From The Accordance Shelf (FTAS) - REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE

[Daniel Francis]

 

 

REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE

 

 

For my second From The Accordance Shelf (FTAS) I want to look at an often overlooked Bible translation. The Revised English Bible this translation for the longest time was virtually an Accordance exclusive in the electronic world. This is a major revision of the New English Bible. One of the nicest things about the NEB/REB is that it was an attempt to do a fresh translation and follow the original text as close as possible even when it seems to be clear traditional received texts seemed to have been corrupted.  This translation in my mind is not only  accurate but has a poet nature to it that is only surpassed by the King James Version. This translation is not as gender inclusive as I would like but it is an admirable attempt to correct gender bias not warranted by the original texts. 

 

• “[A psalm: for David] The Lord is my shepherd; I lack for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me to water where I may rest; he revives my spirit; for his name’s sake he guides me in the right paths. Even were I to walk through a valley of deepest darkness I should fear no harm, for you are with me; your shepherd’s staff and crook afford me comfort. You spread a table for me in the presence of my enemies; you have richly anointed my head with oil, and my cup brims over. Goodness and love unfailing will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord throughout the years to come.”

(Psalms 23:0–6 The Revised English Bible)

 

 

Job 36:22 (REB) God is pre-eminent in majesty; who wields such sovereign power as he? 

Job 36:23 (REB) Who has prescribed his course for him or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’? 

Job 36:24 (REB) Remember, then, to sing the praises of his work, as mortals have always sung them. 

Job 36:25 (REB) All mankind gazes at him; the race of mortals look on from afar. 

Job 36:26 (REB) Consider: God is so great that we cannot know him; the number of his years is past searching out. 

Job 36:27 (REB) He draws up drops of water from the sea and distils rain from the flood; 

Job 36:28 (REB) the rain-clouds pour down in torrents, they descend in showers on the ground; 

Job 36:31 (REB) thus he sustains the nations and provides food in plenty. 

Job 36:29 (REB) Can anyone read the secret of the billowing clouds, spread like a carpet under his pavilion? 

Job 36:30 (REB) See how he scatters his light about him, and its rays cover the sea. 

Job 36:32 (REB) He charges the thunderbolts with flame and launches them straight at the mark; 

Job 36:33 (REB) in his anger he calls up the tempest, and the thunder is the herald of its coming. 

 

You will note the translators have reordered the text to come to what they believe it original was, the REB is not the only translation to have done something like this but it is refreshing to see this. You will also note the less than inclusive “all mankind” in vs. 25 rendered “all people” in the NRSV and  “all humanity” in the NIV2011. 

 

 

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• “Then one of their number, Nicodemus (the man who once visited Jesus), intervened. ‘Does our law’, he asked them, ‘permit us to pass judgement on someone without first giving him a hearing and learning the facts?’ ‘Are you a Galilean too?’ they retorted. ‘Study the scriptures and you will find that the Prophet does not come from Galilee.’ Once again Jesus addressed the people: ‘I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall walk in darkness; he shall have the light of life.’ The Pharisees said to him, ‘You are witness in your own cause; your testimony is not valid.’ Jesus replied, ‘My testimony is valid, even though I do testify on my own behalf; because I know where I come from, and where I am going. But you know neither where I come from nor where I am going. You judge by worldly standards; I pass judgement on no one. If I do judge, my judgement is valid because it is not I alone who judge, but I and he who sent me. In your own law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid.”

(John 7:50–8:17 The Revised English Bible)

 

 

You will notice in the sample above the more natural flow by removing the “woman caught in adultery”  this is not placed in a footnote like the original 1952 RSV did but placed at the end of the gospel of John as a genuine tale of Christ, just not belonging where it traditionally is placed.

 

• * “And they all went home, while Jesus went to the mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared again in the temple, and all the people gathered round him. He had taken his seat and was engaged in teaching them when the scribes and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught committing adultery. Making her stand in the middle they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. In the law Moses has laid down that such women are to be stoned. What do you say about it?’ They put the question as a test, hoping to frame a charge against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they continued to press their question he sat up straight and said, ‘Let whichever of you is free from sin throw the first stone at her.’ Then once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard what he said, one by one they went away, the eldest first; and Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there. Jesus again sat up and said to the woman, ‘Where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She answered, ‘No one, sir.’ ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus said. ‘Go; do not sin again.’”

(John 7:53–8:11 The Revised English Bible)

 

 *(7:53- 8:11) This passage, which in most editions of the New Testament is printed in the text of John, 7:53-- 8:11, has no fixed place in our witnesses. Some of them do not contain it at all. Some place it after Luke 21:38, others after John 7:36, or 7:52, or 21

 

Please note that the asterisk is my addition and the note are not included in Accordances implementation of the REB. Accordance has never had the footnotes for this translation. and is the only real defect in their implementation of the REB in my mind (and a rather small one at that).

 

The REB is less bold in some of it’s renders than it’s predecessor the NEB, but many would also say it is more dignified, here are two examples:

 

 

• “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a vast waste, darkness covered the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light; and God saw the light was good, and he separated light from darkness. He called the light day, and the darkness night. So evening came, and morning came; it was the first day.”

(Genesis 1:1–5 The Revised English Bible)

• ¹ IN THE BEGINNING of creation, when God made heaven and earth,^{a 2} the earth was without form and void, with darkness over the face of the abyss, and a mighty wind that swept^b over the surface of the waters. ³ God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light; ⁴ and God saw that the light was good, and he separated light from darkness. ⁵ He called the light day, and the darkness night. So evening came, and morning came, the first day.

^a Or In the beginning God created heaven and earth.

^b Or and the spirit of God hovering.

 The New English Bible (New York: Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press, 1970), Ge 1:1–5.

 

• “When she became his wife, he induced her to ask her father for a piece of land. She dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb asked her, ‘What do you want?’”

(Joshua 15:18 The Revised English Bible)

 

• ¹⁸ When she came to him, he incited her^a to ask her father for a piece of land. As she sat on the ass, she broke wind, and Caleb asked her, ‘What did you mean by that?’ 

^a So some Sept. MSS.; Heb. she incited him.

 The New English Bible (New York: Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press, 1970), Jos 15:18.

 

So I would encourage you to take a second look at this often overlooked translation.

 

-Dan

Edited June 13, 2016 by Dan Francis