Help please - Bible translations approved for Anglican/Episcopal liturgy

MJ. Smith

I've found the following - can anyone add to my list. I want to make and share collections of liturgically approved translation by denomination and region. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Epsicopal: USA

1. Authorized (King James) Version (1611)
2. Revised English Version (1881) [English Standard Version]
3. Revised American Version (1901) [American Standard Version]
4. Revised Standard Version (1952)
5. Jerusalem Bible (1966)
6. New English Bible and Apocrypha (1970)
7. R.S.V. Common Bible (1973)
8. New International Version (1978)
9. New Jerusalem Bible (1987)
10. Revised English Bible (1989)
11. New Revised Standard Version (1989)
12. The Message (2002)
13. Common English Bible (2011)
14. Contemporary English Version (1995)
15. Contemporary English Version Global (2005)
16. English Standard Version (2001)

Anglican Church of Canada

Permitted:

1. New Jerusalem 1985
2. New International Version 1978
3. Today's English Version (Good News) 1976
4. New American Bible 1970
5. Revised Standard Version 1952
6. King James (Authorized Version) 1611

Excluded:

1. The Living Bible
2. J.B. Philips
3. Barclay
4. Cotton Patch
5. Jerusalem Bible 1966
6. New English Bible (1961)
7. Readers Digest Bible

Church of England


1. The Authorized Version or King James Bible (AV), published in 1611, of which a Revised Version was published in 1881-5
2. The Revised Standard Version (RSV), originally published in the USA in 1952
3. The New International Version (NIV), copyrighted 1973-1984
4. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), published in 1985
5. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), an inclusivized revision of the RSV, published in an anglicized version in 1989
6. The Revised English Bible (REB), published in 1989
7. The English Standard Version (ESV), published in 2002

Dan Francis

I have never been in a Anglican Church in Canada that has not been using the NRSV (the one I am not sure of since it was a BCP so KJV was roughly the translation in the CP.

-Dan

KJ Niblett

I'm surprised that the episcopal church allows the message as an approved translation.

Alan Macgregor

MJ. Smith said:

Church of England


1. The Authorized Version or King James Bible (AV), published in 1611, of which a Revised Version was published in 1881-5
2. The Revised Standard Version (RSV), originally published in the USA in 1952
3. The New International Version (NIV), copyrighted 1973-1984
4. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), published in 1985
5. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), an inclusivized revision of the RSV, published in an anglicized version in 1989
6. The Revised English Bible (REB), published in 1989
7. The English Standard Version (ESV), published in 2002

I think you'll find that the Church of England also approved the New English Bible (NEB) in 1970, since they were among the churches involved in instigating its production and were actively involved in every stage of its production. This is taken from the Preface:

"In May 1946 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland received an overture from the Presbytery of Stirling and Dunblane, where it had been initiated by the Reverend G. S. Hendry, recommending that a translation of the Bible be made in the language of the present day, inasmuch as the language of the Authorised Version, already archaic when it was made, had now become even more definitely archaic and less generally understood. The General Assembly resolved to make an approach to other Churches, and, as a result, delegates of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational Churches met in conference in October. They recommended that the work should be undertaken; that a completely new translation should be made, rather than a revision, such as had earlier been contemplated by the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge; and that the translators should be free to employ a contemporary idiom rather than reproduce the traditional ‘biblical’ English. …

Since January 1948 the Joint Committee has met regularly twice a year in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey, with four exceptions during 1954–5 when the Langham Room in the precincts of the Abbey was kindly made available. …

The Committee has warmly appreciated the courteous hospitality of the Dean of Westminster and of the Trustees of the Central Hall. We owe a great debt to the support and the experienced counsel of the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. We recognise gratefully the service rendered to the enterprise by the Reverend Dr G. S. Hendry and the Reverend Professor J. K. S. Reid, who have successively held the office of Secretary to the Committee. To those who have borne special responsibility, as Chairmen of the Joint Committee, we owe more than could readily be told. Dr J. W. Hunkin, Bishop of Truro, our first Chairman, brought to the work an exuberant vigour and initiative without which the formidable project might hardly have got off the ground at all. On his lamented death in 1950 he was succeeded by Dr A. T. P. Williams, then Bishop of Durham and subsequently Bishop of Winchester, who for eighteen years guided our enterprise with judicious wisdom, tact, and benign firmness, but who to our sorrow died when the end of the task was in sight. To both of these we would put on record the gratitude of the Committee and of all engaged in the enterprise." (Bold and italicised type added.)

Every blessing

Alan

Gillian Barr

I would double- check The Message as being approved for TEC. It was included in a list in a GC resolution but I thought it had been struck off befoee the resolution was approved. What is your source for its inclusion?

The Rev. Gillian R. Barr 

Providence, RI

Gillian Barr

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/586915#Comment_586915

Here is the official list for The Episcopal Church:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/bible

King James or Authorized Version (the historic Bible of The Episcopal Church)

English Revision (1881)

American Revision (1901)

Revised Standard Version (1952)

Jerusalem Bible (1966)

New English Bible with the Apocrypha (1970)

Good News Bible / Today's English Version (1976)

New American Bible (1970)

Revised Standard Version, an Ecumenical Edition (1973)

New International Version (1978)

New Jerusalem Bible (1987)

Revised English Bible (1989)

New Revised Standard Version (1990)

Gillian

The Rev. Gillian Barr

Providence   RI

 

Dan Francis

QUOTE"

I’ve heard the Bible read from a number of different translations (and, on Pentecost for the Acts lesson, even in several languages simultaneously). What is perhaps not well known is that we have in the Anglican Church of Canada a“List of Bible Versions Approved by the House of Bishops for Use in Public Worship in the Anglican Church of Canada, on Recommendation from the Doctrine and Worship Committee.”  Last revised in 1991, the list approves these translations:

• New Revised Standard Version
• Revised English Bible
• King James (Authorized Version)
• Revised Standard Version (and its revision as Common Bible)
• New American Bible
• Today’s English Version (Good News)
• New International Version
• New Jerusalem

"UNQUOTE --http://thecommunity.anglican.ca/liturgy/1539/reading-the-bible-in-church/

The website does have discussions of other newer translations too.

-Dan

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/586973#Comment_586973

Thank you very much for the help. Not only have you corrected my lists, you given me some of the key words to use for other Anglican churches and to identify reliable sources of information.

Ken McGuire

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/587010#Comment_587010

You mean those red volumes of Lectionary for the Christian People (some minor tweeks of the RSV) that I still have from the 1980's are not approved?  Where they approved then?

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/592437#Comment_592437

Ken, I'm sorry to say that I don't know and it's rather difficult to find out. Approved translations by year doesn't appear to have been a doctoral thesis.[:(]

SineNomine

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/592437#Comment_592437

Ken McGuire said:

You mean those red volumes of Lectionary for the Christian People (some minor tweeks of the RSV) that I still have from the 1980's are not approved?  Where they approved then?

Might there be some such indication in the front matter of those volumes? (This is normally the case for Catholic liturgical books, so perhaps also Anglican ones?)