Good News Bible

Last updated
Good News Bible
Good News Bible book cover.png
The international cover of the Good News Bible, used since 2004
Full nameGood News Bible
Other namesGood News Translation, Today's English Version
AbbreviationGNB (or GNT/TEV)
OT  published1976
NT  published1966
Complete Bible
published		1976
Textual basisMedium Correspondence to Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition
Translation type Dynamic equivalence
PublisherBible Societies, HarperCollins
Copyright American Bible Society 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1976, 1979 (Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha), 1992; Anglicizations British and Foreign Bible Society 1994
Genesis 1:1–3
In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, "Let there be light" — and light appeared.
John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name Good News for Modern Man in 1966. It was anglicised into British English by the British and Foreign Bible Society with the use of metric measurements for the Commonwealth market. It was formerly known as Today's English Version (TEV), but in 2001 was renamed the Good News Translation in the U.S., because the American Bible Society wished to improve the GNB's image as a translation where it had a public perception as a paraphrase. [1] Despite the official terminology, it is still often referred to as the Good News Bible in the United States. It is a multi-denominational translation, with editions used by many Christian denominations. It is published by HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp.

Contents

Beginnings

The beginnings of the Good News Bible can be traced to requests made by people in Africa and the Far East for a version of the Bible that was easier to read. In 1961, a home missions board also made a request for the same type of translation. Besides these requests, the GNB was born out of the translation theories of linguist Eugene Nida, the Executive Secretary of the American Bible Society's Translations Department. In the 1960s, Nida envisioned a new style of translation called Dynamic equivalence. That is, the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek would be expressed in a translation "thought for thought" rather than "word for word". The dynamic theory was inspired by a Spanish translation for Latin American native peoples.

The American Bible Society, impressed with Nida's theories, decided to use them. Due to these requests and Nida's theories, Robert Bratcher [2] (who was at that time a staffer at the American Bible Society) did a sample translation of the Gospel of Mark. This later led to a translation of the full New Testament. The result, titled Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today's English Version, was released in 1966 as a 599-page paperback with a publication date of January 1, 1966. It received a mass marketing effort with copies even being made available through grocery store chains. The New Testament would see second, third, and fourth editions released in 1967, 1971, and 1976, respectively. [3]

The Psalms were published in 1970 as The Psalms For Modern Man in Today's English Version. [4] Other portions of the Old Testament began to appear over the course of the 1970s - Job in 1971, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in 1972, Jonah in 1973, Ruth, Hosea, Amos, and Micah in 1974, and Exodus in 1975. [3]

In 1976, the Old Testament was completed and published as the Good News Bible: The Bible in Today's English Version. In 1979, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books were added to the Good News Bible and published as Good News Bible: Today's English Version with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha and also later published as part of subsequent Catholic and Orthodox Editions. In 1992, the translation was revised with inclusive language.

The Bible Societies released the Contemporary English Version in 1995, also using jargon-free English. While this translation is sometimes perceived as a replacement for the GNB, it was not intended as such, and both translations continue to be used. [5] While the American Bible Society promotes both translations, the British and Foreign Bible Society and HarperCollins have since 2007 refocused their publishing efforts on the GNB including the Good News Bible iPhone App. [6]

Popularity

The GNB has been a popular translation used across multiple denominations of Christianity. By 1969, Good News for Modern Man had sold 17.5 million copies[ citation needed ]. By 1971, that number had swelled to 30 million copies[ citation needed ]. It has been endorsed by Billy Graham [ citation needed ] and several Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church in the United States (Today's English Version, Second Edition), [7] the Southern Baptist Convention [ citation needed ], and the Presbyterian Church (USA).[ citation needed ] Excerpts from the New Testament were used extensively in evangelistic campaigns, such as the Billy Graham crusades and others, from the late 1960s right through to the early 1980s[ citation needed ]. In 1991, a Gallup poll of British parishioners showed that the GNB was the most popular Bible version in that nation[ citation needed ]. In 2003, the GNB was used as the basis for a film version of the Gospel of John. [8] In 2008, Swedish group Illuminated World paired the text of the GNB with contemporary photography for the English translation of Bible Illuminated: The Book. [9]

Features

The GNB is written in a simple, everyday language, with the intention that everyone can appreciate it, and so is often considered particularly suitable for children and for those learning English. There are introductions to each book of the Bible. Unlike most other translations, some editions of the GNB contain line drawings of biblical events with a snippet of text. The line drawings were done by Annie Vallotton (1915–2013). [10] However, Vallotton is credited with doing the drawings only in certain editions of the GNB—in others[ clarification needed ], the drawings are simply credited to "a Swiss artist".

