REB Module for e-Sword
I previously reviewed e-Sword and found it a pleasant surprise in the free Bible software category. Note that my review was written in 2006, within a few days of my starting this blog, and a great deal has happened since then. Hopefully I will manage to write an updated review soon.
But there is more exciting news. I got an e-mail today from Thought-Sight Consulting regarding an REB module for e-Sword. You can go straight to the purchase page here, but the first page I linked has a great deal of valuable information.
Many of us object to paying for modules to add to free software, but if you want the REB, you’re going to have to pay. It’s under copyright, and the publishers are not giving permission for free distribution.
Henry,
I just stumbled onto your site and noticed your appreciation for the REB. I just started reading from it last month (Oct. 2010) and have thoroughly enjoyed it, coming out of the NASBu/NKJV/ESV camp the past 20 years.
Can you provide any more insights into your passion for the REB and why you have say it’s your favorite translation to read from? I would be extremely interested in finding out how you started reading this fine translation.
By the way Henry, here are 50 pictures of my new Cambridge REB Bible which just came out last month:
http://picasaweb.google.com/erikkowalker/CambridgeRevisedEnglishBibleREBInGrayImitationLeather#
Looking forward to your response.
~ Erik
My first contact with the Revised English Bible was in looking at various translations of Hebrew poetry. I regard it as one of the best English translations for getting a similar feel in the English text to what I would get from reading in the Hebrew text. There are still many places where I would disagree, but that’s just the nature of poetry translation, especially Hebrew to English.
After that I just started reading it for enjoyment. I found that I only rarely disagree with the rendering, and I generally find it reads well. I spent a good deal of time in the British commonwealth in my youth, and I actually like the British flavour of the text. That same characteristic has made many American readers reject it.
In some cases I think it uses a higher register of language than does the source, but rarely do translations actually try to match the register throughout.
You can find a bit more about my views on Bible translation at mybibleversion.com.
Henry,
Thanks so much for the response. With you having a background in the UK growing up, I can see why the flavor of the text appeals to you. There is so much I enjoy about the REB text, however, I must admit, the British terms pop up every now and then and force me to stop, think, and try to figure out what in the world that particular word means. 😉
Anyhow, I’ll keep reading the REB in my devotional times. Hopefully someone, someday will be so kind to make an “American” version of the REB text to go along with the “British” version of the REB text.
By the way Henry, I think the REB simply came out at the most unfortunate of times back in 1989. First of all, it took 19 years to revised The New English Bible from 1970, much to lengthy of a gap for a Bible revision.
Secondly, it’s arrival in 1989 was right in the middle of the NIV taking over the KJV as the #1 Bible on the purchasing charts in the late 80’s and the arrival of the NRSV in 1990.
All this, blended with poor marketing here in the States, led the REB to just being an “under the radar” Bible translation that really never got off the ground.
They’re great photos Erik, which have persuaded me to purchase that issue, to compliment/replace my well-worn hardback copy.
You’re right about the translation being unjustly overlooked; even here in Britain it is too. I find it to be in most places an improvement on its predecessor (the NEB), especially in the Old Testament, which was unnecessarily controversial in so many of its renderings.
The REB marketing has been poor, I must sadly agree, on both sides of the Atlantic, which has not helped its adoption by either churches or individuals. Rather sad.