The Uncommon English Bible

I keep being impressed by the credentials of the new Common English Bible (CEB) translation.  As well as a wide, representative range of mainstream Protestant scholars and writers, some pretty hefty Catholic talent has been incorporated into the project:

Raymond F. Collins, John J. Collins, Carol Dempsey, Daniel Harrington, Luke Timothy Johnson, Pheme Perkins...

To name six of the eleven Catholic contributors (the ones I've heard of, the full list is here), a pretty high-powered lineup.

Less impressive is the 'brand recognition' Down Under.  I wandered into Church Supplies in Ellerslie this afternoon, undoubtedly Auckland's best Christian resource centre. Nobody there had heard of it.  The helpful older gentleman on the counter, who initially thought I meant the vile, demon-spawned Contemporary English Version (CEV), rang the Bible Society to see if they had it in stock: but they also hadn't heard of it.  Then he rang the local distributor for most American Christian publishing houses.  Whataya know, they hadn't heard of it either.  That's a fail trifecta.

Just as easy, I guess, to instantly download a Kindle edition of the CEB with Apocrypha to the PC for under $5. At least until the booksellers get up to speed.