Contemporary English Version

Contemporary English Version
Contemporary English Version (US Edition)
Full name:	Contemporary English Version
Other names:	Bible for Today's Family
Abbreviation:	CEV
NT published:	1991
OT published:	1995
Complete Bible published:	1995
Translation type:	Dynamic equivalence
Copyright status:	© American Bible Society 1991, 1992, 1995; Anglicizations © British and Foreign Bible Society 1996
Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was barren, with no form of life; it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness. But the Spirit of God was moving over the water. God said, "I command light to shine!" And light started shining. Genesis 1:1 in other translations
John 3:16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. John 3:16 in other translations
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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. An anglicized version was produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society, which includes metric measurements for the Commonwealth market.

History

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 led 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 175^th anniversary of the American Bible Society, the CEV New Testament was released. The CEV Old Testament was released in 1995. In 1999, The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books were published.

While the CEV is sometimes mischaracterized as a revision of the Good News Bible, it is in fact a fresh translation, and designed for a lower reading level than the GNB. The American Bible Society continues to promote both translations.

Translation principles and features

In translating the CEV, the translators followed three translation principles. They were:

• must be understood by people without stumbling in speech
• must be understood by those with little or no comprehension of "Bible" language
• must be understood by all.

The CEV uses gender-sensitive language for humanity and not for the Godhead. The translation also takes care to simplify "Bible" terms into more understandable words and phrases. An example can be found in Exodus 20:14 where 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 (but not all) biblical scholars, 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.^{[citation needed]} Therefore, 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.

Awards

• In 1997 the British Plain English Campaign awarded the BFBS anglicized CEV a Crystal Mark award in appreciation of the clarity of its language.^[1][2]

Usages

• In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the American Bible Society published a special booklet titled God Is Our Shelter and Strength.^[3] The booklet contained passages from the Psalms and other parts of the Bible. This booklet was also published after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in September 2005.^[4]

• In October 2005, the Bible Society in Australia launched a project called SMSBible, which was the entire CEV in SMS text messages. News reports about the service claimed that the Bible spanned more than 30,000 text messages.^[5]

• On October 25, 2005, a church in New Zealand began a project called PodBible to produce an audio version of the CEV available via podcast or webcast.^[6]

• In 2009, through the UCCF 'FREE Gospel Project' 400,000 copies of the book of Mark in CEV were handed out, at over 150 Universities in the UK.

Sources

• 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.

References

Further reading

• Newman, Barclay. Creating and Crafting the Contemporary English Version. ISBN 1-58516-473-9

See also

• History of the English Bible
• Bible translations
• Other English translations in contemporary language:
  • Good News Bible
  • New Century Version
  • New Living Translation
  • Revised English Bible
• American Bible Society

External links

• Contemporary English Version text (UK)
• Ken Anderson on the CEV
• Michael Marlowe on the CEV
• PodBible