Legacy Standard Bible(LSB)
An update of the NASB tradition designed to be the most consistently literal English translation available.
At a Glance
- Reading Level
- 10-11 (est.)†
- NT Textual Basis
- Critical Text
- Quote Limit
- 1,000 verses
- Print Edition
- Print edition available: Yes
- Red Letter Edition
- Red letter edition available: Yes
- Marks OT Quotations in NT
- Marks OT quotations in NT: Yes(Small caps)
- Italicizes Translator Words
- Italicizes translator-supplied words: Yes
- Capitalizes Deity Pronouns
- Capitalizes deity pronouns: Yes
- Quotation Marks for Dialogue
- Uses quotation marks for dialogue: Yes
† An estimate. No publisher or reference list gives a reading level for this translation, so it is judged from its style and its closest relatives.
Overview
The Legacy Standard Bible was first published in full in 2021, after a New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs that February. It grew out of a concern from John MacArthur and colleagues at The Master's Seminary that the NASB 1995 edition — the translation many conservative pastors and seminaries had relied on for decades — might eventually be phased out in favor of a more moderate revision. The LSB is a joint project of the Lockman Foundation, Three Sixteen Publishing, and the John MacArthur Charitable Trust, with a translation committee drawn from scholars and preachers at The Master's Seminary and The Master's University.
Rather than a translation built from scratch, the LSB is explicitly framed as a direct update of the NASB 1995 text — aiming to “more fully implement” that translation's already strict, word-for-word philosophy, tighten its consistency, and modernize a small amount of archaic wording.
On gender language, the LSB takes a traditional approach: it keeps the same generic masculine wording pattern as the NASB 1995 and the ESV, deliberately choosing not to adopt the more moderate, gender-inclusive language introduced in the NASB's later 2020 update.
As one of the newest translations on this site, the LSB doesn't yet have the decades-deep library of study Bibles and commentaries that older translations have built up — its use so far is concentrated mainly within Reformed and complementarian ministry circles connected to MacArthur's teaching ministry.
Distinctives
- A direct update of the NASB 1995 edition, produced to preserve and “more fully implement” that translation's strict literal philosophy for future generations.
- Prints the Hebrew divine name as “Yahweh” throughout the Old Testament, where the NASB it revises — like nearly every English Bible — uses “Lord.” (The 1901 ASV, earlier in the same family, spelled it out as “Jehovah.”)
- Translates the Greek word doulos consistently as “slave” rather than “bondservant” or “servant,” aiming to preserve the full weight of the term's original meaning.
- Capitalizes pronouns referring to God (He, His, Him) throughout, a formatting convention several other modern translations have moved away from.
- One of the newest translations on this site, so it doesn't yet have the deep study-Bible ecosystem that older translations have built up.
Good Fit For
- Readers and preachers who already value the NASB's literal tradition and want one of the most consistently literal translations available today.
- Word studies and expository preaching where matching English words consistently to their underlying Hebrew or Greek terms matters.
- Churches and ministries connected to Grace Community Church, The Master's Seminary, or John MacArthur's teaching ministry, where the LSB is the primary pulpit text.
Worth Knowing
The LSB exists partly because of a fork in the road for the NASB. In January 2020 — the year the Lockman Foundation released an NASB update with some moderate, gender-inclusive language — Lockman, the John MacArthur Charitable Trust, and Three Sixteen Publishing met to discuss refining the NASB 1995 along its original, fully traditional path instead. Within two months a team from The Master's University and The Master's Seminary, led by Abner Chou, was working through the text word by word. That separate project became the LSB.
Sample Verse — John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org