches to enter' for 'to enter' (Sceptre edition erroneously reads 'for those who have riches to enter')
• Mark 13:33 reads 'watch and pray' for 'watch'

II RSV-CE Second Editions

In recent years, the RSV-CE has been republished as the Ignatius Bible first edition, as well as the Reader's version. Various second editions (RSV-2CE), incorporating RSV1971 readings are also available. There are also two online variants of the RSV-2CE:

• http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/biblesearch.asp
• http://jmom.honlam.org/rsvce/

For comparison, the University of Michigan carries the original RSV1971.

The following editions are modified versions of the RSV1971, each incorporating the RSV-CE changes from 1965 against the RSV1971 text: Scepter, Oxford Press Compacts, My Daily Catholic Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, Oxford Catholic Comparative New Testament. In a handful of cases, readings have been changed back to RSV1952.

The Ignatius Bible 2nd edition is a hybrid text, updating only a few dozen readings from the RSV1971, while retaining many of the original readings from RSV1952. Like the ESV, it also removed most of the archaic language and introduced many readings peculiar to that edition. For example, 'behold' and 'baby' were used for 'lo' and 'babe' in the NT, and 'mercy' and 'donkey' used throughout the OT for 'steadfast love' and 'ass'. From a stylistic standpoint, the Ignatius 2nd edition is the closest thing in the Catholic publishing world to the English Standard Version.

a) Restorations of the RSV1952 text

These are common across nearly all the various second editions.

• Acts 20:28: 'church of God' (RSV1952, UBS3, WH) for 'church of the Lord' (RSV1971, ERVm)
• 1 Cor 6:9 'homosexuals' (RSV1952, NASB) for 'sexual perverts' (RSV1971). The ESV reads 'men who practice homosexuality' while the NRSV reads 'sodomites'.
• 1 Th 4:3 'immorality' (RSV1952, NASB) for 'unchastity' (RSV1971). The ESV reads 'sexual immorality' while the NRSV reads 'fornication'.
• James 2:7 'by which you are called (RSV1952) for 'which was invoked over you' (RSV1971, NRSV 'that was invoked over you'). The ESV reads 'by which you were called', while NASB 'by which you have been called'.
• Luke 22:43-44 is in the main text of RSV1952 but as a footnote in RSV1971. These verses are also in the main text of ESV, NASB and NRSV (with double brackets) as well as several online versions of the RSV:2CE, but not Ignatius or Scepter: 'And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. (44) And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling upon the ground.'

b) Uncorrected RSV1952 readings

• Mat 19:5-6, 1 Cor 6:16: 'one' (RSV1952, Ignatius) for 'one flesh' (RSV1971, RSV1952m, Scepter)
• Luke 12:39 'would have been awake and would not have' (RSV1952, Ignatius) for 'would not have' (RSV1971, Scepter)
• Luke 23.42: 'in your kingly power' (RSV1952, Ignatius, with footnote: Greek 'kingdom') for 'into your kingdom' (RSV1971, Scepter).
• John 2:3 'failed' (RSV1952, Ignatius) for 'gave out' (RSV1971, Scepter). All online versions (including University of Michigan RSV1971) carry the RSV1952 reading.
• John 5:18 'his father' (RSV1952, Ignatius) for 'his own father' (RSV1971, Scepter). All online versions (including University of Michigan RSV1971) carry the RSV1952 reading.
• Heb 13:13 'bearing abuse for him' (RSV1952, Ignatius, Scepter) for 'and bear the abuse he endured' (RSV1971)
• James 2.7 'that honorable name' (RSV1952, Ignatius) for 'the honorable name' (RSV1971, Scepter). All online versions (including University of Michigan RSV1971) carry the RSV1952 reading.

There are various versions of Eph 5:32:

• RSV1952: 'This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ and the church'
• RSV-CE/Ignatius: 'This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church'
• RSV1971: 'This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church'
• Scepter: 'This mystery is a profound one, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church'

There are various versions of Phil 2:5:

• RSV1952: 'you have in Christ Jesus'
• RSV-CE/Ignatius/Scepter: 'was in Christ Jesus'
• RSV1971 and online: 'is yours in Christ Jesus'

Numerous other RSV1952 readings from the RSV-CE were left unchanged in the Ignatius Bible 2nd edition. A complete list is here:

