Bibles to Graduates

 

Each year, as a gift from the Marshall Center for Christian Ministry, every graduating senior at Georgetown College (May & December) receives a copy of the Good News Translation Bible. The Bible gifts are made possible through the Wanda P. Higbee & Maribeth P. Hambrick Bible Endowment, and the love and legacy of these two women who are both GC alums. Wanda P. Higbee was a 1957 honors graduate of Georgetown College. Maribeth Porter Hambrick is a 1949 graduate of Georgetown College and served as a College Trustee from 1991-1999.

Why the Good News Translation? Because the primary New Testament translator and the Chair of the Old Testament translators was Dr. Robert G. Brathcher. Robert Bratcher, missionary kid from Brazil, was a 1941 graduate of Georgetown College.

He went on to earn his Th.M. and Th.D. degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Working for the American Bible Society, employing an approach to translation known as “dynamic equivalence,” and rendering the text in simple, everyday English; Robert Bratcher produced an English translation of the New Testament that was published in 1966 as Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today’s English Version. Following the addition of the OT translation, today the Bible is called the Good News Translation. This translation of the Bible has been deeply meaningful to many people around the world.