Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As a Catholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
. It also contains copious footnotes and introductions.
For roughly half a century, the Jerusalem Bible has been the basis of the lectionary for Mass used in
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
worship throughout much of the English-speaking world outside of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
and the
Revised New Jerusalem Bible
The ''Revised New Jerusalem Bible'' (RNJB) is an English translation of the Catholic Bible translated by the Benedictine scholar Henry Wansbrough as an update and successor to the 1966 ''Jerusalem Bible'' and the 1985 ''New Jerusalem Bible''.
...
in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
, and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
's
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
translated the scriptures into French. The product of these efforts was published as La Bible de Jérusalem in 1956.
This French translation served as the impetus for an English translation in 1966, the Jerusalem Bible. For the majority of the books, the English translation was a translation of the Hebrew and Greek texts; in passages with more than one interpretation, the interpretation chosen by the French translators is generally followed. For a small number of Old Testament books, the first draft of the English translation was made directly from the French, and then the General Editor (Fr Alexander Jones) produced a revised draft by comparing this word-for-word to the Hebrew or Aramaic texts. The footnotes and book introductions are almost literal translations from the French.
Translation
The editor of the '' New Jerusalem Bible'', Henry Wansbrough, claims the Jerusalem Bible "was basically a translation from the French ''Bible de Jérusalem'', conceived primarily to convey to the English-speaking world the biblical scholarship of this French Bible. The translation of the text was originally no more than a vehicle for the notes". He also writes: "Despite claims to the contrary, it is clear that the Jerusalem Bible was translated from the French, possibly with occasional glances at the Hebrew or Greek, rather than vice versa."
The dynamic equivalence of the translation is more "thought-for-thought" than "word-for-word" compared to other modern translations. The introductions, footnotes, and even the translation itself reflect a modern scholarly approach and the conclusions of scholars who use historical-critical method. As examples, the introduction and notes reject Moses' authorship of the
Pentateuch
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
, as well as the Book of Wisdom having been authored by King Solomon.
The Jerusalem Bible was the first widely-accepted Roman Catholic English translation of the Bible since the Douay–Rheims Version of the 17th century. It has also been widely praised for an overall very high level of scholarship, and is widely admired and sometimes used by liberal and moderate Protestants. The Jerusalem Bible is one of the versions authorized to be used in services of the Episcopal Church and other
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
churches.
J. R. R. Tolkien translated the Book of Jonah for the Jerusalem Bible, although its final version was heavily edited.
Translation of the tetragrammaton
The Jerusalem Bible returned to the use of the historical name
Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he po ...
as the name of God in the Old Testament, rendered as such in 6,823 places within this translation. If La Bible de Jerusalem of 1956 had been followed literally, this name would have been translated as "the Eternal." The move has been welcomed by some; however, it has not been popular among groups who would prefer the name of God be left unpronounced, or replaced by "the LORD" or another title.
On 29 June 2008, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote to the presidents of all conferences of bishops at the behest of
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereig ...
, stating that the use of the name Yahweh was to be dropped from Catholic Bibles in liturgical use, (most notably the ''CTS New Catholic Bible'' which uses the ''Jerusalem Bible'' text), as well as from songs and prayers, since pronunciation of this name violates long-standing
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
* In 1973, the French translation received an update. A third French edition was produced in 1998.
* In 1985, the English translation was completely updated. This new translation – known as the '' New Jerusalem Bible'' – was freshly translated from the original languages and not tied to any French translation (except indirectly, because it maintained many of the stylistic and interpretive choices of the French Jerusalem Bible).
* In 2007 the Catholic Truth Society published the ''CTS New Catholic Bible'', consisting of a revision of the original 1966 ''Jerusalem Bible'' text in order to make its text match the text which is contained in the lectionaries which are used in most English-speaking countries, in conformity with the directives of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and the
Pontifical Biblical Commission
The Pontifical Biblical Commission () is a pontifical commission established within the Roman Curia to ensure the proper interpretation and defense of the Bible.
Since 1988, it has been closely attached to the Congregation for the Doctrine of t ...
. The name "
Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he po ...
" has been replaced with "the LORD" throughout the Old Testament, and the
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
have been completely replaced with the 1963 Grail Psalter. The revised text is accompanied by new introductions, and textual and liturgical notes, supplemented as needed with material from the notes to the '' New Jerusalem Bible''.
* Last updated in 1998, the French ''La Bible de Jérusalem'' is currently the subject of a revision project operating under the title ''The Bible in its Traditions.'' According to the notes, more weight will be given to the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...
in the translation of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" '' Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
will remain the primary source. The French portion of the ''Demonstration Volume'' is available online, together with a single sample of the English translation. In this new version, the tetragrammaton is not transliterated as in the Jerusalem Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible, and several kinds of commentary are included in a manner different from the practice of other Bible editions.
*Publisher Darton, Longman and Todd published the ''
Revised New Jerusalem Bible
The ''Revised New Jerusalem Bible'' (RNJB) is an English translation of the Catholic Bible translated by the Benedictine scholar Henry Wansbrough as an update and successor to the 1966 ''Jerusalem Bible'' and the 1985 ''New Jerusalem Bible''.
...
'' in 2018. Substantially revising the JB and NJB texts, the new translation "applies formal equivalence translation for a more accurate rendering of the original scriptures, sensitivity to readable speech patterns and more inclusive language." It contains new study notes and book introductions written by Henry Wansbrough.