The New English Bible (NEB) was a fresh translation of the Bible into modern English directly from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts (with some Latin in the Apocrypha); with the Old Testament being published in 1961, and the New Testament, along with the Apocrypha, being published in 1970.

Background

Near the time when the Copyright to the English Revised Version was due to expire (1935), the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, who were the current English Revised Version copyright holders, began investigations to determine whether a modern revision of the English Revised Version text was necessary. In May of 1946 the Reverend G. S. Hendry, along with the Presbytery of Stirling and Dunblane produced a notice, which was presented to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicating that the work of translating should be undertaken in order to produce a Bible with thoroughly "modern English." After the work of delegation was finished, a general conference was held in October of 1946 where it was determined that a completely fresh translation should be undertaken rather than a revision as originally suggested by the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge.

Translation

In due time, three committees of translators and one committee of literary advisers were enlisted and charged with the task of producing the New English Bible. Each of the three translation committees was responsible for a different section of the Bible. These three sections consisted of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament.

The work of translating was typically undertaken in this fashion: A member, or members, of one of the committees would produce a draft of a book, or books, of the Bible (typically from the section in which they were assigned) and submit the draft to the section committee. Occasionally a scholar outside of the committee would be invited to participate in this phase of the translation process, and was asked to submit a draft of the book or books with which he or she had renowned experience. This draft was then distributed amongst the members of the appropriate committee. Members of the committee would then meet together and discuss the translation choices made in the draft. The draft that resulted from this meeting of the concerned committee was then sent to the committee of literary advisers who would revise the draft in cooperation with the translators. When a consensus on the draft was reached, the final draft would be sent on to the Joint Committee, which was head over the four sub-committees.

For the Old Testament the translators primarily made use of the Masoretic Text as presented by Rudolph Kittell in his 3rd Edition of the Biblia Hebraica (1937). In addition to the Masoretic Text, the translators also made use of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Targums, and the Syriac Peshitta.

For the Apocrypha the translators made the decision to follow The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint, edited by H. B. Swete. Also, the translators made use of the Codex Sinaiticus (for the Book of Tobit), Theodotion's translation of the Apocrypha (for The Song of the Three, Daniel and Susanna, and Daniel, Bel, and the Snake (sometimes referred to as the Dragon)), Codex Vaticanus (for Ecclesiasticus), Codex 248 (also for Ecclesiasticus), and R. L. Bensly's Latin text The Fourth Book of Ezra.

For the New Testament the New English Bible Translators relied on a large body of texts including early Greek New Testament manuscripts, early translations rendered in other languages (those aside from Greek), and the quotations of early Christian writers and speakers. The text adhered to by the translators of the New English Bible can be found in The Greek New Testament, edited by R. V. G. Tasker and published by the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge (1964).

Form

The translators of the New English Bible chose to render their translation using a principle of translation called Dynamic equivalence. C. H. Dodd, Vice-Chairman and Director of the Joint Committee, commented that the translators "...conceived our task to be that of understanding the original as precisely as we could... and then saying again in our own native idiom what we believed the author to be saying in his."

This method of translation is in contrast to the traditional translations of the Authorized Version (King James Version), English Revised Version, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, and others, which place an emphasis on word-for-word correspondence between the source and target language. However, the New English Bible translators were not the first to use a free method of translation, with James Moffatt and others going before them. C. H. Dodd goes on to summarize that the translation of the New English Bible is "...free, it may be, rather than literal, but a faithful translation nevertheless, so far as we could compass it."

Due to these translation principles the New English Bible is necessarily more periphrastic at times in order to render the thoughts of the original author into modern English.

Considerations and Concerns

It is evident that the New English Bible was produced primarily by British and European Scholarship (Whitsuntide is rendered in 1 Corinthians 16:8 rather than Pentecost). However, directly following the Second World War the English of Great Britain and Europe began to be influenced by foreign idiom, especially that of the Americans. For this reason, passages found in the New English Bible could be understood by a large body of English speaking individuals.

