But that's presumably pre-NEB, Anty. The King James version sonorously declaimed in vast vaulted spaces is an inspirational thing of beauty, but I'm not convinced that a reading from the New English Bible has anything like the same power to affect the listener.
The NEB is
so 1960s. Evangelicals use the New International Version, mainline C of E recommends the New Revised Standard Version (English, as opposed to American, version, based on the Authorised Version but with yous rather than thous.) RCs are still using the Jerusalem version (which used to have the irritating habit of translating THE LORD in the Hebrew scriptures as Yaweh, a term offensive to Jews). Greek Orthodox are the only ones who use the original Greek.
The Authorised Version (King James is an Americanism) is fine for Choral Evensong, but it is hopeless if you are trying to make out what St Paul was trying to say. It does not take account of biblical scholarship in the last 400 years.
I know this sounds smugly Anglican, but the Kirk of Scotland did its best to get rid of any vast vaulted spaces. Only Glasgow Cathedral survives of the medieval cathedrals of Scotland.
I reckon the best thing for a bit of atmosphere is clouds and clouds of incense. Then the translation used doesn't matter.
