Holy Bible, NASB 2020. Lockman Foundation. 2020. 4068 pages. [Source: Bought]
First sentence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
An update of the New American Standard Bible released earlier this fall. The kindle edition became available in early October. (Bible apps like Bible Gateway and YouVersion would add the NASB 2020 to their offerings a few weeks later.) There are a handful of print versions of this one published by Lockman Foundation.
I love, love, love, love, love, love, crazy love the NASB. I've read the 1971, the 1977, and the 1995. The 1995 more than a handful of times--it's one of my favorites. The 77 would undoubtedly grow on me if I read it more. (I love thees and thous).
I didn't buy it "knowing" I would love it or "knowing" I would hate it. I wanted to keep my expectations realistic and, to be honest, fairly low. I didn't know if the updates would be over-the-top and fundamentally change the text or if they'd be a bit more minimal and subtle.
I don't have the patience to read each verse side by side with other NASBs (95, 77, 71, 73, etc.) Other readers are making that choice to read slowly, deliberately, carefully, diligently hunting out every instance of change and deciding change by change if the update is for the better or the worse.
I am not that kind of reader/reviewer. I don't know the original languages and since that is where many disputes of "it's better" and "no, it's worse" condense down into. It would be one thing if the original languages could be downloaded into my brain--Matrix style--so I could get into heated arguments on the internet about verse translations. (Would I really want that???) But since I am not going to be one of those with a strong, intellectual, informed opinion about what makes the translation work or fail...I can be just myself.
I read the NASB 2020 in about three months--October, November, and December. Well, a bit under three months since we've still got two-thirds of December still to go. So it was a fairly fast read. (Not the fastest, mind you, that would be a three week read I did in 1998 of The Narrated Bible, NIV 84.)
If I do--when I do--buy a print copy of this one, I'd want it to be a Bible with QUALITY paper. People talk about bindings, bindings, bindings. What matters most to me is not goat skin or calf skin or generic "genuine" leather--but it's all about how THICK the paper is and how vision-friendly the text block is. Has the publisher/printer put ANY THOUGHT WHATSOEVER into the Bible.
I loved my Zondervan Single Column Reference Bible that released in the Spring--in the NASB 95. If they release a NASB 2020 Single Column Reference Bible, I'd definitely be interested. Preferably in the COMFORT PRINT font. Though if publishers would publish the font large enough in the first place, the font wouldn't have to be "fixed" into a fancy-sounding "new" font in order to make it readable. Not that I have opinion. (I so do.)
I want Bibles designed by people who spend a couple of hours each day READING the Word and thus know what is really important. Perhaps bleed through wouldn't prove so detrimentally irksome if you just spent five minutes a day reading the Bible?
Psalm 23 in the NASB 2020
The Lord is my shepherd,
I will not be in need.
He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For the sake of His name.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life,
And my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever.
John 3:16 in the NASB 2020
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
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