Draft:Revised Version Improved and Corrected (RVIC)

The Revised Version Improved and Corrected (RVIC) is an English translation of the Bible published in 2020 by the Pastoral Bible Institute and produced as an update and improvement of the American Standard Version (1901). Since the Revised Versions were published (British 1885, American 1901), hundreds of "New Testament Greek manuscripts" have been published, as well as the Old Testament Dead Sea Scrolls. The RVIC is based on the oldest (and most reliable) manuscripts. It differs from other revised versions in that it footnotes additional specific manuscript evidence with alternate translations of important words and phrases. The RVIC is intended as a translation to serve the devotional and scholarly needs of the range of Christian religious adherents, independent of the theology of the reviser.

Appendices are included on the Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament manuscripts, and how to evaluate their testimony. Other appendices explain translation, and how other English translations objectively compare for accuracy based on the same 209 proof texts. More than 11,000 footnotes show where translation is necessarily either more ambiguous or more specific than the Hebrew or Greek from which it is translated.

History
The Revised Version Improved and Corrected (RVIC) was revised from the American Standard Version (ASV, 1901) by Associated Bible Student scholar J.B Parkinson. Other Bible Students made recommendations and proofread the RVIC for accuracy.

The Old Testament translation of the ASV was completed before the Dead Sea Scrolls were available to scholars. The New Testament translation of the RVIC has taken advantage of the hundreds of manuscripts that have been published since 1901. The RVIC summarizes manuscript evidence in footnotes, as well as advances in Biblical archeology. Important Hebrew and Greek words are translated somewhat more consistently.

Features
To achieve the best translation, it is good to start with one of the best and then improve upon it. The Revised Version of the Bible (RV, 1885) was a good translation, and the American Revised Version (ARV) revised it to become a very good translation. Copyrighted, it became known as the American Standard Version (ASV, 1901). Since then, many Bible manuscripts have been published, which enables a slight but significant improvement on the ASV. The book "Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts" discusses some of these manuscripts. The Old Testament Dead Sea Scrolls (beginning 1947) are about ten centuries older than the previous standard Hebrew text of the Leningrad manuscript (Leningrad Codex). For the New Testament, 3rd century manuscripts were published: The Chester Beatty Papyri in the 1930s, the Bodmer Papyri ca. 1960, and the dozens of Oxyrhynchus Papyri published throughout the 20th century, as well as others.

Other translations have endeavored to utilize the manuscript evidence, while bringing the language more up to date: The Revised Standard Version (RSV, 1952) took a step backwards in accuracy (add a footnote reason), while the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV, 1989) took another step backwards (add a footnote reason), while the English Standard Version (ESV, 2001) regained most of what had been lost. The New American Standard Bible (NASB, 1971) translators, displeased with the RSV, independently revised the ASV without sacrificing its overall accuracy. The "English Bible Overview" chart originally from the evangelicalbible.com website shows the progression from the most accurate translations in the upper left corner to less accurate versions moving to the right. (It may be noted that each subsequent edition of the NASB - 1977 and 1995 - has progressively lost a little accuracy).

The Revised Version Improved and Corrected (RVIC, 2020) endeavors to maximize accuracy by starting with the ARV (ASV), comparing with the manuscript evidence, with the Old Testament Hebrew Massoretic text, Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient versions (translations), or with the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (GNT, 1st to 5th editions) and the good ancient versions. The quantity of manuscripts for a given reading is less important than the number of quality manuscripts for a different reading. The reliability of N.T. manuscripts (and early versions) is shown in a 43-page Appendix, and also a tutorial on how to understand and use their evidence. In footnotes, less-reliable manuscripts (and early versions) are shown in progressively-smaller type-face; so even an inexperienced reader may easily evaluate the evidence for each reading. RVIC departures from the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament, 5th edition are few but result from greater reliance on manuscripts than on “exegetical considerations” (e.g., see Bruce M. Metzger, “A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd edn., p. 502, for 1Cor. 15:49). E.g., 1Cor. 15:51, 1Peter 3:18. Greater strictness with verb-tenses and literal meanings may be seen in translation of passages such as Matt. 5:32, John 1:18, Rev. 22:12.

RVIC does the translation before the theology, leaving readers to discuss the meaning. It also endeavors to translate important words more consistently. Possible alternate translations are given in the footnotes, as are several discoveries of Biblical archaeology and historical records.

Revisions
The RVIC was first published in 2016 (in limited quantities)and minor mistakes were found and corrected. A revised (and current) edition was published in 2020 (1000 copies).