Published 1901
American Standard Version (ASV)
The American Standard Version is the American counterpart to the English Revised Version (1881–1885). It became the most widely-used scholarly translation of the early 20th century and is the parent text of the RSV, NASB, and WEB.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Translators
An American committee of scholars working in parallel with the British Revised Version committee
Source text
Hebrew Masoretic Text (Old Testament), Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament (1881), with comparison to the KJV.
Language
Late Victorian American English (1901)
Copyright
Public domain — free to read, share, and quote.
History
- 1870 — The Church of England authorizes a revision of the King James Version.
- 1871 — An American committee is invited to participate; their preferred readings are recorded as marginal notes in the British edition.
- 1881–1885 — The British Revised Version is published.
- 1901 — The American committee, freed from the British editorial constraints, releases the American Standard Version with their preferred readings in the main text.
Strengths
- Considered the most literal, word-for-word English translation of its era.
- Foundation text for many later translations, including the RSV (1952), NASB (1971), and WEB (2000).
- Public domain — used freely as the base for modern revisions.
Notes for readers
- Uses the divine name 'Jehovah' throughout the Old Testament where the Hebrew has the Tetragrammaton (יהוה).
- Retains 'thee' and 'thou' for second-person singular pronouns, matching its 1901 publication date.
- Reading level is higher than modern translations; word order often follows the Greek and Hebrew rather than natural English.
Compare with
World English Bible (WEB)
The World English Bible is a freely-distributable, modern-English revision of the ASV. It keeps the literal, formal-equivalence approach of its parent translation while replacing archaic 'thee/thou' language with contemporary speech.
King James Version (KJV)
Commissioned by King James I of England in 1604 and published in 1611, the King James Version (also called the Authorized Version) is the most influential English Bible ever produced. Its rhythms shaped English literature for four centuries.
Bible in Basic English (BBE)
The Bible in Basic English uses a deliberately small vocabulary so that readers with limited English — children, English-as-a-second-language students, and the visually impaired who rely on read-aloud — can follow the whole biblical narrative without stumbling over rare words.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
Robert Young's translation is famous for its extreme literalness: Hebrew and Greek verb tenses are mapped onto English continuous and perfect forms even when the result reads strangely. It is a study Bible, not a devotional one — invaluable for tracing what the original languages actually say.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner Revision) (DRA)
The Douay-Rheims is the historic Catholic English Bible. Translated from the Latin Vulgate by English exiles in France, it predates the King James Version and was the standard Catholic English text for centuries. The widely-read modern form is Bishop Challoner's mid-1700s revision.
Darby Bible (DBY)
John Nelson Darby — the founder of the Plymouth Brethren and an influential dispensationalist — produced a careful, scholarly translation aimed at serious students who could not read the original languages. His footnotes are unusually detailed for a single-translator project.