Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English translation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

by the

American Bible Society American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...

. It was first published as the New Testament under the name ''Good News for Modern Man'' in 1966. It was anglicised into British English by the British and Foreign Bible Society with the use of metric measurements for the Commonwealth market. It was formerly known as Today's English Version (TEV), but in 2001 was renamed the ''Good News Translation'' in the U.S., because the American Bible Society wished to improve the GNB's image as a

translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

where it had a public perception as a

paraphrase A paraphrase () is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words. The term itself is derived via Latin ', . The act of paraphrasing is also called ''paraphrasis''. History Although paraphrases likely abounded in oral tra ...

. Despite the official terminology, it is still often referred to as the ''Good News Bible'' in the United States. It is a multi-denominational translation, with editions used by many Christian denominations. It is published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

, a subsidiary of News Corp.

Beginnings

The beginnings of the Good News Bible can be traced to requests made by people in Africa and the Far East for a version of the Bible that was easier to read. In 1961, a home missions board also made a request for the same type of translation. Besides these requests, the GNB was born out of the translation theories of linguist

Eugene Nida Eugene A. Nida (November 11, 1914 – August 25, 2011) was an American linguist who developed the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory and one of the founders of the modern discipline of translation studies. Life Eugene Albert N ...

, the Executive Secretary of the American Bible Society's Translations Department. In the 1960s, Nida envisioned a new style of translation called

Dynamic equivalence The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by Eugene Nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source and target text, as evidenc ...

. That is, the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek would be expressed in a translation "thought for thought" rather than "word for word". The dynamic theory was inspired by a Spanish translation for Latin American native peoples. The American Bible Society, impressed with Nida's theories, decided to use them. Due to these requests and Nida's theories, Robert Bratcher (who was at that time a staffer at the American Bible Society) did a sample translation of the Gospel of Mark. This later led to a translation of the full

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

. The result, titled ''Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today's English Version'', was released in 1966 as a 599-page paperback with a publication date of January 1, 1966. It received a mass marketing effort with copies even being made available through grocery store chains. The New Testament would see second, third, and fourth editions released in 1967, 1971, and 1976, respectively. The Psalms were published in 1970 as ''The Psalms For Modern Man in Today's English Version''. Other portions of the Old Testament began to appear over the course of the 1970s - Job in 1971, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in 1972, Jonah in 1973, Ruth, Hosea, Amos, and Micah in 1974, and Exodus in 1975. In 1976, the Old Testament was completed and published as the ''Good News Bible: The Bible in Today's English Version''. In 1979, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books were added to the Good News Bible and published as ''Good News Bible: Today's English Version with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha'' and also later published as part of subsequent ''Catholic'' and ''Orthodox'' Editions. In 1992, the translation was revised with

inclusive language Inclusive language avoids expressions that are considered to express or imply ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to any particular group of people and sometimes animals as well. Use of inclusive language ...

. The Bible Societies released the

Contemporary English Version The Contemporary English Version or CEV (also known as Bible for Today's Family) is a translation of the Bible into English, published by the American Bible Society. An anglicized version was produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society, w ...

in 1995, also using jargon-free English. While this translation is sometimes perceived as a replacement for the GNB, it was not intended as such, and both translations continue to be used. While the American Bible Society promotes both translations, the British and Foreign Bible Society and HarperCollins have since 2007 refocused their publishing efforts on the GNB including the Good News Bible iPhone App.

Popularity

The GNB has been a popular translation used across multiple denominations of Christianity. By 1969, ''Good News for Modern Man'' had sold 17.5 million copies. By 1971, that number had swelled to 30 million copies. It has been endorsed by

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

and several Christian denominations, including the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the United States (Today's English Version, Second Edition), the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Excerpts from the

were used extensively in

evangelistic In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are ...

campaigns, such as the Billy Graham crusades and others, from the late 1960s right through to the early 1980s. In 1991, a

Gallup poll Gallup, Inc. is an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide. Starting in the 1980s, Gallup transitioned its ...

of British parishioners showed that the GNB was the most popular Bible version in that nation. In 2003, the GNB was used as the basis for a

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

of the

Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...

. In 2008, Swedish group Illuminated World paired the text of the GNB with contemporary photography for the English translation of ''Bible Illuminated: The Book''.

Features

The GNB is written in a simple, everyday language, with the intention that everyone can appreciate it, and so is often considered particularly suitable for children and for those learning English. There are introductions to each book of the Bible. Unlike most other translations, some editions of the GNB contain line drawings of biblical events with a snippet of text. The line drawings were done by Annie Vallotton (1915–2013). However, Vallotton is credited with doing the drawings only in certain editions of the GNB—in others, the drawings are simply credited to "a Swiss artist". Since the focus is strongly on ease of understanding, poetry is sometimes sacrificed for clarity. This choice can be seen in the example quotation of John 3:16, which is rendered, "For God loved the world so much that …", which is more conversational than the familiar "For God so loved the world". The phrase contains a figurative, if not literal, translation: the Greek word for "so" in that passage is οὕτως, which likely means "in such a way" as well as "so much". Because the implication of the phrase "in such a way that he would sacrifice his only son" includes the implication of "so much" and could certainly not include the opposite "loved the world so little," the translators chose the phrase "so much" for its brevity and clarity.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Metzger, Bruce. ''The Bible in Translation'', pp. 167–168. * Sheeley, Steven M. and Nash, Jr., Robert N. ''Choosing A Bible'', pp. 38, 52-53.

External links

Good News Bible (goodnewsbible.com)

Official website (GNT.Bible)
- for the Good News Translation
Good News Bible text

Good News Bible
Bible Society page describing 2004 editions
The best-selling artist of all time?
BBC News article highlighting the illustrations of Annie Vallotton in the Good News Bible {{English Bible translation navbox 1976 books Bible translations into English 1976 in Christianity