Abstract: The present invention relates to a new cell-free translation system. In particular, the invention relates to a cell-free reaction system for translating in vitro a RNA into a protein, said reaction system comprising a ribosome-depleted red blood cell lysate and ribosomes isolated from eukaryotic cells, with the proviso that (1) when the ribosome-depleted red blood cell lysate is obtained from a nuclease untreated rabbit reticulocyte lysate, the eukaryotic cells from which ribosomes are isolated are not nuclease untreated rabbit reticulocytes, and (2) when the ribosome-depleted red blood cell lysate is obtained from a nuclease treated rabbit reticulocyte lysate, the eukaryotic cells from which ribosomes are isolated are not nuclease treated rabbit reticulocytes. The invention also pertains to a method for translating in vitro a ribonucleic acid template into an amino acid sequence of interest using the cell-free reaction system of the invention.