The Common English Bible (CEB) is a relatively new English translation of the Bible, first published in 2011. It was created through a collaboration of over 100 biblical scholars from various denominations and backgrounds. The goal was to create an accurate, readable, and accessible translation for 21st century readers. Here is an overview of the CEB translation:
Translation Philosophy
The translators of the CEB aimed to balance scholarly accuracy with natural, idiomatic English that is easy to understand when read aloud. They wanted to create a translation suitable for personal devotion, worship, and memorization, not just an academic study Bible. Some key aspects of their translation philosophy include:
– Prioritizing clarity and naturalness over formal equivalence. The goal was optimal comprehension, not word-for-word literalness.
– Using common, everyday English while retaining the meaning and rhetoric of the original texts.
– Remaining faithful to the ancient texts while communicating clearly to modern readers. The translation is rooted in the latest biblical scholarship.
– Finding an appropriate middle ground between formal and informal language styles. The CEB uses contemporary language but avoids slang.
– Crafting a text suitable for oral performance and public reading. The phrasing and cadence is designed for smooth reading aloud.
Translation Process
The CEB used a collaborative translation process to check biases and ensure accuracy. Over 120 scholars from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European and Latino communities were involved. The translation went through multiple phases:
– Initial drafts were done individually by scholars in their area of expertise.
– The drafts were revised by peer panels to check accuracy and consistency.
– An editorial board reviewed the entire translation for flow, consistency and readability.
– Outside readers from different backgrounds provided feedback to improve clarity and naturalness.
– The final CEB text was refined over multiple iterations before publication.
Such a rigorous process allowed the CEB to benefit from scholarly rigor as well as real-world readability testing. The translators leveraged expertise while avoiding any individual biases.
Textual Base
The CEB bases its translation on the latest critical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. For the Old Testament, it primarily follows the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) and Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) editions. For the New Testament, it follows the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th edition (NA27) and the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament, 4th edition (UBS4).
The translators referenced various manuscripts in the original languages, along with the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient versions, to choose the best reading whenever variants exist. They used textual footnotes to document key differences between manuscripts.
Style and Readability
The CEB translates passages idea-for-idea, rather than word-for-word, to enhance understandability. The translators analyzed the texts linguistically to determine the meaning intended by the ancient authors. They then expressed this meaning in modern English using natural phrasing, grammar, and idioms. The translation is generally on an 8th-9th grade reading level.
Some characteristics that improve readability include:
– Use of contractions like “they’ll” and “we’ve” for natural rhythm.
– Gender-inclusive language when the original intent is inclusive.
– Choosing common words like “brothers and sisters” instead of technical terms.
– Formatting content poetically where appropriate to convey emotive force.
– Ordering sentences to convey the logical flow and emphasis of passages.
– Dividing complex sentences to aid comprehension.
Overall, the CEB displays sensitivity to literary style and rhetorical strategies used in the ancient texts. The goal is for modern readers to interact with the Bible in a fresh but faithful way.
Inclusive Language
In passages intended to apply to all people, the CEB utilizes gender-inclusive and non-biased language. For instance, “brothers” becomes “brothers and sisters” and “men” translates to “people” or “humans” when appropriate. Generic masculine terms referring to groups of mixed gender are eliminated.
When the original text intends to speak about one specific gender, the translation retains this. The goal is to reproduce inclusiveness or exclusiveness based on the original meaning, rather than the grammatical form. Extensive notes explain the rationale behind inclusive renderings.
Formatting for Clarity
The CEB format aids comprehension through paragraphing that reflects logical flow, liberal use of section headings, and formatting that highlights poetic structures:
– Paragraph breaks guide readers through topic changes and transitions.
– Descriptive section headings help identify shifts in topic or time, introduce new characters, and clarify organization.
– Poetic passages are set out in stanzas following poetic form, with separate lines and consistent capitalization showing parallelism.
– Quotations from external sources are clearly identified through formatting.
– Lists and instructions in passages like Leviticus are formatted and numbered for easy reading.
Treatment of Divine Names
The CEB translates the four primary Hebrew divine names as:
– YHWH/Yahweh – “LORD” (all caps to indicate divine name)
– El, Elohim, El Shaddai, El Elyon – “God”
– Adonai, Adonai YHWH – “LORD God”
– YHWH Tzevaot – “LORD of heavenly forces” or “LORD Almighty”
This preserves the distinction between the personal name YHWH and the common noun Elohim for deity. The all-caps LORD indicates where the sacred name occurs.
New Testament Translation
For the New Testament, the CEB focuses on accurately communicating the message and context of the Greek texts. Some key features include:
– Translating the underlying intent of idiomatic phrases rather than always literal forms. For example, “hate father and mother” in Luke 14:26 conveys disregard for family ties rather than feelings of animosity.
– Using natural English for rhetorical questions expecting a negative answer, rather than awkward literal forms like “Surely we do not?”
– Rendering the aorist Greek verb tense as English simple past to capture its ordinary aspect of describing events. Other tenses are used when the context requires it.
– Breaking up lengthy Greek sentences to improve readability and show logical connections between clauses.
– Rearranging word order and clauses as needed so English readers can understand the ideas in a natural way.
– Using paragraphing, indentation and punctuation to clarify dialog, quotations, lists, and parenthetical remarks.
Translation for Oral Use
Since a primary goal was effective public reading, the CEB uses principles like these for oral performance:
– Maintaining rhythm using natural, easy to speak language.
