While the Revised Version of the Bible was prepared by a large group of thoroughly competent scholars, their insight and scholarship were often obscured or limited by a policy of conservatism, partly self-imposed by the group, and partly required by the Anglican Council which sponsored the rendering. Laudable though such caution was up to a point, as obviating any extreme or unwarranted changes, on the other hand it meant that certain changes, however justifiable, could not be made because of their novelty. As the work of revision proceeded, this fact became increasingly apparent to the American members of the committee, who constituted about one third of the whole; and it was eventually agreed that the renderings which they preferred, but which did not receive the two-thirds vote necessary to assure their adoption, should be placed in an appendix.
It had been agreed that for fourteen years the American group should not publish or sponsor any revision other than that brought out in 1885; but in the year 1899, when the agreement came to an end, the American group, which had not disbanded, but had been continuing with the labor of study and of revision during the intervening period, decided to publish an edition of the Revised Version in which they incorporated in the text their suggestions as appended to the English Revised Version—suggestions which had received favorable comment, and often ready acceptance on both sides of the Atlantic; while they also made other often valuable changes as a result of their long study of the subject This translation, commonly called the American Standard Version, was copyrighted in 1901, and its reception has been even more encouraging than that accorded to the Revised Version in its original form.
It is instructive to note a few of the changes introduced in this edition. For instance, it uniformly substitutes the name "Holy Spirit" for "Holy Ghost," thus providing not only a strictly literal translation, but also obviating any possible misconception of the word "ghost," which, in modern times, has come to mean "spectre"; just as such a passage as Isaiah 11:5 becomes more readily understandable when we find in the American Revision, "faithfulness the girdle of his 'loins'" (instead of the ambiguous and archaic term "reins"). The opening words of Paul's speech at Athens provide an example of an individual New Testament passage in which the meaning of the original is clarified by the American Standard Version. According to the Authorized and English Revised renderings, the apostle commended his address in a manner which would be apt to antagonize those whom he wished to attract, describing them as "too superstitious" or "very superstitious," whereas the usage of the Greek word bears out the natural assumption that Paul would begin by praising the good points, rather than by condemning the errors, of the earlier belief. Thus, according to the American Standard Version, the apostle commended his audience as being "very religious"— bearing in mind the numbers of altars, temples, and statues which he had seen near by (Acts 17:22f.).
