NEB - 1970
New English Bible
OldCovenantApocryphaNewCovenant
[Home][Contacts][Versions]

A presbytery in the Church of Scotland in 1946 recommendedto the General Assembly that a translation of the Bible be made in thelanguage of the present day because the language in theAuthorized Version was archaic and less generallyunderstood. The General Assembly approached other churches. There was adesire that a completely new translation rather than a revision and for acontemporary idiom rather than a traditional Biblical English be used.

It was planned and directed by representatives of theBaptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, the Church of England, theChurch of Scotland, the Congregational Church in England and Wales, theCouncil of Churches for Wales, the Irish Council of Churches, the LondonYearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, the Methodist Church of GreatBritain, the Presbyterian Church of England, the British and Foreign BibleSociety, and the National Bible Society of Scotland. The Roman CatholicChurch in England and Scotland sent representatives as observers.

The translating was done by three panels drawn from scholarsof British universities to deal, respectively, with the Old Testament,the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. A fourth panel of trusted literaryadvisers was to scrutinize the translation for English style.

There are introductions to the three sections of this Bible.

Oxford and Cambridge Universities Presses (1970)

[Tyndale House, Cambridge, UnitedKingdom]


Genesis1: 1, 2

In the beginning of creation, when God made heaven andearth, the earth was without form and void, with darkness over the faceof the abyss, and a mighty wind that swept over the surface of the waters.

 
 

Wisdomof Solomon 1: 1

LOVE JUSTICE, you rulers of the earth; set your mind upon the Lord,as is your duty, and seek him in simplicity of heart;

 
 

John1: 1 - 3

When all things began, the Word already was. The Worddwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was. The Word, then, was withGod at the beginning, and through him all things came to be; no singlething was created without him.


Comparisons which include this version: