Earlier today, Cambridge Bibles posted an announcement on their Facebook page with two updates:
- They will be reprinting a hardcover edition of REB Text Bible with Apocrypha “soon.”
- They would also like to publish a leather-bound “special treatment” of the REB Text Bible with Apocrypha and are asking for feedback on the following questions:
– Would you like to see a leather bound edition?
– If so, what type of leather would you prefer?
– Are there particular colours you’d love to see?
– Would you want to see any specific traditional luxury binding features?
– And what price point would you feel comfortable with for a special edition like this?
As a long-time fan of the REB, I’m excited to hear this news, and I’ll be emailing Cambridge with my own feedback. Based on their description, I do not think it’s likely that Cambridge will consider a new typesetting like the Diadem or Clarion (they specifically referred to a leather edition of the REB Text Bible with Apocrypha), but feedback on pricing and leather could give them valuable information on how much of a market exists for a premium REB. If any of you are also fans of the REB, I’d encourage you to share your feedback with Cambridge, either through their Facebook page or by email.
I would probably be interested in buying the hardcover reprint (I haven’t developed the liking for leather covers) but for me the biggest factor will be the paper. The Cambridge Cornerstone edition of the the ESV-CE had such terrible ghosting that no kind of cover would induce me to buy.
I would like the copyright holder to revive this translation by making it more widely available in e-book, audiobook, and other formats. It is an excellent translation which has never gotten a fair chance because it had the misfortune of being published at the same time as the NRV, which quickly sucked up all the oxygen. It deserves a second chance.
The REB translation is available on Verbum. I wish the Knox was also available in digital formats.
Also on Olive Tree Bible software
I’d be much more interested if they’d release the REB in a large print thinline edition.
I agree with just wanting a quality hardcover. After going through a bit of a leather phase a few years back, complete with getting interested in rebinds, I eventually fell in love with quality hardcover Bibles: no exotic leathers, no page-edge gilding, and no other detailed specs that self-professed “Bible snobs” love to discuss endlessly; just a sewn binding, good paper with dark, line-matched print, and cloth cover with or without a dust jacket. I credit the Jerusalem Bible family and Cambridge’s own hardcover Bible offerings of the KJV and NRSV for kindling my love for hardcover Bibles! I recently saw Thomas Nelson premiere a parallel NKJV/NET New Testament, and only when it was revealed in hardcover rather than just faux-leather did I seriously consider it.
I also agree with BC about a REB revival. Give it the full e-book treatment, get it on BibleGateway rather than just on Logos, and give it an audiobook for at least the New Testament. While they haven’t gone far enough in my opinion, since it’s not on BibleGateway or Logos, though it is on NewAdvent and some other Catholic sites freely readable, Baronius Press has done fairly well in reviving the Knox Bible from utter oblivion, at least to those in the Latin crowd already willing to be interested.
I don’t have a copy of either anymore, but I love both the NEB and REB. I hope to see them back in print, preferably in a classy harback.
What I especially appreciate about the REB is that, in a sense, it’s the only translation sponsored directly and developed jointly by Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and other Protestant churches themselves.
There’s plenty of Bibles created with ecumenical teams (e.g. RSV-NRSVue) and Bibles created within one tradition that are later approved by others for use (e.g. NLT and ESV taken up by Catholics, NAB and RNJB approved by Episcopalians, etc.).
But REB is the only one I can think of that was “sponsored” by the Catholic Church, a bunch of Anglican churches, the Methodists, various Baptists, other Protestant bodies, the Quakers… even the Salvation Army! I think of it as the one translation these churches agreed to create together.