In the 33 years that I owned a Christian bookstore, I sold hundreds of Bibles. I saw the introduction of many translations. I remember when the Living Bible was released (that padded green cover). I remember the criticism Ken Taylor received and the controversy surrounding the paraphrase. I remember when the NIV was released. There was controversy then too, as it was a “dynamic equivalent” translation.
What makes a “good” Bible translation? That's a tough question. Do you want readability? Then you may have to sacrifice literalness. Do you want to be as close as possible to the original languages? Then you may have to sacrifice readability.
Paul Franklyn, associate publisher of the Common English Bible, notes in a recent blog that if translators followed the syntax of the original languages in Bible translation (a true “word-for-word” translation), the resulting text would unreadable in English.
The CEB is a new translation with the goal of making God's Word accessible to a broad range of people. It is written so that over half of all English readers will find it readable. A hundred and twenty scholars from twenty-two Christian faith traditions from around the world participated. The translation was reviewed by 500 international readers.
It is called “common” because it was built on common ground, a collaboration of liberals and conservatives, scholars and average readers, teens and retirees, men and women.
The translation was funded by the Church Resources Development Corp., which allowed for cooperation among a number of denominational publishers.
I am taking part in a blog tour of the Common English Bible. I'll be blogging more about this Bible as the days go by.
You can see the blogs of others taking part of this tour here: http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour
I received a complimentary copy of the CEB from its publisher for the purpose of this blog tour.
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