The 1992 Revision of the Good News Bible: The Context for Revision

This article surveys the wider context in the 1970s–1980s that compelled Bible publishers to prepare revisions of their translations: the rapid shift in spoken English was making the masculine-heavy English of major Bible translations feel antiquated to readers. The Good News Bible New Testament was first published in 1966 and its Old Testament in 1976, but already by the mid-1980s revision was being contemplated by the American Bible Society. The revision process was thoroughgoing and collaborative, with all English-using Bible Societies participating. More than 6,000 revisions were proposed and reviewed, with about 2,500 meeting consensus. Most were related to gender-exclusion, but a few were exegetical. Although the United Bible Societies’ Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommendations on almost 6,000 textual cruxes were published in preliminary form by 1979, the Good News Bible revision process could not incorporate those data. An addendum discusses the addition of the deuterocanonical books in 1979.