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.Jiayin Hu, “Spirituality and Spiritual Practice: Is the Local Church Pentecostal?” in Global Chinese Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, ed. Fenggang Yang, Joy K. C. Tong, and Allan H. Anderson (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 171n42.
The New Testament was published in 1985 with study aids, and was revised in 1991. Text-only editions of the New Testament and of the complete Bible became available in 1993 and 1999, respectively.Chamberlin, William J. Catalogue of English Bible Translations: A Classified Bibliography of Versions and Editions Including Books, Parts, and Old and New Testament Apocrypha and Apocryphal Books. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991. Print. 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.J. Gordon Melton, in The Sinicization of Chinese Religions: From Above and Below, ed. Richard Madsen, Religion in Chinese Societies 18 (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 161.
Translation
The Recovery Version is a recent translation of the Bible from the revised 1980 edition of the Hebrew Scriptures, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia,Würthwein, Ernst. The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. and the Nestle-Åland Greek text as found in Novum Testamentum Graece (26th edition). 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.Harrelson, Walter. "Recent Discoveries and Bible Translation." Religious Education 85.2 (1990): 190. 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 where the translators judged theological precision to be at stake.Liu, Chao-Chun. “Deification in Translation: The Influence of Translation Philosophy on the Visibility of the Doctrine of Deification in Scripture,” in Transformed into the Same Image: Constructive Investigations into the Doctrine of Deification, eds. Michael M. C. Reardon and Paul Copan (InterVarsity Press, 2024), 101–2. 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.“Biblical and Ministry Words That We Love: Jehovah,” in “Having this Ministry…” 32 (August 2024), online: While recognizing that there are religious and linguistic arguments against its use, “The use of Jehovah as the proper name for God… distinguishes this name from other designations for God and directs people toward a deeper and intrinsic understanding of the meaning of the name, both literally and experientially.”
Study aids A subject line at the beginning of each book summarizes its spiritual significance. A detailed outline precedes each book and is embedded throughout the text, providing an overview of the structure of the book. Footnotes stress the translators' view of revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life more than history, geography, and persons.Reardon, Michael M. C., and Brian Siu Kit Chiu, “Essence and Economy: An Introduction to Witness Lee’s Doctrine of the Trinity,” The Journal of Theological Studies, 2025, 18n110.Towns, Elmer L., Ed Stetzer, and Warren Bird, 11 Innovations in the Local Church: How Today’s Leaders Can Learn, Discern and Move into the Future (Baker Publishing Group, 2007), Ch 1.Suee Yan Yu, "A Brief History of Bible Translation into Chinese and Its Contemporary Implications,” Journal of Biblical Text Research 19 (October 2006): 165. The New Testament footnotes were written by Lee, while those of the Old Testament were compiled from his literary corpus by the editorial team. Footnotes also indicate more literal (but less readable) translations, valid alternative translations, alternative ways of reading the original text,Crim, Keith R. "Translating the Bible: An Unending Task". Religious Education 85.2 (1990): 202Harrelson, Walter. "Recent Discoveries and Bible Translation". Religious Education 85.2 (1990): 186-187. and alternative translations found in other English versions or in academic scholarship. Often, the clarity forfeited in a literal translation of the original text is addressed and compensated for in the footnotes. The Recovery Version contains over 15,000 footnotes. Marginal cross references lead to other verses with the same expressions and facts and to other matters related to the spiritual revelation in the Word. Maps show the ancient Near East in Old Testament times, Israel in Old Testament times, and the Holy Land in New Testament times and document the journeys of Paul. Charts present the characteristics of the different sections of the New Testament and organize details such as the prophetic seventy weeks in Daniel, the rapture of the believers, and the coming of Christ, in a visual timeline.
Textual comparison + Comparison of select verses with other versions King James Version English Standard Version New International Version American Standard Version New American Standard Bible Darby Translation Recovery Version Differences Gen. 4:7bAnd if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.And if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee shall be its desire; but do thou rule over it.And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door; and unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and his desire is for you, but you must rule over him.The RcV retains the masculine of the Hebrew possessive suffixes (i.e., "his, him") and takes them as referring to Satan, personified here as sin. So also Speiser and HarperCollins.E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible (Doubleday, 1978), 32-33; The HarperCollins Study Bible, Revised ed. (HarperOne, 2006), note ad loc. Ps. 51:11Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy Spirit from me.Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not the spirit of thy holiness from me.Do not cast me from Your presence, and do not take the Spirit of Your holiness away from me.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.Andrew Murray, The Spirit of Christ (New York: A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1888), 52n1; The New Jerusalem Bible, ed. Henry Wansbrough (Doubleday, 1985), ad loc; Nancy deClaissé-Walford, The Book of Psalms, NICOT (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2014), ad loc. Mat. 9:16No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.And no man putteth a piece of undressed cloth upon an old garment; for that which should fill it up taketh from the garment, and a worse rent is made.But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for [b]the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.But no one puts a patch of new cloth on an old garment, for its filling up takes from the garment and a worse rent takes place.No one puts a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. "The Greek word is formed with not and to card or comb wool. Thus, the word means uncarded, unsteamed and unwashed, unfinished, unfulled, untreated."Holy Bible Recovery Version. Ed. Witness Lee and editorial section of Living Stream Ministry. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 2003. Print. So also Lattimore and DB Hart.Richmond Lattimore, The New Testament (1962; North Point Press, 1996), ad loc. David Bentley Hart, The New Testament: A Translation (Yale University Press, 2017), ad loc. "Unfulled" derives from Middle English fullen John 1:14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth;And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.The RcV follows many commentaries in seeing this verb (skēnoō) as an allusion to the OT wilderness dwelling place of God, the tabernacle (skēnē), indicating that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment and reality of the tabernacle.Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John: I–XII, Anchor Yale Bible (1966; Yale Uni. Press, 2008), 32; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 1991), 127; Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, Vol. 1 (Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 408-9; John F. McHugh, John 1–4: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary, International Critical Commentary (T&T Clark, 2009), 56; Edward W. Klink III, John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Zondervan, 2016), 108. John