Church History · 1952

The Revised Standard Version

In 1952 the National Council of Churches released the Revised Standard Version, a modern English update of the American Standard Version. Its use of young woman in Isaiah 7:14 sparked one of the biggest Bible fights of the century.

Read it in the Bible: Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 1:22 to 23 Luke 1:26 to 35

The Revised Standard Version, or RSV, is an English Bible that came out in full on September 30, 1952. It was a careful update of the American Standard Version of 1901, which was itself a revision of the King James. The RSV was one of the first big Bibles to drop thee and thou for everyday speech, except when people talk to God. It sold millions of copies. It also started a fight over one word in Isaiah 7:14 that still shapes how Christians judge new Bibles today.

Why Was the RSV Made?

By the 1930s the King James was over 300 years old, and the American Standard Version was very stiff. Scholars also had older Greek manuscripts than the King James translators ever saw. So the International Council of Religious Education, which later became part of the National Council of Churches, hired a team of scholars to revise the ASV. The chairman was Luther Weigle of Yale Divinity School.

The New Testament came out in 1946. The whole Bible followed in 1952. Some readings in Isaiah drew on the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which had just been found in 1947. That made the RSV one of the first Bibles to use them.

What Was the Isaiah 7:14 Controversy?

Here is how the verse reads in The Owner's Manual.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

The RSV changed virgin to young woman. The Hebrew word is almah. Scholars on the RSV team said almah means a young woman of marrying age, and that Hebrew has a different word, betulah, for virgin. They kept virgin in Matthew 1:23, where the Greek word parthenos clearly means virgin.

Many conservative Christians were alarmed. They argued that almah is never used in the Bible for a married woman, that the Jewish translators of the Septuagint chose parthenos, meaning virgin, about 200 years before Jesus, and that Matthew quotes Isaiah to prove the virgin birth. To them, young woman looked like a quiet attack on Jesus.

Feelings ran hot. On November 30, 1952, a pastor in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, named Luther Hux burned the page with Isaiah 7:14 during a church service. He said he was burning the error, not the Bible. Others called the RSV a Communist Bible, which was a serious charge in the 1950s. In 1960 an Air Force training manual repeated that charge, and it was pulled after protests. The claim was never backed up.

Both Sides of the Debate

To be fair to the RSV team, most of them believed in the virgin birth. They were trying to translate what Isaiah's Hebrew word meant in Isaiah's own day, when the sign also spoke to King Ahaz. Many modern scholars still agree that almah means young woman.

The traditional view is that Isaiah's prophecy looked ahead to Jesus, and that virgin is the right word because Matthew, guided by the Holy Spirit, says so. Matthew writes it plainly.

“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” which means, “God with us”. Matthew 1:23

Since then, many Christians use Isaiah 7:14 as a quick test for any new Bible. Flip to Isaiah 7, check one word, and decide. It is a bit like judging a restaurant by its fries. Not perfect, but people do it.

What Did the RSV Lead To?

The RSV had a long family tree.

1957: An edition with the Apocrypha came out.
1965 and 1966: A Catholic edition was approved, so Catholics and Protestants could share one English Bible.
1971: A second edition of the New Testament was released.
1989: The New Revised Standard Version, or NRSV, replaced it. The NRSV became a favorite in many seminaries and mainline churches. It was also the first major Bible to use gender inclusive language, which drew new criticism.
2001: Crossway took the 1971 RSV text and revised it into the English Standard Version. The ESV put virgin back in Isaiah 7:14, and it became one of the most popular Bibles among evangelicals.
2021: An updated edition of the NRSV, called the NRSVue, was released.

So in a funny twist, the Bible many conservatives burned in 1952 became the parent of one of the most loved conservative Bibles of the 2000s. God has a sense of humor.

Why Does the RSV Matter for You Today?

The RSV fight taught the church that translation choices matter. One word can change how a reader sees a prophecy. That is why the Messianic Prophecies list on this site connects Isaiah 7:14 straight to Matthew 1:23, so you can see the promise and its fulfillment side by side.

It also reminds us to be calm. Translators are human, and so are their critics. The best answer is to do what the Bereans did, compare and check. You can open several translations on this site and read Isaiah 7:14 for yourself. However you settle the word, the sign still points to the same Person. God with us.

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Questions People Ask

When did the Revised Standard Version come out?

The RSV New Testament was published in 1946 and the complete Bible on September 30, 1952. An edition with the Apocrypha followed in 1957, and a Catholic edition in 1965 and 1966.

Why did people burn the RSV?

Many conservatives were upset that it translated Isaiah 7:14 as young woman instead of virgin. They saw it as an attack on the virgin birth. A North Carolina pastor famously burned that page in a 1952 service.

Does almah mean virgin or young woman?

Almah means a young woman of marrying age, and in the Bible it is never used for a married woman. Many scholars translate it young woman. The traditional view, backed by the Septuagint and Matthew 1:23, translates it virgin.

Is the ESV based on the RSV?

Yes. Crossway revised the 1971 edition of the RSV to create the English Standard Version in 2001, changing about 8 percent of the text and restoring virgin in Isaiah 7:14.

Sources

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