Good News Translation
A copy of the GNB, published in 1976
Full name:	Good News Translation
Other names:	Good News Bible
Abbreviation:	GNT or GNB
NT published:	1966
OT published:	1976
Complete Bible published:	1976
Textual Basis:	Medium Correspondence to Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition.
Translation type:	Dynamic equivalence.
Genesis 1:1-3
In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, "Let there be light" — and light appeared.
John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

The Good News Translation (GNT) as it is known in North America, or the Good News Bible (GNB) as it is known in the rest of the world, is an English language translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society, 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. Beauty shot of the Good News Translation published in 1976. ... Beauty shot of the Good News Translation published in 1976. ... This article is about the Christian scriptures. ... Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Note: Judaism... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Novum Testamentum Graece is the name (in the Latin language) of the Greek language version of the New Testament. ... Dynamic equivalence is an approach to translation in which the original language is translated thought for thought rather than word for word as in formal equivalence. ... John 3:16 (chapter 3, verse 16 of the Gospel of John) is one of the most widely quoted verses from the Christian Bible. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... For other uses, see Bible (disambiguation). ... The American Bible Society (ABS) is a group, founded in 1816, that publishes, distributes, and translates the Bible. ... Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. ... The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in Britain as simply as the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian charity that exists to make the Bible available throughout the world. ...

In North America, it was formerly known as Today's English Version (TEV) but in 2001 was renamed the Good News Translation because of misconceptions that it was merely a paraphrase and not a genuine translation [1]. In fact, despite the official terminology, it was and is often referred to as the Good News Bible in America as well as elsewhere.

Beginnings

The beginnings of the Good News Translation can be traced to requests made by people in Africa and the Far East for a version of the Bible that was friendly to non-native English speakers. In 1961, a home missions board also made a request for the same type of translation. Besides these requests, the GNT was born out of the translation theories of linguist Eugene Nida, the Executive Secretary of the American Bible Society's Translations Department. In the 1960s, Nida envisioned a new style of translation called Dynamic equivalence. 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 result, titled Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today's English Version, was released in 1966. 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. In 1992, the translation was revised. Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Eugene A. Nida is the developer of the dynamic equivalence translation theory. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969. ... Dynamic equivalence is an approach to translation in which the original language is translated thought for thought rather than word for word as in formal equivalence. ... The Gospel of Mark, anonymous[1] but traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist, is a synoptic gospel of the New Testament. ... This article is about the Christian scriptures. ... Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Note: Judaism... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... The biblical apocrypha includes texts written in the Jewish and Christian religious traditions that either were accepted into the biblical canon by some, but not all, Christian faiths, or are frequently printed in Bibles despite their non-canonical status. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...

Popularity

The GNT has been a popular translation. 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 and Christian groups such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and the Presbyterian Church (USA)[2]. The GNT is one of the authorized versions to be used in the Episcopal Church. Excerpts from the New Testament were used extensively in evangelistic campaigns, such as the Billy Graham crusades and others, from the late 1960s right through to the early 1980s. In 1991, a Gallup poll of British parishioners showed that the GNT was the most popular Bible version in that nation. In 2003, the GNT was used as the basis for a film version of the Gospel of John. The efforts of translating the Bible from its original languages into over 2,000 others have spanned more than two millennia. ... A number of Old English Bible translations were prepared in mediaeval England, translations of parts of the Bible into the Old English language. ... The age of Middle English was not a fertile time for Bible translations but saw the first major translation that of John Wyclif. ... Early Modern English Bible translations are those translations of the Bible which were made between about 1500 and 1800, the period of Early Modern English. ... There are many attempts to translate the Bible into modern English which is defined as the form of English in use after 1800. ... Jewish English Bible translations are modern English Bible translations that include the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) according to the masoretic text, and according to the traditional division and order of Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar, known as the year of cyclohexanol. ... For other uses, see Billy Graham (disambiguation) and Bill Graham. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ... The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a United States-based Christian denomination that consists of numerous agencies including six seminaries, two mission boards and a variety of other organizations such as: the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which can act for the SBC ad interim between annual meetings... LCMS redirects here. ... Emblem of the PC(USA) The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or PC(USA) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. ... This article is about the Episcopal Church in the United States. ... This article is about the Christian scriptures. ... Look up evangelist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar. ... A Gallup Poll is an opinion poll conducted by The Gallup Organization and frequently used by the mass media for representing public opinion. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Gospel of John is a 2003 movie that is the story of Jesus life as recounted by the Gospel of John. ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ...

