Personal Background with the NRSV
My experience with the NRSV has been primarily over a decade ago. When I went to seminary in the early nineties, it was the translation in vogue at SBTS. I picked up a hardback/pew copy in the campus bookstore (published by Holman no less!), and often used it in my papers. After taking some introductory language courses, I always found that it was more impressive to create my own translation in papers for biblical studies classes. However, in all other classes, that was practically looked down upon, so I always quoted the NRSV for those papers. I learned early on that since many of my teachers and graders were using the NRSV, my use of it often seemed in general to improve my final grade. I guess I had just enough psychology classes in my undergraduate studies to tweak the system to my own advantage.

Initially, the NRSV gained quite a wide acceptance with Evangelicals. Holman Bibles (the Southern Baptist Convention's Bible publisher) was a launch company along with Zondervan, Thomas Nelson and quite a few others. I even have a purple Life Application Bible in the NRSV! But at some point, the NRSV fell out of favor with Evangelicals. Perhaps disfavor came from it's enthusiastic adoption by non-Evangelical groups and denominations that often tend to lean a bit toward the left theologically, and especially its sponsor, the National Council of Churches. Or perhaps even more likely, the boom in evangelical translations in the last few years (NLT, ESV, TNIV, etc.) simply cut into the now almost two-decade old NRSV market.

Back in the days when I was using the NRSV academically in papers, I was not using it personally that much. This was a time when the NASB remained my top choice, and I viewed it as a superior translation. But I never thought poorly of the NRSV as I often hear in some conservative circles. Granted, some of its translational decisions are not near as conservative as a NASB, ESV, or T/NIV, but I was certainly never one to label it a "liberal" Bible like I sometimes hear. Bruce Metzger was at the head of the translation committee, and he's an individual I respected very much.

Lately, with my studies, I've been doing a lot of work in second-temple period Jewish literature, including what is commonly known as the Apocrypha. Although 90% of this kind of work can be done using Accordance modules (original language texts and translations) as my working source texts, I still sometimes need a physical source in front of me. Frustrated a couple of times because I didn't have an English copy of the Apocrypha in my office (my Parallel Apocrypha is more conveniently kept at home), I decided to pick up one of the new printings of the NRSV with the Apocrypha from Harper Bibles strictly to keep at school. Below is a review of the new edition, but not so much a review of the NRSV.

From Out of Nowhere, the NRSV Makes a Comeback
Surprisingly after ongoing declining sales of the NRSV, Harper Bibles has published three new editions of the of what it is calling "Standard Bibles." All three are hardbacks, although I have to admit this is one of the best looking hardback Bibles I've ever seen. The first Standard Bible contains the regular 66 books of the Bible recognized by most Protestant denominations. A second edition, called "Standard Catholic Edition, Anglicized" (which I can't seem to find on Amazon) includes the standard set of Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal books recognized by the Cathoilic church. However, the thrid edition is the one I bought: the "Standard Bible with Apocrypha." The NRSV itself is known for having the widest reach in the Christian church for books that are recognized as canonical in some form or another. This Bible contains the widest possible selection of books recognized by the church at large. Where else can you get a contemporary translation of 3 & 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151?! Esther is translated in its entirety from both the Hebrew and Greek texts as there are some differences textually besides just the additional passages.

As I mentioned, this Bible boasts a great looking cover. The Harper Bibles page for these editions calls it "leather-like" and that's exactly right. Each Bible is two toned with a material that at first glance at least looks like a kind of leather and is soft to the touch but not padded. Stitching follows the borders of the material. There's also a ribbon marker, something that doesn't always appear in hardback Bibles.

Text is set in a large typeface, probably around 10 or 11 pt. but the website doesn't specify for certain. Although descriptions on the website boast one column text, this is primarily reserved for books that are mostly prose. Poetic books, such as the Psalms are laid out in two columns. As a fan of single-column text, I find the two-column layout in the poetic books to be a detractor. I understand why they did this as the shorter lines of poetic passages leave quite a bit of blank space and no doubt making this Bible one-column throughout would have dramatically increased the number of pages used. But what about books of the Bible that contain both poetry and prose? Well, it's a mixed bag, based, I suppose on which style is in the majority. For instance, Job which begins and ends in prose text, but is poetic in the middle is entirely in two columns. Oddly, Ecclesiastes is in single-column. Isaiah which contains both poetry and prose is in two columns, but Jeremiah is in single-column! Although this Bible is not a thinline, the pages are thin nonetheless allowing for quite a bit of bleedthrough of text from other pages. Page numbering begins fresh with each section. The Old Testament contains 1129 pages; the Apocrypha, 335; and the New Testament, 351. The concordance runs from p. 352 to p. 383 thus making the entire volume almost 1850 pages.

[This paragraph added based on comments.] Another intriguing feature of the NRSV Standard Edition is a lack of full justification for its single-column text which is a rarity in Bibles that use paragraphed text. This helps the reader because non-uniform line lengths help the eyes go down the page when reading, especially when reading aloud. Prose sections in pages that employ two columns of text still use standard full justification.

These are basic text edition without introductions or cross references, but some visual variety is arrived at through graphic symbols at the beginning of each book. Acts, for instance, begins with the symbol of a dove breathing fire, obviously representative of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the second chapter. There's also a concordance in the back, but it's too condensed in my opinion to be overly useful. There are no maps, and there's no room in the margins to include meaningful self-study notes.

These Standard Bibles are very nice hardback editions of the NRSV if you don't already have a copy. And if you don't have a complete copy of the Apocryphal books, the Standard Edition with Apocrypha is the most "complete" collection you can get. Historically, it was common for Protestant Bibles to contain a section for the Apocryphal books, often in a section between the Testaments as this Bible does. This was common practice among Bible printings up until about the end of the 19th century. Luther maintained that while he didn't consider these extra books to be canon, they were good for purposes of edification. Further, I feel one of their greatest contributions is for bridging the 400 year gap between the testaments, both historically and theologically. It's near impossible to fully understand the cultural and political context of Jesus' day without the Apocrypha as well.

Tags: NRSV, Harper Bibles