New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB 2020)
The current New American Standard Bible keeps the 1995 edition’s literal method while smoothing English that had become needlessly stiff.
The 2020 revision stays close to the Hebrew and Greek while recognizing that some awkwardness in earlier editions came from dated English. Editors rebuilt sentences when the older wording made the meaning unnecessarily hard to follow.
It also changed how the translation handles words that addressed a mixed group. Where the Greek says "brothers" but is speaking to a whole church, this edition says "brothers and sisters"; where "man" meant a person, it often says "person". That change is the main reason the 1995 edition is still widely read, and both are on this site so you can compare them verse by verse.
- How it translates
- Formal — the same close-to-the-original method as 1995, in more natural English.
- Reading level
- Around a tenth-grade reading level, a little easier than the 1995 edition.
- Best for
- Wanting a literal translation without fighting the sentences.
Worth knowing: If you memorised verses from an older NASB, some of them are worded differently here. That is a revision doing its job, but it is disconcerting the first time it happens.
Compare similar translations
- NASB 1995
- The previous edition, kept here because many readers prefer it.