• http://web.archive.org/web/20071218022237/umsis.miami.edu/~medmunds/RSVCEdiff.htm
• http://web.archive.org/web/20071226212019/umsis.miami.edu/~medmunds/ScepterChangesC.htm

c) New Testament variants peculiar to the Ignatius Bible 2nd Edition

• Matthew 16:18: 'gates of Hades' (footnote 'powers of death') from 'powers of death' (footnote 'gates of Hades'). NASB and ESV ('gates of hell') support traditional wording.
• 'cup' reads 'chalice' (Latin, 'caLicem') in Mat 20:22-23, 26.27, 26.39, Mark 10:38-39, 14:23, 14:36, Luke 22:17, 22:20, 22:42, John 18:11, 1 Cor 11:25-26
• Mark 14:63 'clothes' (Ignatius 2nd) for 'mantle' (RSV1952, Ignatius 1st) or 'garments (RSV1971)
• Luke 6:12: 'out to the hills' (Ignatius 2nd) for 'into the hills' (RSV1952, Ignatius 1st) or 'to the mountain' (RSV1971)
• John 3:16: 'only-begotten Son' (AV, ERV, NASB) from 'only Son' (RSV, ESV and NRSV)
• Acts 8:3: uppercase 'Church'
• Gal 4:27: 'with labor pains' for 'in travail'
• 1 John 5:16-17 'deadly sin' from 'mortal sin'

Yet, other passages have been left alone, such as the rendering of Matt 16:19 (and Matt 18:18) in the future perfect as opposed to the future. The RSV reads, 'whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' The AV and ASV renders the passage, 'whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,' an interpretation consistent with all versions of the Vulgate as well as the Douay-Rheims.

Heb 11:1 in the RSV (and ESV/NRSV/NASB) follows Martin Luther in reading 'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' Here the RSV carries forward the main reading of the ASV, of which it is an update. The traditional reading, found in the AV and Douay-Rheims (and the Vulgate) is 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' (ERVm 'Now faith is the giving substance to [things] hoped for, the proving of things not seen.') Pope Benedict XVI expounded on the traditional Catholic translation of the passage in "Spe Salvi".

To Luther, who was not particularly fond of the Letter to the Hebrews, the concept of “substance”, in the context of his view of faith, meant nothing. For this reason he understood the term hypostasis/substance not in the objective sense (of a reality present within us), but in the subjective sense, as an expression of an interior attitude, and so, naturally, he also had to understand the term argumentum as a disposition of the subject. In the twentieth century this interpretation became prevalent—at least in Germany—in Catholic exegesis too, so that the ecumenical translation into German of the New Testament, approved by the Bishops, reads as follows: Glaube aber ist: Feststehen in dem, was man erhofft, Überzeugtsein von dem, was man nicht sieht (faith is: standing firm in what one hopes, being convinced of what one does not see). This in itself is not incorrect, but it is not the meaning of the text, because the Greek term used (elenchos) does not have the subjective sense of “conviction” but the objective sense of “proof”. Rightly, therefore, recent Protestant exegesis has arrived at a different interpretation: “Yet there can be no question but that this classical Protestant understanding is untenable” [H. Köster in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament VIII (1972), p.586]. Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a “proof” of the things that are still unseen.

d) Old Testament variants peculiar to the Ignatius 2nd Edition

• Exodus 15:13: 'merciful love" for 'steadfast love'
• Isaiah 7:14: LXX 'virgin' from 'young woman'
• Psalm 8:5: LXX 'little less than the angels' from 'little less than God'
• Song Sol. 2:10: 'Arise, my love, my dove, my fair one, and come away' from 'Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away'
• Song Sol. 2:12: 'time of pruning' from 'time of singing'
• Psalms 2:12: LXX 'rejoice' ('kiss his feet' moved to footnotes)
• Psalms 110:3: 'Yours is dominion...' from 'Your people will offer themselves freely...'
• Psalms 110:3: '...in holy splendor..." (1959/1971 translation 'upon the holy mountain' footnoted)
• Psalms 110:3: '...I begot you." (1959/1971 translation 'like dew your youth will come to you.' footnoted)

Verses added back into the text in the Ignatius Bible Second Catholic Edition:

• Sirach 24:20b, 'and my remembrance lasts throughout all generations.' This verse is only in the Ignatius Second Edition and the Douay-Rheims and is not even footnoted in the other editions.
• Sirach 1:5, 1:7

Below we reproduce in full the Introduction of the Catholic Edition of the RSV New Testament published in 1965.