Since the focus is strongly on ease of understanding, poetry is sometimes sacrificed for clarity. This choice can be seen in the example quotation of John 3:16, which is rendered, "For God loved the world so much that …", which is more conversational than the familiar "For God so loved the world". The phrase contains a figurative, if not literal, translation: the Greek word for "so" in that passage is οὕτως, [11] which likely means "in such a way" as well as "so much". [12] Because the implication of the phrase "in such a way that he would sacrifice his only son" includes the implication of "so much" and could certainly not include the opposite "loved the world so little," the translators chose the phrase "so much" for its brevity and clarity.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King James Version</span> 1611 English translation of the Bible

The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I. The 80 books of the King James Version include 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of what Protestants consider the Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. Noted for its "majesty of style", the King James Version has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New International Version</span> English translation of the Bible

The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released in 1978 with major revisions in 1984 and 2011. The NIV relies on recently published critical editions of the original Hebrew and Greek texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Today's New International Version</span> Updated translation of the Bible

Today's New International Version (TNIV) is an English translation of the Bible which was developed by the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT). The CBT also developed the New International Version (NIV) in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NIV. It is explicitly Protestant like its predecessor; the deuterocanonical books are not part of this translation. The TNIV New Testament was published in March 2002. The complete Bible was published in February 2005. The rights to the text are owned by Biblica. Zondervan published the TNIV in North America. Hodder & Stoughton published the TNIV in the UK and European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneva Bible</span> 16th-century English translation of the Bible

The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and others. It was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower. The Geneva Bible was used by many English Dissenters, and it was still respected by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the time of the English Civil War, in the booklet The Souldiers Pocket Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations</span> Translations of the Bible

The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. As of 2022 all of the Bible has been translated into 724 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,617 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,248 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,589 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contemporary English Version</span> Translation of the Bible into English

The Contemporary English Version or CEV is a translation of the Bible into English, published by the American Bible Society. An anglicized version was produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society, which includes metric measurements for the Commonwealth market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douay–Rheims Bible</span> First complete English language Catholic Bible

The Douay–Rheims Bible, also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the English College, Douai, in the service of the Catholic Church. The New Testament portion was published in Reims, France, in 1582, in one volume with extensive commentary and notes. The Old Testament portion was published in two volumes twenty-seven years later in 1609 and 1610 by the University of Douai. The first volume, covering Genesis through Job, was published in 1609; the second, covering Psalms to 2 Maccabees plus the three apocrypha books of the Vulgate appendix following the Old Testament was published in 1610. Marginal notes took up the bulk of the volumes and had a strong polemical and patristic character. They offered insights on issues of translation, and on the Hebrew and Greek source texts of the Vulgate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wycliffe's Bible</span> Middle English Bible translations

Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of English theologian John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. These Bible translations were the chief inspiration and chief cause of the Lollard movement, a pre-Reformation movement that rejected many of the distinctive teachings of the Catholic Church. In the early Middle Ages, most Western Christians encountered the Bible only in the form of oral versions of scriptures, verses and homilies in Latin. Though relatively few people could read at this time, Wycliffe's idea was to translate the Bible into the vernacular, saying "it helpeth Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue in which they know best Christ's sentence".

The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts was published by George M. Lamsa in 1933. It was derived, both Old and New Testaments, from the Syriac Peshitta, the Bible used by the Assyrian Church of the East and other Syriac Christian traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Welsh</span>

Parts of the Bible have been translated into Welsh since at least the 15th century, but the most widely used translation of the Bible into Welsh for several centuries was the 1588 translation by William Morgan, Y Beibl cyssegr-lan sef Yr Hen Destament, a'r Newydd as revised in 1620. The Beibl Cymraeg Newydd was published in 1988 and revised in 2004. Beibl.net is a translation in colloquial Welsh which was completed in 2013.