– Placing frequent sentence breaks at logical phrasing chunks.
– Using consistent and natural patterns for terms that repeat across passages.
– Retaining emotive interjections like “Ah!” for dramatic effect.
– Structuring genealogies and lists so they are easy to recite from memory.
– Formatting passages as poetry when intended to be spoken rhythmically or song-like.
– Ordering words and clauses so passages sound polished and eloquent when read aloud.
Scholarly Resources
To allow further study, the CEB provides textual footnotes and a limited number of translators’ notes explaining key translation issues:
– Textual footnotes mark places where major Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek manuscript variants affect translation.
– Occasional translators’ notes highlight cases where scholarly opinions differ significantly on the best rendering in English.
– Notes provide limited background on translation problems without interrupting the main text. Further documentation is given in the CEB Study Bible.
The goal is to produce an uncluttered translation suitable for general use, while pointing to resources for those interested in deeper analysis.
Translation Team
The Common English Bible was translated by over 120 leading biblical scholars from two dozen denominations in American, African, European, Asian, and Latino communities. Some notable translators include:
– Dr Joel M. LeMon, Old Testament translator coordinator
– Dr. David L. Petersen, New Testament head translator
– Dr. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, translator and author
– Dr. Brian Russell, professor of biblical studies
– Dr. Carolyn Sharp, professor of Hebrew Scriptures
– Dr. Rafael Rodríguez, professor of New Testament
– Dr. Monica Melanchthon, professor of Old Testament
Such a diverse team provided expertise in biblical languages and scholarship while reflecting diverse cultural, ethnic and church backgrounds.
Publisher
The Common English Bible was published entirely by Common English Bible Copyright Holders. This avoids any perception of bias had a commercial publisher been involved. The Christian Resources Development Corporation (CRDC) served as editorial sponsor to facilitate the work.
Denominational Support
The CEB gained broad support across Protestant denominations, with 110 church bodies and leaders endorsing and participating in the translation:
– Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
– Episcopal Church
– Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
– United Church of Christ
– United Methodist Church
– American Baptist Churches
– African Methodist Episcopal Church
– Christian Reformed Church
– Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
– National Baptist Convention
– National Baptist Convention of America
Having major American denominations collaborate made this an ecumenical project widely accepted across traditions.
Copyright and Use
The CEB uses a unique “open-licensed” copyright allowing free use of the full text:
– The text can be quoted up to 1000 verses without permission.
– Unlimited use is permitted for non-sale activities like personal use, Bible studies, sermons, etc.
– Bulk reproduction and sales allowances are more restrictive but reasonable for a nonprofit translation.
– Copyright provisions attempt to facilitate ministry use while generating funding for future translation work.
This open license helped quickly spread the CEB for worship, ministry, and enjoyment by individuals and churches.
Popularity and Reception
As an engaging yet faithful translation suitable for outreach, the CEB quickly gained widespread popularity across denominations:
– Over 18 million copies of CEB editions were sold within 5 years of initial publication.
– It has ranked among the top 5 most popular English Bible translations.
– It is widely used for personal reading, church services, small groups, youth ministry, evangelism and outreach.
– It has been praised for accurate scholarship combined with natural readability.
– Teens, new believers, seekers, and the general public appreciate its accessibility.
While some traditionalists criticize its informal style, overall the CEB has been enthusiastically adopted for effective, modern communication of God’s Word.
Study Editions
The CEB translation text is available in various print, digital and audio formats. Some popular study editions include:
– The CEB Study Bible with extensive notes, background articles, illustrations and reference materials to aid understanding. It was released in 2013.
– CEB audio Bibles for listening on electronic devices. Dramatic readings by actors and audio Bibles for the blind are available.
– Illustrated text editions with explanatory notes and commentary, suitable for new believers and seekers.
– Digital CEB text integrated into Bible study apps and theological library software for convenient searching and cross-referencing.
– Youth editions using CEB text with teen-friendly themes and interactive elements to engage young readers.
– CEB ministry Bibles with devotionals, reading plans, prayers, and resources to apply the Bible to Christian living.
Evaluation
Overall, the Common English Bible successfully achieves its aims to be an accurate, readable and accessible modern language translation suitable for both private and public use.
Here are some notable strengths of the CEB:
– It uses natural, everyday English making it one of the easiest Bibles to read with fluency and understanding. The language flows smoothly when read silently or aloud.
– It skilfully communicates intended meaning, keeping interpretations in check and minimizing theological bias.
– It is highly suitable for memorization, recitation and public reading in worship due to its emphasis on oral performance.
– It is a suitable translation for new believers, seekers investigating Christianity, non-native English speakers, and youth.
– It is based on the most up-to-date scholarship and ancient manuscript analysis.
– The open licensing facilitates widespread ministry use in churches.
Potential weaknesses include:
– Some readers consider it too informal or casual in tone, preferring more dignity and majesty.
– The simplified language lacks the grandeur and gravitas of traditional Bibles for some accustomed to those versions.
– The extensive use of inclusive language has drawn criticism over accuracy in some passages.
– The oral performance focus leads some to perceive it as a paraphrasing rather than faithful translation.
On the whole though, the CEB meets its goals to bring the Bible to life for a new generation of readers. It has become a widely used, ecumenical Protestant translation that effectively puts God’s Word into common English.