BSN: The New American Standard Bible (NASB)

NASB stands for the “New American Standard Bible” whose copyright is owned by The Lockman Foundation. Unless otherwise specified, all Bible quotations in this book are from this translation. And unless otherwise specified, all my NASB quotations are from the 1995 version.
NASB – New American Standard Bible, which is the generally recognized as the most literal of all English translations; three editions (1977, 1995, and 2020) are currently in circulation, the only major notable difference between them is that the 1977 version retains the “Thee’s” and “Thou’s” of the King James Version (1611).
The purpose of this translation was to keep current a Bible that used American English rather than British English.
NASB Features –
- ALL CAPS (or “small caps” as the NASB preface calls them) in the New Testament are the NASB translators’ indication that the Old Testament is being quoted. The cross reference system in the NASB gives you the specific chapter and verse from which the quotation comes.
- Paragraphs indicated in many NASB Bibles by the conventional sign for a paragraph ¶ (a pilcrow) or by bold printing the verse number or even by the conventional manner of indenting the first sentence of a new paragraph.
- “Immorality in the NASB NT”
- Improvements that could be made to the NASB

Note the Foreword of the NASB

The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.
Is 40:8

If you will check out the foreword of your NASB, you will see that it quotes this verse. That the translators and/or the leadership of the Lockman Foundation chose to lead their preliminary or “front matter,” as its called in the publishing industry, with this verse says a lot about what they thought of the words they were translating. Alas, lots of people have translated the Bible who didn’t feel this way – and it shows in their work. Nevertheless, there are many good English translations. For one to be best, however, it must be better than the NASB and that’s not going to be easy.

Literal is best because you don’t want translators telling you what the Bible means – you want them telling you what it says. That’s what these folks made their goal. God bless them!

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