The New American Standard Bible, 2020 Update (NASB)
Overview
The New American Standard Bible (NASB), long considered a favorite study Bible by serious students of the Scriptures. Since its completion in 1971, the New American Standard Bible has been widely embraced as the gold standard among word-for-word translations. Millions trust the NASB and discover what the original text says, word for word. Over the past several years, the Lockman Foundation has been overseeing a new update to the NASB text, commonly referred to as NASB 2020.
Going verse by verse, every aspect of vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and meaning was carefully reviewed in the update process. These refinements maintain faithful accuracy to the original texts and provide a clear understanding of God’s Word through updated English. The NASB has been produced with the conviction that the words of Scripture as originally penned in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek were inspired by God and will speak with fresh power to every generation.
The NASB strives to adhere as closely as possible to the original manuscripts and to make a translation that is both fluent and readable according to current English usage.
Be sure to also pick up the The New American Standard Bible, 2020 Update (NASB) Reverse Interlinear.
- Provides a formal rendering of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
- Features the latest update of the NASB 1995 that further improves accuracy where possible, modernizes language, and improves readability
- Consistently uses the formal equivalence translation philosophy
Most Highlighted Verses in New American Standard Bible
Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person.
Genesis 2:16–17: The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Exodus 34:6–7: Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Proverbs 1:7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Matthew 5:16: Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
Romans 1:16–17: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”
Galatians 2:20–21: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
2 Timothy 3:15–17: and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
Revelation 1:3: Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Among many other adjustments to the previous edition, the New American Standard Bible, 2020 Update (NASB) translators worked to include gender accuracy—meaning, the NASB 2020 clearly identifies which genders the biblical authors had in mind when writing their manuscripts. For example, readers will notice words like "man" have been changed to "human" "or person," or "brethren" to "brothers and sisters" when referring to mixed audiences:
Galatians 1:11 NASB 1995 – "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man."
Galatians 1:11 NASB 2020 – "For I would have you know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel which was preached by me is not of human invention."
Here's an example of what some of these changes look like in Proverbs 17:19:
NASB 1995: He who loves transgression loves strife; he who raises his door seeks destruction.
NASB 2020: One who loves wrongdoing loves strife; one who makes his doorway high seeks destruction.
The translation team made a few other subtle changes, like:
- Dropping the word "begotten" from John 1:18 and John 3:16
- Bolding verse numbers at beginnings of paragraphs
- Italicizing words supplied by the translators
- Contracting instances of "let us" to "let's" when one or more group members propose a collective action
- Moving most bracketed verses to footnotes
- Using italics to emphasize words that aren't in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek
- Capitalizing personal pronouns for deity, as well as the word "Law" when referring to the Mosaic Law
- Using small caps when the Old Testament is quoted or a reference is made to Old Testament texts
- And more
These updates improve readability and clarity of translation and will help current and future generations follow what the original writers were communicating. Overall, these and many more changes make the NASB much easier to read and follow while retaining the accuracy of what the original writers intended.
- Title: New American Standard Bible
- Publisher: Lockman Foundation
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › English
- Resource ID: LLS:NASB2020
- Resource Type: Bible
- Metadata Last Updated: 2021-07-12T17:51:42Z
Reviews
44 ratings
Don Kemper
3/15/2024
Joseph Luna
12/23/2023
The update went too far, took the place of man and made into persons; 'brothers and sisters" was unnecessary since a footnote would have solved the issue of distinction. It changed strong words like iniquity and transgression for a softer word "wrongdoing." On the long run, it watered the great NASB 1995 into nothing but a translation for the neophyte. As always, it will go down the bottom of the list with the horrible LSB that abused the Name and made it into common word while the Jews were fearful of using the Holy Name. Adonai would have been been more plausible.
Clay Cadwell
10/11/2023
Christian Beltran
9/9/2023
Mac McClanahan
8/26/2023
David S
8/18/2023
EDEMER SUBITO
7/19/2023
Robert Scull
5/14/2023
Jeremy Arnold
4/22/2023
The NASB 2020 update is a TRASH revision that was completely unnecessary, especially since the Legacy Standard Bible exists. The LSB is what the NASB 2020 *should* have been: an actually word-for-word literal English translation that preserves everything that was great about the NASB '95 and which makes the text slightly more literal in some places. The awful NASB 2020 is, by far, the *least* literal of all editions of the New American Standard Bible, since the translation team sadly chose to be politically correct instead of biblically accurate. (If the best manuscripts say "brethren," then don't change that word to say "brothers and sisters"! Give me a break!) In short, avoid the superfluous and disastrous 2020 "update" and stick with the superb NASB 1995 or the 1977 version instead (i.e., if you can overlook the awkward use of "Thee," "Thou," "Thy," and "Thine" when someone is praying).