Features

The GNT 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. Unlike most other translations, the GNT contains line drawings of Biblical events with a snippet of text. The line drawings were done by Annie Vallotton. However, Vallotton is credited with doing the drawings only in certain editions of the GNT — in others, the drawings are simply credited to "a Swiss artist". There are introductions to each book of the Bible. A male Caucasian toddler child A child (plural: children) is a young human. ...

Since the focus is strongly on ease of understanding, poetry is sometimes sacrificed for clarity. This choice can be seen in the example quote of John 3:16, which is rendered "For God loved the world so much that . . ." which is more pedestrian than the familiar "For God so loved the world . . . ."

Criticism

The GNT has been challenged as to the degree of accuracy one of the translators maintained to the Greek texts. A lot of concern was raised after Robert Bratcher made public statements questioning the inerrancy and inspiration of scripture in March of 1981, as well as deriding those who hold to such views as dishonest or willfully ignorant. Many people believe that Bratcher's viewpoints unduly influenced what was written into the GNT version. His speech so outraged many churches that they withheld monetary donations to the American Bible Society, a move that nearly bankrupted the ABS. The ABS requested Bratcher's resignation later that year.

Further statements from Bratcher and subsequent investigation of the GNT cause some to believe that it weakens or undermines other key doctrines, such as the virgin birth of Christ; it failed the "Isaiah 7.14 litmus test" that had been used by conservative Christians since the publication of the Revised Standard Version in 1952 (see Revised Standard Version#Reception and controversy). The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in the mid-20th century. ... The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in the mid-20th century. ...

As Baptist missionary David Cloud wrote, "The popularity of the Today's English Version is frightful in light of its perverted renderings of key passages dealing with Christ's deity, the inspiration and preservation of Scripture, the blood atonement, and many other doctrines."^[1]

Others emphasise however that Bratcher was only part of a committee of translators, and that this attack is simply an attempt to support the view held by some that "Literal translations, especially the King James Version, are God's word, and all dynamic translations are evil" argument, typified by the King-James-Only Movement. The Bible Societies' latest release is the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. The King-James-Only Movement is a position, usually of Fundamentalist Protestant Christians of English-speaking countries, which rejects all modern versions of the Bible, accepting only the King James Version (KJV), also known as the Authorized Version (AV), as the only accurate and reliable translation. ... The Contemporary English Version or CEV (also known as Bible for Todays Family) is a new translation of the Bible into English, published by the American Bible Society. ...

The GNT has also come under heavy criticism from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for substituting the inaccurate and anachronistic designation "Sudan" (originally referring to Western Africa) in place of the original word Kush in Hebrew, Ethiopia in the Septuagint^[2]. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is an Oriental Orthodox church in Ethiopia that was part of the Coptic Church until it was granted its own Patriarch by Cyril VI, the Coptic Pope, in 1959. ...

See also

• American Bible Society
• The Gospel of John - a movie based word-for-word on the Good News Translation.
• New Living Translation

The American Bible Society (ABS) is a group, founded in 1816, that publishes, distributes, and translates the Bible. ... The Gospel of John is a 2003 movie that is the story of Jesus life as recounted by the Gospel of John. ... For other uses of the abbreviation, please see NLT (disambiguation). ...

References

• Metzger, Bruce. The Bible in Translation, pp. 167-168.
• Cloud, David, A Most Frightful Deception: The Good News Bible and Translator Robert Bratcher at http://www.wayoflife.org/articles/tev.htm.
• The Canons of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church: Canon 2: Of Translations of the Bible. (PDF file) At http://www.churchpublishing.org/general_convention/pdf_const_2003/Title_II_Worship.pdf.
• Marlowe, Michael. Good News Bible at http://www.bible-researcher.com/tev.html.
• Sheeley, Steven M. and Nash, Jr., Robert N. Choosing A Bible, pp. 38, 52-53.

External links

• Anti GNT review By Terry Watkins, who also advocates exclusive use of the King James Version
• Good News Translation text (US)
• Good News Translation text (UK)
• Article on renaming of the Good News Bible