The Holy Bible in Modern English, commonly known as the Ferrar Fenton Bible, was an early translation of the Bible into English as spoken and written in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by Eugene Nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source and target text, as evidenced in biblical translation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John 10</span> Chapter of the New Testament

John 10 is the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel. This chapter records Jesus' description of himself as the "door of the sheep" and the "Good Shepherd", and contains the only mention of Hanukkah, "the Feast of Dedication", in the New Testament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Finnish</span>

The official translation used by the state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, is approved by its Synod. There have been three official translations: Biblia: Se on: Coco Pyhä Ramattu Suomexi (1642), Pyhä Raamattu (1933/1938), and the current one Uusi kirkkoraamattu (1992/2007). The term kirkkoraamattu means that the edition has to be suited for service of worship and other needs of the church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Name Bible</span> Bible translations that use Hebraic forms of Gods personal name (YHWH)

Sacred Name Bibles are Bible translations that consistently use Hebraic forms of the God of Israel's personal name, instead of its English language translation, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have LORD.

The Good News Study Bible is an edition of the Good News Bible with study Bible notes and articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New American Bible Revised Edition</span> English translation of the Bible

The New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) is an English-language Catholic translation of the Bible, the first major update in 20 years to the New American Bible (NAB), which was translated by members of the Catholic Biblical Association and originally published in 1970. Released on March 9, 2011, the NABRE consists of the 1986 revision of the NAB New Testament with a fully revised Old Testament approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2010.

Bible translations into Persian have been made since the fourth or fifth century, although few early manuscripts survive. There are both Jewish and Christian translations from the Middle Ages. Complete translations of the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament from original languages were first made in the 19th century by Protestant missionaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations in Norway</span> Overview of Bible translations into Norwegian

Bible translations in Norway date back to the late 13th century. Since the first spread of Christianity in Norway, numerous translations of the Bible have been published. Translations have appeared in several of the official languages that Norway has had throughout its history, including editions in Old Norse, Danish, and both current standard forms Nynorsk and Bokmål.

The New Testament was first published in Scottish Gaelic in 1767 and the whole Bible was first published in 1801. Prior to these, Gaels in Scotland had used translations into Irish.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Good News Bible gets new name". UBS World Report. July 2001. Archived from the original on February 12, 2006.
  2. ↑ "Robert Bratcher Obituary". The News & Observer. July 14, 2010. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Today's English Version (TEV)". Internet Bible Catalog. February 24, 2020. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021.
  4. ↑ "The Psalms for Modern Man: The Psalms in Today's English Version". 1970.
  5. ↑ Mansfield, Rick (November 15, 2006). "The Good News Translation: Top Ten Bible Versions #8". THIS LAMP...and that's all I need. Archived from the original on July 24, 2009.
  6. ↑ www.goodnewsbible.com - Good News Bible iPhone App
  7. ↑ USCCB Approved Translations of the Sacred Scriptures
  8. ↑ "Gospel of John" DVD/Videorecording End Credits. Philip Saville, Director. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Burbank, CA: 2003.
  9. ↑ Illuminated World: A Contemporary Bible Publication website
  10. ↑ "One of the world's best-selling artists was a Bible illustrator". United Bible Societies. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  11. ↑ The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament translated by Robert K. Brown and Philip W. Comfort, edited by J.D.Douglas ISBN   0-8423-4564-7 translates οὕτως γὰρ as "for~thus", where "~" indicates an inversion of Greek word order to make the interlinear rendering more readable ("for thus God loved the world")
  12. ↑ NET Bible (First ed.). 2009. first footnote in John 3:16 (footnote number 36). The Greek adverb οὕτως (Joutws) can refer (1) to the degree to which God loved the world, that is, to such an extent or so much that he gave his own Son (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:133-34; D. A. Carson, John, 204) or (2) simply to the manner in which God loved the world, i.e., by sending his own son (see R. H. Gundry and R. W. Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Use of Οὕτως…ὥστε in John 3:16,” NovT 41 [1999]: 24-39). Though the term more frequently refers to the manner in which something is done (see BDAG 741-42 s.v. οὕτω/οὕτως), the following clause involving ὥστε (Jwste) plus the indicative (which stresses actual, but [usually] unexpected result) emphasizes the greatness of the gift God has given. With this in mind, then, it is likely (3) that John is emphasizing both the degree to which God loved the world as well as the manner in which He chose to express that love

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.