Revised English Bible

From Textus Receptus

Revision as of 21:43, 26 March 2010

The Revised English Bible (REB) is a 1989 update of the New English Bible of 1970. As with its predecessor, it is published by the publishing houses of both Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Translation philosophy

The REB is the result of both advances in scholarship and translation made since the 1960s and also a desire to correct what have been seen as some of the NEB's more egregious errors. For examples of changes, see the references. The changes remove many of the most idiosyncratic renderings of the New English Bible, moving the REB more in the direction of standard translations such as NRSV or NIV.

The translation is intended to be gender-inclusive, to the extent that this is justified by the original language, though it does not take this to the same extent as the NRSV or TNIV. The gender-inclusive approach has also been widely praised by others as a needful corrective to centuries of church-inspired paternalism. Nevertheless, it can be criticized by those who think this approach to be a bow to political correctness and feminist theology.

The style has been described by several people as more "literary" than NRSV or NIV. It tends slightly further in the direction of "dynamic equivalence" than those translations, but still translates Hebrew poetry as poetry and reflects at least some of the characteristics of that poetry. The Revised English Bible's general accuracy and literary flavour has led Stephen Mitchell and others<ref>http://homepage.mac.com/rmansfield/thislamp/files/071806_revised_english_bible.html</ref> to compliment it as one of the best English renderings.

Like the NEB, it is primarily presented to the British and British-educated public, although it has some American users and admirers.

Sponsors

The churches and other Christian groups that sponsored the REB were:

• Baptist Union of Great Britain
• Church of England
• Church of Scotland
• Council of Churches for Wales
• Irish Council of Churches
• The London Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
• Methodist Church of Great Britain
• Moravian Church in Great Britain and Ireland
• Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales
• Roman Catholic Church in Ireland
• Roman Catholic Church in Scotland
• Salvation Army
• United Reformed Church
• Bible Society
• National Bible Society of Scotland

Revision Committee Members

Director of Revision: W. D. McHardy

Revisers: The Rev. Professor G. W. Anderson; The Very Rev. Professor R. S. Barbour; The Rev. Fr I. P. M. Brayley, SJ; Dr M. Brewster; Dr S. P. Brock; The Rev. Professor G. B. Caird; The Rev. Dr. P. Ellingworth; Dr R. P. Gordon; Professor M. D. Hooker; The Rev. A. A. Macintosh; The Rev. Professor W. McKane; The Rev. Professor I. H. Marshall; The Rev. Dr R. A. Mason; The Rev. Dr I. Moir; The Rev. Fr R. Murray, SJ; The Rev. Professor E. W. Nicholson; Dr C. H. Roberts; Dr R. B. Salters; Dr P. C. H. Wernberg-Moller; The Rev. Professor M. F. Wiles

Literary Advisers: M. H. Black; Mrs M. Caird; J. K. Cordy, Baroness de Ward; The Rev. Dr I. Gray; Dr P. Larkin; Miss Doris Martin; Dr. C. H. Roberts; Sir Richard Southern; P. J. Spicer; Dr. J. I. M. Stewart; Mary (Lady) Stewart

References

• The Revised English Bible (Top Ten Bible Versions #6) Rick Mansfield
• The Revised English Bible (1989) Michael Marlowe

Better Bibles Blog Wayne Leman, plus comments

• review of The Revised English Bible with Apocrypha by Roger Coleman, in Novum Testamentum, Vol. 33, Fasc. 2 (Apr., 1991), pp. 182-185

External links

• Revised English Bible: Cambridge University Press
• An Overview of the REB By Michael Marlowe