Lockman Foundation

Who We Are

About The Lockman Foundation

The Lockman Foundation is a nonprofit, nondenominational ministry dedicated to the translation, publication, and distribution of the New American Standard Bible (NASB), Amplified Bible (AMP), La Biblia de las Américas (LBLA), Nueva Biblia de las Américas (NBLA), and other Biblical resources.
Since the beginning of our translation work in the 1950s, our mission has remained the same: To faithfully translate the inspired Word of God from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek with unsurpassed accuracy into English and Spanish, creating translations that are trusted and understandable. Because language changes over time, we offer multiple versions using different styles of language to meet the broad reading preferences of people today. Our goal is to offer the most accurate Bible translations possible.
The NASB, Amplified, LBLA, and NBLA Bible translations are ideal for daily reading and in-depth study. They are widely accepted by pastors, professors, and ministry leaders as accurate translations of the Holy Bible on which they can rely and trust for their Bible reading, study, and teaching.

Mission Statement

The primary purpose of The Lockman Foundation is to foster and promote the Holy Bible as the inspired and inerrant word of God through Christian, charitable, and educational activities. The Lockman Foundation strictly adheres to the fourfold aim that guides all of its translation work:
  1. These publications shall be true to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
  2. They shall be grammatically correct.
  3. They shall be understandable.
  4. They shall give the Lord Jesus Christ His proper place, the place which the Word gives Him; therefore, no work will ever be personalized. (Our work is a symphony, not a solo, because many have had a part.)

Doctrinal Statement

We believe that the entire Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God; the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

We believe in the sacrificial and vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and that He thereby made perfect substitutionary atonement for the sin of the world. We believe in His literal physical resurrection from the dead.

We believe in the literal, bodily, physical, and premillennial return of Jesus Christ.

We believe that all people are sinners and in an eternally lost condition apart from the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe that acceptance into the family of God and eternal salvation can only be secured by believing in and by faith accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Sin–bearer, Lord and Savior.

How It All Began

The Lockman Foundation was established in 1942. F. Dewey Lockman and his wife Minna put their hearts, minds, and financial resources to the task of promoting Christian evangelism and education. Beginning with the development of a Bible study program for servicemen at El Toro Marine Base in Southern California, The Lockman Foundation soon expanded its ministry to include children. This was achieved by establishing summer Bible schools at many Orange County churches and bringing Released Time Christian Education to the local public schools.


They next turned their attention to Bible translation. In 1958, the Amplified New Testament was the first Bible produced by The Lockman Foundation. This Bible takes key words and shows the many facets and shades of meaning from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic words within the body of the text.


Following the success of the Amplified Bible, Dewey Lockman saw the need for a translation of the Bible that would be clearly readable in current English without sacrificing any accuracy in the translation from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. In 1959, he sought to organize a group of scholars and pastors to work on a new translation. They would use the strong scholarship and accuracy of the 1901 American Standard Version as their model.


In 1963 the New American Standard Bible New Testament was published with the entire Bible following in 1971.

Seeing the same need for a new Spanish Bible translation, The Lockman Foundation completed translation work in 1986 on La Biblia de las Américas, which uses the Castillion form of Spanish. Then in 2005, using the Latin American form of Spanish, Nueva Biblia de las Américas was translated using the LBLA as the base translation.


While best known for the NASB, The Lockman Foundation continues to fulfill Dewey and Minna’s vision of enabling evangelism and Christian education. In 1981 the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance was published to help pastors, students, and lay-readers study the Bible in-depth. The NASB has been translated into several languages, such as Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, mainland Chinese, Hindi, and Korean. The New Standard for Living guide was published to encourage people to read through the Bible in a year. The New Standard for Living radio program brought solid biblical teaching to a nationwide audience.


Since first being published, each of the Bible translations produced by The Lockman Foundation have been updated periodically in an effort to keep the language from becoming dated, ensuring that we provide each new generation a highly accurate translation that can speak to them clearly.

The Lockman Foundation headquarters are still located on Dewey and Minna Lockman’s homestead in La Habra, California. Through their vision, hard work, and sacrifice, millions of people are brought closer to God every day.