Introduction to the New Testament

This edition of the New Testament from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible has been prepared for the use of Catholics by a committee of the Catholic Biblical Association of Great Britain. It is published with ecclesiastical approval and by agreement with the Standard Bible Committee and the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

The Revised Standard Version itself needs no lengthy introduction, being already well known and widely read. It is "an authorized version of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version, published in 1611" (Preface to RSV). In Britain the King James Version is more commonly called the Authorized Version. It occupies a unique place in English Biblical and indeed literary tradition. The Standard Bible of 1901 was the work of an American committee revising it in the light of modern textual criticism. In 1937 it was decided to make a revision of the Standard Version which should "embody the best results of modern scholarship as to the meaning of the Scriptures and express this meaning in English diction which is designed for use in public and private worship and preserves those qualities which have given to the King James Version a supreme place in English literature." The New Testament in this new version was published in 1946 and the whole Bible in 1952.

The remarkable success which attended the new revision on its appearance seems to be ample justification of the revisers' aims and it has been acclaimed on all sides as a translation which combines accuracy and clarity of meaning with beauty of language and traditional diction.

For four hundred years, following upon the great upheaval of the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants have gone their separate ways and suspected each other's translations of the Bible of having been in some way manipulated in the interests of doctrinal presuppositions. It must be admitted that these suppositions were not always without foundation. At the present time, however, the sciences of textual criticism and philology, not to mention others, have made such great advances that the bible text used by translators is substantially the same for all — Protestants and Catholics alike. Thus, for example, Catholics no longer make their translations from the Latin Vulgate; though it is arguable that before the development of textual criticism it was in certain respects a better way of making a translation than to make it from late and in some places corrupt Greek manuscripts as was done by some of the Reformers. Today, and indeed since the appearance in 1943 of the Encyclical Letter "Divino Afflante Spiritu" encouraging Biblical studies, Catholics like everyone else go back to the original languages and base their translations on the same critical principles.

Although twenty years have passed since the Encyclical Letter first appeared, there is still no Catholic translation of the whole Bible from the original languages available to English-speaking readers, though at least two are well on the way to completion. It was in fact with a view to filling this rather obvious gap in the shortest possible time that some Catholic scholars considered the possibility of so editing the Revised Standard Version, on its appearance in 1952, as to make it acceptable to Catholic readers.

Following up these advances in Biblical knowledge comes the great improvement in relations between the Christian Churches of which we are witnesses at the present time and which is not without its influence in still further narrowing the margin of difference between Bible translations. This is not to say that all differences have disappeared. There is frequently more than one way of translating a word or phrase with the critical evidence for each interpretation fairly evenly balanced. In such cases each man will translate according to his background and training. Thus a Roman Catholic might and indeed usually would give more weight to a reading or an interpretation which was traditional in his Church.

With the improvement in inter-denominational relations and the advance of Bible knowledge, the possibility of producing a Bible common to all Christians was mooted as far back as 1953. It was felt that if such a thing could be achieved, it would be of incalculable benefit in wiping away remaining misconceptions and prejudices and in fostering still further good relations between the churches. The Word of God would then be our common heritage and unifying link not only in theory but also in fact, and those engaged in theological discussion could appeal to the same authoritative text. This objective could be achieved in the quickest and most practical way by editing the Revised Standard Version for Catholic use. It would also provide Catholics with a complete version of the Bible from the original languages.

A small committee of members of the Catholic Biblical Association was formed and permission obtained to examine this translation and suggest any changes that might be required to make it acceptable to Catholics. The Standard Bible Committee of the U.S.A. was then approached and they gave a warm welcome to the proposal. Here was a wonderful opportunity to make a real step forward in the field of ecumenical relations. However, ideas of this kind take time to penetrate all levels and many difficulties and delays ensued. But a change of mind has taken place and what seemed to many in 1953 to be a novel idea of doubtful value, or even of no value at all, is now generally recognized to be a legitimate and desirable goal.

In the present edition the aim has been to make the minimum number of alterations and to change only what seemed absolutely necessary in the light of Catholic tradition. It has not been the aim to improve the translation as such. There are some places, however, where, the critical evidence being evenly balanced, considerations of Catholic tradition have favored a particular rendering or the inclusion of a passage omitted by the RSV translators.

The thanks of Catholics are due to their Bishops who have approved this edition and to the American Standard Bible Committee, who have throughout given and unfailing and generous support in spite of difficulties and delays.

May this edition of the New Testament contribute both to the increase in knowledge of God's word and to better understanding between Christians according to the mind of our Savior, who prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one" (Jn. 17.11).