I woke up this morning thinking about the Good News Bible / Today’s English Version. You remember that one, don’t you? It first came out as the New Testament called “Good News for Modern Man”, back around 1970-71 or so.
My first thoughts were, they couldn’t name it that nowadays! Nobody would understand that. What about modern women? So I suppose the Good News Bible isn’t too bad a title. Neither is Today’s English Version, though that seems a bit generic to me.
I am aware that the GNB/TEV is online somewhere, though I haven’t bothered to go and find it today. I know it’s not on Bible Gateway. I should take a little time and find it, so I can read it and get a better feel for this rarely-talked-about Bible.
I don’t know why, but it seems my United Methodist Church, at least locally, latched onto the GNB some years back as the Bible they gave to the third graders. I believe two or three of my four kids received it. But I never really gave it a serious look. Our last liberal pastor even read from it occasionally in church, and I suppose that my feelings were that since he used it, I wouldn’t. (Odd. My liberal pastor used the GNB. My new evangelical pastor uses and promotes the NRSV. Figure that out!)
I remember when my younger brother came to faith, and the group of kids he was in who went to church camp and came to faith around the same time were all using the Good News for Modern Man NT at the time. It was the “in” Bible for them. I looked at it, saw the stick-figure drawings, read the easy language, and decided that was not for me!
Now it seems few people are using the GNB. My impression is that it’s used mostly by folks in the mainline denominations as an easier-to-read Bible for the kids, until they can handle the much-more-difficult NRSV. But you know, I could be way off on that; that’s just the way it seems to me. You hardly ever see it on any best-sellers lists. I wonder if it’s from a more liberal or mainline-associated publisher, and so the evangelical publishers and bookstores don’t ever carry it.
I’m thinking about finding one and trying it out. What do you think? Am I missing something?
The Sundry Times 
I did a post on it here:
http://www.scripturezealot.com/2009/08/29/good-news-bible-online/n.
It’s my fifth favorite translation and I like it a lot. I would say it’s similar to the NLT but a bit more towards the paraphrastic side but not quite a paraphrase. I wouldn’t say it’s for kids. (I also don’t think the NRSV is liberal either.)
Jeff
LikeLike
“(I also don’t think the NRSV is liberal either.)”
No, I don’t either, Jeff. But since it is the accepted translation of academia, it is the one the liberal/progressive scholars and clergy have latched onto just as much as the KJV-ONLYs have latched onto their KJVs. (Latched onto – is that a southern Minnesota idiom?) Around here, when you find a liberal, 99 times out of 100 he’ll be using a NRSV.
LikeLike
You mean ABusing a NRSV.
LikeLike
Yeah. 😉
LikeLike
OK, I gotcha now.
Jeff
LikeLike
That link got messed up:
http://www.scripturezealot.com/2009/08/29/good-news-bible-online/
LikeLike
Yes, a fine short post, Jeff.
Ah yes, it was the ABS (American Bible Society) that made it. I’ll have to do some more research.
BTW, Crosswalk.com http://www.crosswalk.com/ has the GNB/TEV on its online Bible Study Tools.
I also notice that Bible Gateway has the CEV, which supposedly was to replace the GNB.
LikeLike
The Word of God is meant to be read prayerfully and the understanding of it to be spiritually discerned not grammatically understood.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14
I would encourage you to read prayerfully the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 2. In this I find comfort concerning all these easy to read, easy to understand versions of the Bible… If you feel you know what is being said right off it is likely that you won’t pray to God for understanding and you will easily be deceived by what seems simple.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3
LikeLike
If you feel you know what is being said right off it is likely that you won’t pray to God for understanding and you will easily be deceived by what seems simple.
That’s just plain silly.
Why not translate the Hebrew and Greek texts into Braille and then read it? Little chance someone would know what is being said right off using THAT!
To add to the difficulty you could translate the Braille into Klingon.
The Bible is meant to be read. Much of it was written in an everyman’s language, not some hard to understand formal language.
LikeLike
AMEN! I agree, Stan.
However our friend has made a good point, that we always need to read prayerfully and seek the Spirit’s guidance for our understanding.
LikeLike
True.
LikeLike
I seem to recall that the GNB began as a project of the American Bible Society (maybe) to provide a translation for people who knew English primarily as a second language. It became more popular than they had expected it to be. The emphasis was on simplicity of language & using a limited range of English words.
LikeLike
Good memory, Craig! I just discovered/remembered the link to the ABS myself.
Do you remember the way the first Good News for Modern Man read? I was looking at an old copy I found a few months ago, and it really wasn’t simplified all that much. It was very conservative by today’s standards.
LikeLike
I’ve been spending some time this afternoon looking online for whatever GNB/TEV Bibles I can find. I find it’s frustrating. They don’t have any “nice” editions, like leather, bonded leather, or even LeatherLike. They’re mostly paperbacks, and lots and lots of Catholic versions, i.e., with the deuterocanonicals. ChristianBook.com only carries a few. I don’t think they market it very well, and that’s why it’s hard to find and people aren’t using it much.
I probably won’t pursue it seriously. I’ll just stick with what I have. I like the way the NLT reads better anyway.
LikeLike
I have a nice black hardcover pew Bible type edition which is pretty nice other than the silly drawings.
Jeff
LikeLike