King James's Successor?

"It has been a task involving many appallingly tricky decisions. But I hope we have produced a work which will be far more widely read by the younger generation who now regard the Bible, with its archaic phrases, as a stuffy and old-fashioned book."

With these words, Britain's eminent theologian, Congregationalist Charles H. Dodd, 76, announced last week the secret project that he has been directing for the past 13 years--The New English Bible. Its New Testament will be published on March 14, jointly by the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses, in a record (for Britain) first edition of half a million copies.*

No Gangsters' Hideout. Despite its many magnificent drums and tramplings the 350-year-old King James Version might as well be in the original Greek for all the sense most moderns can make of it. In 1946 a group of delegates from the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and Britain's Methodist, Baptist and Congregational churches unanimously agreed that what was needed was not a revision but a completely new translation.

A 16-man committee was set up under the chairmanship of Theologian Dodd to direct the project. The committee recruited 30 Biblical scholars who were divided into three panels--one for the New Testament, one for the Old Testament (due in 1967) and one for the Apocrypha. The scholars were backed up by a six-man committee of "literary advisers," whose names are officially secret. Individual members of a panel submitted their sections to the panel as a whole, which often spent days wrangling over a single verse.

The result then went to the literary panel, which was responsible for seeing that every nuance of meaning in the old translation was included in the new, that the language was sufficiently dignified for reading aloud, and that the modern expressions used would not be out of date in 50 years. Example: the King James "den of thieves" did not become "gangsters' hideout" only because it was thought that the '20s expression might not last long enough. The compromise: "robbers' cave."

Bad Influence. Chairman Dodd urged his scholars to shun other modern Englishings of the Bible.* "They can't help being a bad influence," he said. "Either you're tempted, unconsciously, to copy the wording, or else in your efforts to avoid copying, you are hampered in your free choice of words."

The New English Bible, its translators hope, will not only introduce the Scripture to those for whom it has been a closed book but will also freshen its meaning for those who know it well. A passage for comparison is the First Epistle General of John (see below).

King James

1) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2) (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

New English

1) It was there from the beginning; we have heard it; we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our own hands; and it is of this we tell. Our theme is the word of life.

2) This life was made visible; we have seen it and bear our testimony; we here declare to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us.

3) What we have seen and heard we declare to you, so that you and we together may share in a common life, that life which we share with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

* Previous record: Volume I of Winston Churchill's war memoirs (The Gathering Storm), with a first edition of 250,000.

* Such as Britain's Revised Version (1885), the U.S. Revised Standard Version (1952), and one-man translation of the New Testament by James Moffatt (1913), Edgar J. Goodspeed (1923), Msgr. Ronald Knox (1944) and John B. Phillips (1958).

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