Contemporary English Version
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The Contemporary English Version or CEV (also known as Bible for Today's Family) is a new translation of the Bible into English, published by the American Bible Society.
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History
Missing image Cev-cover.jpg Contemporary English Version (US Edition) |
The CEV project began as a result of studies conducted by Barclay Newman in 1985 into speech patterns used in Books, Magazines, Newspapers, and Television. These studies focused on how English was read and heard. This all lead to a series of test volumes being published in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Among the volumes published were Luke Tells the Good News About Jesus (1987), The Good News Travels Fast - The Acts Of The Apostles (1988), A Few Who Dared to Trust God (1990), and A Book About Jesus (1991). In 1991, the CEV New Testament was released (1991 also happened to be the 175th anniversary of the American Bible Society). The CEV Old Testament was released in 1995. The Plain English Campaign awarded the CEV a Crystal Mark award in 1997 in appreciation of the plainness of the CEV's type of English. In 1999, The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books were published. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the American Bible Society published a special booklet entitled God Is Our Shelter and Strength. The booklet contained passages from the Psalter and other parts of the Bible.
Translation principles and features
In translating the CEV, the translators followed three translation principles. They were: The CEV must be understood by people without stumbling in speech, The CEV must be understood by those with little or no comprehension of "Bible" language, and the CEV must be understood by all. Like other recent versions, the CEV uses gender-sensitive language for humanity and not for the Godhead. The translation also takes great care to simplify "Bible" terms into more understandable words and phrases. An example can be found in Exodus 20:14 (http://biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=EXOD%2B20%3A14&showfn=on&showxref=on&language=english&version=CEV&x=12&y=14), were the word adultery is translated Be faithful in marriage. The translators have also taken great care to translate the Greek phrase hoi Ioudaioi (literally, "the Jews") as "the Jewish leaders," especially in the Gospel of John (as in John 18:14). The CEV translators believe, along with many other (but not all) biblical scholars[1] (http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2004-January/028204.html), that the Greek phrase hoi Ioudaioi in the Gospel of John primarily refers to the Jewish leadership, not to the Jewish people, as a whole. So their translation as "the Jewish leaders" is intended to increase translation accuracy. One result of this translation decision is a reduction of the perception of Anti-Semitism in the New Testament.
References
- Sheeley, Stephen M. and Nash, Robert N. Choosing a Bible. pp. 55-56.
- Metzger, Bruce M. The Bible In Translation. p. 171.
Some of the information in this article comes from an email inquiry by Wikipedian Joshua Holman to Jacquelyn Sapiie, Supervisor of Library Services at the American Bible Society on February 9, 2004.
Further reading
- Waite, D.A. Contemporary English Version (CEV)--an AntiChrist Version (ACV)?. ISBN 1568480067
- Newman, Barclay. Creating and Crafting the Contemporary English Version Available from the Maryland Bible Society (http://www.marylandbible.org/shop/shop_listing.php)
See also
External links
- Anti CEV review by David Cloud (http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fbns/fbns458.html)
- Anti CEV review by Ian Paisley (http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=cev)
- Ken Anderson on the CEV (http://kenanderson.net/bible/contemporary_english.html)
- Michael Marlowe on the CEV (http://bible-researcher.com/cev.html)
- National Award for New Bible Translation (http://biblesociety.org/wr_325/325_ib3.htm)
- CEV: US Text (http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?version=CEV)
- CEV: UK Text (http://www.biblija.net/biblija.cgi?lang=en2)