New English Bible
Oxford University Press / Cambridge University Press
First published 1970
New English Bible
The New English Bible (NEB) was a landmark British ecumenical translation — the first major English Bible to break entirely from the KJV tradition, using completely fresh idiomatic British English rather than revising any earlier version. Its NT was released in 1961 and the complete Bible in 1970.
History & Background
Commissioned by the Church of Scotland in 1946 with support from all major British Protestant denominations (Church of England, Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian). C.H. Dodd served as Director. The NT alone sold over a million copies in its first week. Praised for literary quality but criticized for some idiosyncratic renderings; it was superseded by the Revised English Bible (REB) in 1989.
Canon Proximity Rating
Main edition contains 66 Protestant books; an edition with Apocrypha was also published. Important for its literary ambition and ecumenical sponsorship.