In relation to the issue of Gender neutral language, or Gender-Accuracy, the New English Bible was not produced within any guidelines that specified such a need and chose rather to render pronouns (among other things) using the traditional literary method followed by many previous translations in which the generic use of "he" is both typical and assumed. However, using this literary method has become increasingly unpopular and a revision of the New English Bible, aptly titled the Revised English Bible, was undertaken. Among the goals for this revision were rendering the text of the New English Bible Gender-Accurate, as well as fixing errors of transposition and interpretation that many felt to be present in the text.

Summary

Due to its official status and scholarly translators, the New English Bible has been considered one of the more important translations of the Bible to be produced following the Second World War. F. F. Bruce, then Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, declared that "To the sponsors and translators of the New English Bible the English speaking world owes an immense debt. They have given us a version which is contemporary in idiom, up-to-date in scholarship, attractive and at times, exciting in content..." However, T. S. Eliot comments that the New English Bible "astonishes in its combination of the vulgar, the trivial and the pedantic."

Controversial Passages (and various complaints) of the New English Bible

• In Psalms 22:16, the New English Bible renders the familiar passage "... have pierced my hands and feet..." as "... hacked off my hands and my feet..."
• In Genesis 1:1-2, the New English Bible renders the passage using “a mighty wind” rather than the familiar, and traditional, choice of “the Spirit of God”.
• In Isaiah 9:6, the New English Bible translators chose a rendering that is both interpretive and non-traditional.
• In Nahum 1:12-14, the New English Bible transposes two verses and renders the promise of God interpretively.
• In Acts 20:7, the New English Bible renders the traditional phrase “first day of the week” as “Saturday night”.

Members of the Committees

Old Testament Committee

The Rev. Professor W. D. McHardy, The Rev. Professor B. J. Roberts, The Rev. Professor A. R. Johnson, The Rev. Professor J. A. Emerton, The Very Rev. Dr. C. A.Simpson, Professor Sir Godfrey Driver (Convener), The Rev. L. H. Brockington, The Rev. Dr. N. H. Snaith, The Rev. Professor N. W. Porteous, The Rev. Professor H. H. Rowley, The Very Rev. C. H. Dodd (ex officio), and Miss P. P. Allen (Secretary).

Apocrypha Committee

The Rev. Professor W. D. McHardy (Convener), The Rev. Professor W. Barclay, The Rev. Professor W. H. Cadman, The Rev. Dr. G. B. Caird, The Rev. Professor C. F. D. Moule, The Rev. Professor J. R. Porter, The Rev. G. M. Styler.

New Testament Committee

The Rev. Professor C. H. Dodd (Convener), The Very Rev. Dr. G. S. Duncan, The Rev. Dr. W. F. Howard, The Rev. Professor G. D. Kilpatrick, The Rev. Professor T. W. Manson, The Rev. Professor C. F. D. Moule, The Rt. Rev. J. A. T. Robinson, The Rev. G. M. Styler, The Rev. Professor R. V. G. Tasker.

Literary Committee

Professor Sir Roger Mynors, Professor Basil Willey, Sir Arthur Norrington, Mrs. Anne Ridler, The Rev. Canon Adam Fox, Dr. John Carey, and the Conveners of the Translation Panels.

Scholarly Associates

The Rev. Professor G. W. Anderson, The Very Rev. Principal Matthew Black, The Rev. Professor J. Y. Campbell, The Most Rev. J. A. F. Gregg, The Rev. H. St J. Hart, The Rev. Professor F. S. Marsh, The Rev. Professor John Mauchline, The Rev. Dr. H. G. Meecham, The Rev. Professor C. R. North, The Rev. Professor O. S. Rankin, The Rev. Dr. Nigel Turner.

Contributors to and Sponsors of the New English Bible

• Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland
• Church of England
• Church of Scotland
• The Congregational Church in England and Wales
• Council of Churches for Wales
• Irish Council of Churches
• The London Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
• The Methodist Church of Great Britain
• The Presbyterian Church of England
• British and Foreign Bible Society
• The National Bible Society of Scotland

See also

• Revised English Bible

External links

• Michael Marlowe on the New English Bible
• Kenneth Rexroth on the New English Bible

References

• Ebor, D., (Editor) (1970). The New English Bible with the Apocrypha. Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

• Lockyer (Sr.), H., (Editor), et al., (1986). Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc. ISBN 0192854399

• McManners, J., (Editor) (2001). The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0785250514

• Nicolson, A., (2003). God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060838736

1970 books | Bible versions and translations