Common English Bible(CEB)
A readable, mainline-sponsored translation aimed at a comfortable 7th-grade reading level, best known for rendering “the Son of Man” as “the Human One.”
At a Glance
- Reading Level
- 7
- NT Textual Basis
- Critical Text
- Quote Limit
- 500 verses
- Red Letter Edition
- Red letter edition available: Yes
- Marks OT Quotations in NT
- Marks OT quotations in NT: No
- Italicizes Translator Words
- Italicizes translator-supplied words: No
- Capitalizes Deity Pronouns
- Capitalizes deity pronouns: No
- Quotation Marks for Dialogue
- Uses quotation marks for dialogue: Yes
Overview
The Common English Bible was published in 2011 by an alliance of the publishing houses of five mainline Protestant denominations — Chalice Press (Disciples of Christ), Westminster John Knox Press (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.), Church Publishing (Episcopal Church), Abingdon Press (United Methodist Church), and Pilgrim Press (United Church of Christ). About 120 scholars from two dozen traditions translated it, and it was field-tested with 77 reading groups — more than 500 people — before release.
Its central goal is readability. The CEB targets a 7th-grade reading level, comfortable for a majority of English readers, using a functional-equivalence approach that prioritizes clear, natural, contemporary sentences over word-for-word correspondence. It sits roughly between the NIV and the NLT on the literal-to-readable spectrum, and translates from the standard Critical Text.
The CEB uses gender-inclusive language for humanity and takes contemporary approaches to several traditional phrases: “the Human One” in place of “the Son of Man,” everyday vocabulary in place of church jargon where possible, and — following a minority manuscript reading, as the NIV also does — God as the explicit subject of Romans 8:28 (“God works all things together for good”).
It is used across mainline Protestantism, most visibly in United Methodist and Presbyterian settings — the CEB Study Bible is a common confirmation-class and small-group resource — and it appears alongside the NRSV in many mainline pews. Abingdon Press, the United Methodist Church's own publishing house, is one of its five sponsors.
Distinctives
- Renders the Greek “Son of Man” as “the Human One” throughout — a literal take on the underlying idiom that is the CEB's single most recognizable and most debated choice.
- Built and field-tested for a 7th-grade reading level, with input from 77 reading groups before publication.
- Sponsored by an alliance of five mainline denominational publishers (Disciples, PC(USA), Episcopal, UMC, UCC) rather than a single house.
- Uses gender-inclusive language for humanity and plain contemporary vocabulary in place of traditional church terms where possible.
- Makes God the explicit subject of Romans 8:28 — “God works all things together for good” — following a minority manuscript reading, as the NIV also does.
Good Fit For
- Mainline Protestant small groups, confirmation classes, and daily reading, especially where the CEB Study Bible is already in use.
- Readers who find the NRSV's formal sentences heavy going and want a clear, contemporary text from the same broad tradition.
- New readers, younger readers, and anyone reading Scripture in longer stretches rather than studying it phrase by phrase.
Worth Knowing
“The Human One” is the CEB's attempt to translate what “Son of Man” meant rather than transliterate it. In the Gospels it is how Jesus most often refers to himself, and the CEB's translators argued that long use had turned the phrase into a title readers no longer hear as words. Critics counter that it severs the link to Daniel 7, where “one like a son of man” is a specific, weighted image. It is the choice most people point to as either the CEB's strength or its dealbreaker.
Sample Verse — John 3:16
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.
Scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible. Used by permission. All rights reserved.