Contemporary English Version(CEV)

The Contemporary English Version grew out of research Dr. Barclay M. Newman began in 1984 for the American Bible Society, studying how ordinary English is actually spoken and heard — in books, magazines, television, and everyday conversation — rather than how it's written for silent, literate readers. The New Testament was published in 1991, for the American Bible Society's 175th anniversary, and the complete Bible followed in 1995.

The CEV's guiding principle, in Newman's own words, was that the text "must be understood by people without stumbling in speech" when read aloud, and "must be understood by those with little or no comprehension of 'Bible' language." That put oral clarity — not just silent readability — at the center of the translation process in a way most other translations don't emphasize as explicitly; drafts were tested by reading them aloud to listeners, including children, rather than only checked on the page.

Like its ABS sibling the Good News Translation, the CEV uses a dynamic, thought-for-thought approach, and was produced by a team of more than a hundred scholars across the original languages, linguistics, and English style, drawn from a range of church traditions.

On gender language, the CEV takes an inclusive approach, translating generic references to people — “everyone,” “humans,” “men and women” — rather than defaulting to generic masculine terms wherever the original addresses people in general rather than a specific man.