The Recovery Version is a modern English translation of the Bible from the original languages, published by Living Stream Ministry, ministry of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. It is the commonly used translation of Local Churches (affiliation).[1]
The New Testament was published in 1985 with study aids, and was revised in 1991.[2] Text-only editions of the New Testament and of the complete Bible became available in 1993 and 1999, respectively.[3] The full study Bible was published in 2003. The name was chosen to reflect the restorationist theology of the authors, who believe many of the doctrines in their translation (such as justification by faith alone) were lost by the church before being recovered later.[4][5]
The Recovery Version is a recent translation of the Bible from the revised 1980 edition of the Hebrew Scriptures, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia,[6] and the Nestle-Åland Greek text as found in Novum Testamentum Graece (26th edition).[7] The translators believe that the understanding of the Bible has progressed in the past two thousand years, in part due to "philological and exegetical scholarship that makes more precise the meaning of the biblical words or phrases or practices" and in part due to an accumulation of Christian experience.[8] This understanding forms the basis of this translation, with guidance from major authoritative English versions.
The Recovery Version claims to avoid biases and inaccurate judgments and to express the message of the Bible in English as accurately as possible. As such, it departs from traditional renderings in certain passages[9] where the translators judged theological precision to be at stake.[10] Its translation is essentially literal/word-for-word/formal equivalent, seeking to preserve the wording of the original Hebrew or Greek text and the personal style of each biblical writer. Its translation is intended as transparent—interpretive ambiguities present in the original text are left unresolved in this translation for the readers to consider. The Recovery Version renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah throughout the Old Testament.[11]
4:7b
51:11
The RcV reserves the revelation and function of the Holy Spirit, properly speaking, to the NT. Here, and in Isa. 63:10-11, a different title is used to indicate that distinction. So also Andrew Murray, NJB, et al.[19]
9:16
3:16
8:15
4:13
ἐνδυναμοῦντί (endynamounti) means makes dynamic inwardly. Christ dwells in us (Col.1:27). He empowers us, makes us dynamic from within, not from without. By such inward empowering Paul was able to do all things in Christ.[20]
2:9
"Godhead" refers to deity, which is different from the divine characteristics manifested by the created things (Rom.1:20).[20]
There are complete and partial editions of the Holy Bible Recovery Version in other languages, including Chinese (恢復本),[25][26] French (Version Recouvrement),[27] German (Wiedererlangungs-Übersetzung), Polish (Przekład Odzyskiwania), Indonesian (Alkitab Versi Pemulihan), Japanese (回復訳),[28] Korean (회복역),[29] Portuguese (Versão Restauração),[30] Russian (Восстановительный перевод),[31] Spanish (Versión Recobro), Tagalog (Salin sa Pagbabawi), and Cebuano (Hubad Pahiuli). The Recovery Version New Testament is translated into Indian languages like Telugu, Tamil, Mizo and Malayalam; the Hindi translation is in progress.[32] Translating into different languages requires translating from Greek to the language, and the footnotes from English to the desired language.
