I find the RSV more suitable for me, simply because it represents a sort of "corrected" version of the King James. The corrections are the important part, because I could read the KJV and/or the Inspired Version until I'm blue in the face, and never discover the real point of the passage, when the RSV makes it obvious. Genesis 47:21 is such a passage. I discovered that Joseph was one of the original socialist ("never let a good crisis go to waste") and this particular bent of Joseph's has a great deal of bearing on the desperate circumstances of the Israelites centuries later -- "what goes around comes around." Nowhere does the text say that Joseph was commanded to arrange things this way. He merely perceived in advance the advantages that the famine was going to provide him, given his newly acquired political connections. That has frightening implications, given Joseph Smith, Jr.'s open self-identification with Joseph ben Jacob.
Call me an old fogey, but I haven't been able to get into the NRSV, even after 20 years, but I have to admit that comparing the ancient versions to the Massoretic Text is an excellent approach. After all, the Jewish people are no different from the rest of us, and over time, readings that obscured the human foibles they share with the rest of us, may have been unconsciously preferred up until the MT was set in stone.
Enjoy your Sunday. I hope yours is as sunny as the one here.
