A new translation of the Bible is coming out this summer. Digital versions of the Common English Bible are available now, with print editions coming out this month. The CEB is a fresh translation of the scriptures, unlike the NRSV (1989), which was an update of the old Revised Standard Version. The NRSV is in the pews at my church and is widely used in oldline Protestant churches. I downloaded a copy of the CEB to my Kindle and have begun to read it. It looks to be somewhere between the literal approach of the RSV tradition and the open rendering of the Contemporary English Version and the Good News Translation. What I noticed immediately are all the online resources already available for the CEB; I think the lack of such has been a hindrance for the NRSV. The CEB’s reading level is 7th grade, which contrasts to the NRSV’s 11th grade reading level. (8th grade is the national average.) The translators for the CEB are mostly mainline Protestant, with a few Roman Catholics and one Jewish scholar.
For a sample, here are the Beatitudes in the Common English Bible:
Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad.
Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth.
Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.
Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.
Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.
Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children.
Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
It is curious that the translation retains old religious words like righteous and righteousness in an otherwise fresh rendering of this classic text. Good and goodness would have worked well there. Wondering how the CEB translates the ‘still, small voice’ of 1 Kings 19:12, I found this: “There was a sound. Thin. Quiet.” That’s a novel way of rendering the enigmatic Hebrew there. I still think the NRSV’s ‘sound of sheer silence’ is best. I also noted how pistis iesou christou is handled in Romans 3 and Galatians 2; the CEB opts for the faithfulness of Jesus Christ instead of faith in Jesus Christ.
A new Bible translation is like a pair of shoes or a baseball glove — it takes time to break it in. I will use the CEB this summer to see how it wears on me. So far, I am pleased.
Learn more about the Common English Bible here.
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