The New Revised Standard Version, released in 1989, is the authorized version of the Revised Standard Version published in 1952. New Testament textual authority, Bruce M. Metzger, headed the New Revised Standard Version translation committee. The committee consisted of about thirty members of various Protestant denominations and also members of the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Orthodox and Jewish representatives were members of the Old Testament committee.

The Old Testament translation of the Revised Standard Version was completed before the Dead Sea Scrolls were generally available to scholars. The New Revised Standard Version was intended to take advantage of this and other manuscript discoveries, and to reflect advances in scholarship since the Revised Standard Version had been published.The Dead Sea Scrolls provided information on the Books of Isaiah and Habakkuk and fragments on the other books of the Old Testament. Greek manuscript copies of books of the New Testament also became available. For help in the translation of the Old Testament, the 1977 edition of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia was used. High correspondence to Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th Edition, was used for the New Testament

Occasionally, it was necessary to make changes. Footnotes indicate how other ancient authorities read. The style of English used reflects current usage. Masculine-oriented language has been eliminated, where possible. The Tetragrammaton is rendered as LORD and GOD, in capital letters. Archaic English pronouns and verb endings are not used. Essentially, it is a literal translation, but it has a few paraphrastic renderings.

The result of the committees' work on the New Revised Standard Version is a Bible translation that is careful to convey the meaning of the original Biblical text and yet, contemporary enough to meet the needs of the modern church.