NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – About the same time the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution denouncing one new Bible translation, another rolled off the presses that is being billed as “built on common ground.”
The Common English Bible debuted in June and the paperback format was introduced July 13 at the International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta.
Sponsored by an alliance of five mainline denominations, the contemporary English translation from the original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts is the work of 120 biblical scholars in 24 different denominations. They represent various ethnic groups and theology schools ranging the spectrum from the conservative Wheaton College and Denver Seminary to the liberal Princeton and Yale.
Scott Spencer, professor of preaching and New Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and one of 17 Baptists included, called it “one of the highlights of my academic and ministerial vocation.”
Paul Franklyn, associate publisher for the Common English Bible, described the four-year project as “collaboration between opposites.” That includes not only liberals and conservatives, but also scholars working with general readers, teens with senior adults, men, women and different ethnicities all working toward a goal of a “denomination-neutral” Bible for the 21st century.
Translators set out to combine scholarly accuracy with vivid everyday language. It is written in common language, similar to USA Today style, and the first Bible translation to widely use contractions where the text is in conversational style, as opposed to poetic or divine pronouncement. It uses detailed color maps from National Geographic, well known for accuracy.
More than 500 readers in 77 groups field tested the translation, reading every verse aloud and reporting to translators possibly confusing passages.
“This fresh translation that stresses readability seems to have scored a hit,” said James Nogalski, professor and director of graduate studies in religion at Baylor University and a member of the translation team. “A former colleague of mine called to say that his teenage daughter had actually told him about it because it got her interested in reading the Bible for herself.”
Messengers to this year’s SBC annual meeting in June passed a resolution alleging “translation errors” in the 2011 New International Version published by Zondervan. The resolution expressed “profound disappointment” the new NIV retained much of the gender-neutral language that Southern Baptists criticized previously in 1997.
The Common English Bible is also translated to be gender-inclusive. Rather than referring only to “brothers” in the Bible when the context includes both genders, the Common English Bible says “brothers and sisters.”
“The Common English Bible contains unbiased gender language because the Bible message itself teaches that God's love and grace must be clearly available to every woman, man, and child,” says an FAQ page on the publisher’s website. “Pronouns can be translated inclusively, accurately and smoothly without changing the meaning of the source language with respect to general human beings.”
Pronouns for God, Lord, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, meanwhile, are translated as he, his, or him.
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Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.
Visit the Common English Bible website.