American Revision Committee

American Standard Version of the Holy Bible

Published by Thomas Nelson & Sons in 1901, the American Standard Version is an influential English translation of the Bible. One of its distinguishing features is its frequent use of “Jehovah” for the divine name represented by the Hebrew Tetragrammaton. This differs from translations such as the King James Version, which generally substitutes “LORD”.

The ASV developed from the nineteenth-century project that produced Britain’s Revised Version, itself a revision of the 1611 King James Bible. American scholars were invited to participate in 1870, and Philip Schaff subsequently organised a group of 30 contributors drawn from several Protestant denominations and traditions. Their work began in 1872. The Revised Version’s New Testament appeared in 1881 and its Old Testament in 1885, while the American edition was completed and published later.

The translation became an important foundation for subsequent English Bibles. Works influenced by or developed from it include the Revised Standard Version, Amplified Bible, New American Standard Bible, Recovery Version and World English Bible. It also contributed to the textual foundation used by Kenneth N. Taylor when preparing The Living Bible.

In 1928, the International Council of Religious Education acquired the ASV copyright from Thomas Nelson & Sons and renewed it the following year. The ASV has since entered the public domain in the United States. This edition is provided as a historical and educational resource in the form in which its source text was obtained.