The Gospel of Matthew in the new Common English Bible translation is now available for free download. The New Testament will be released in 2010 and the full Bible in 2011. The Matthew sampler has been available for a few days, but I've been waiting to mention it here because I wanted to see what the initial reaction would be in the blogosphere.
I've seen some positive responses, but predictably there have been a few critics, especially where translators have wandered from the more familiar idioms of the King James translation stream.
I've read through the CEB Gospel of Matthew once and my thoughts so far are positive. One translation decision that caught me off guard at first was "Human One", which is translated "Son of Man" in most English translations. Paul Franklyn, the CEB project director told me that even though "Son of Man" is meant to emphasize the humanity of Jesus, the phrase was actually interpreted by most reading group participants as referring to Christ's divinity. I like "Human One". To me, it has an emotional impact that the original language probably had on first century readers. If it shakes you up a little, then congratulations! Welcome to the wonder of the Incarnation.
If the rest of the CEB is like Matthew, it's going to be a well done, middle-of-the-road translation. It makes use of modern English with contractions, so the text flows smoothly when read aloud. And appropriate traditional language is retained (e.g. "Father, Son, Holy Spirit" and "Our Father"). There are places where "God" is used instead of a masculine pronoun, but I don't think the translators were going out of their way to avoid gender pronouns. Nothing I've read so far seems awkward anyway.
Download the sampler and read through it. Then feel free to post your comments below. I'm sure the translation team and the project director would love to get your feedback.
