Jerusalem Bible

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The Jerusalem Bible
Jerusalem Bible.jpg
Full nameThe Jerusalem Bible
AbbreviationJB or TJB
Complete Bible
published
1966
Textual basis Old Testament:La Bible de Jerusalem, Masoretic text with strong Septuagint (especially in Psalms) and some Vulgate influence. New Testament:La Bible de Jérusalem, Eclectic text with high correspondence to the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece with major variant readings from the Majority text and sacred tradition (i.e. Comma Johanneum and the longer ending of Mark) incorporated or noted. Deuterocanon: Septuagint with Vulgate influence.
Translation type Dynamic equivalence
Copyright1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Co. Inc.
Webpage www.dltbibles.com/the-jb
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water. God said, 'Let there be light', and there was light.
Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.

The Jerusalem Bible (JB or TJB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As a Catholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with the Hebrew Bible, along with the seven deuterocanonical books, as the Old Testament, and the 27 books shared by all Christians as the New Testament. It also contains copious footnotes and introductions.

Contents

For roughly half a century, the Jerusalem Bible has been the basis of the lectionary for Mass used in Catholic worship throughout much of the English-speaking world outside of North America, though in recent years various Bishops' conferences have begun to transition to newer translations, including the English Standard Version, Catholic Edition in the United Kingdom and India [1] and the Revised New Jerusalem Bible in Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. [2]

History

In 1943 Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical letter, Divino afflante Spiritu , which encouraged Catholics to translate the scriptures from the Hebrew and Greek texts, rather than from Jerome's Latin Vulgate. As a result, a number of Dominicans and other scholars at the École Biblique in Jerusalem 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 with the Hebrew or Aramaic texts. [lower-alpha 1]

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." [3]

The Jerusalem Bible was the first widely-accepted 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. [4]

J. R. R. Tolkien translated the Book of Jonah for the Jerusalem Bible, although its final version was heavily edited, and he is listed among its "principal collaborators". [lower-alpha 2] [6]

Translation of the tetragrammaton

The Jerusalem Bible returned to the use of the historical name Yahweh 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". [7] The move has been welcomed by some.[ who? ] [8]

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, stating that the use of the name Yahweh was to be dropped from Catholic Bibles in liturgical use [9] (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 and Christian tradition. [10]

Updates

See also

Notes

  1. This is explained in the Editor's Foreword to the Jerusalem Bible.
  2. On his contribution to the Jerusalem Bible, Tolkien wrote, "Naming me among the 'principal collaborators' was an undeserved courtesy on the part of the editor of the Jerusalem Bible. I was consulted on one or two points of style, and criticized some contributions of others. I was originally assigned a large amount of text to translate, but after doing some necessary preliminary work I was obliged to resign owing to pressure of other work, and only completed 'Jonah', one of the shortest books." [5]

Related Research Articles

The deuterocanonical books are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches or the Assyrian Church of the East to be canonical books of the Old Testament, but which Jews and Protestants regard as apocrypha. They date from 300 BC to 100 AD, before the separation of the Christian church from Judaism. While the New Testament never directly quotes from or names these books, the apostles quoted the Septuagint, which includes them. Some say there is a correspondence of thought, and others see texts from these books being paraphrased, referred, or alluded to many times in the New Testament, depending in large measure on what is counted as a reference.

The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.

Jah or Yah is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revised Standard Version</span> English translation of the Bible

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation itself is a revision of the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901, and was intended to be a readable and literally accurate modern English translation which aimed to "preserve all that is best in the English Bible as it has been known and used through the centuries" and "to put the message of the Bible in simple, enduring words that are worthy to stand in the great Tyndale-King James tradition."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Revised Standard Version</span> English translation of the Bible

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches, the NRSV was created by an ecumenical committee of scholars "comprising about thirty members". The NRSV relies on recently published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. A major revision, the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue), was released in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New American Bible</span> English-language Catholic Bible translation

The New American Bible (NAB) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1970. The 1986 Revised NAB is the basis of the revised Lectionary, and it is the only translation approved for use at Mass in the Latin Church Catholic dioceses of the United States and the Philippines, and the 1970 first edition is also an approved Bible translation by the Episcopal Church in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</span> 1966 English translation of the Bible

The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1966. In 1965, the Catholic Biblical Association adapted, under the editorship of Bernard Orchard OSB and Reginald C. Fuller, the Revised Standard Version (RSV) for Catholic use. It contains the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament placed in the traditional order of the Vulgate. The editors' stated aim for the RSV Catholic Edition was "to make the minimum number of alterations, and to change only what seemed absolutely necessary in the light of Catholic tradition."

<i>New Jerusalem Bible</i> 1985 Catholic English translation of the Bible

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is an English-language translation of the Bible published in 1985 by Darton, Longman and Todd and Les Editions du Cerf, edited by Benedictine biblical scholar Henry Wansbrough, and approved for use in study and personal devotion by members of the Catholic Church and approved also by the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lectionary</span> Book of approved scripture readings in Abrahamic religions

A lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Jewish worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and an epistolary with the readings from the New Testament Epistles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Truth Society</span> Prints and publishes Catholic literature

Catholic Truth Society (CTS) is a body that prints and publishes Catholic literature, including apologetics, prayerbooks, spiritual reading, and lives of saints. It is based in London, the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jehovah</span> Vocalization of the divine name YHWH

Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָהYəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton יהוה is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God's name in Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biblical apocrypha</span> Ancient books found in some editions of Bibles

The biblical apocrypha denotes the collection of apocryphal ancient books thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and AD 100. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches include some or all of the same texts within the body of their version of the Old Testament, with Catholics terming them deuterocanonical books. Traditional 80-book Protestant Bibles include fourteen books in an intertestamental section between the Old Testament and New Testament called the Apocrypha, deeming these useful for instruction, but non-canonical. To this date, the Apocrypha are "included in the lectionaries of Anglican and Lutheran Churches". Anabaptists use the Luther Bible, which contains the Apocrypha as intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the Apocrypha". Moreover, the Revised Common Lectionary, in use by most mainline Protestants including Methodists and Moravians, lists readings from the Apocrypha in the liturgical calendar, although alternate Old Testament scripture lessons are provided.

Several Spanish translations of the Bible have been made since approximately 700 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Joseph Lagrange</span>

Marie-Joseph Lagrange was a Catholic priest in the Dominican Order, theologian and founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Bible</span> Catholic Church canon of Bible books

The term Catholic Bible can be understood in two ways. More generally, it can refer to a Christian Bible that includes the whole 73-book canon recognized by the Catholic Church, including some of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament which are in the Greek Septuagint collection, but which are not present in the Hebrew Masoretic Text collection. More specifically, the term can refer to a version or translation of the Bible which is published with the Catholic Church's approval, in accordance with Catholic canon law.

Bible translations into French date back to the Medieval era. After a number of French Bible translations in the Middle Ages, the first printed translation of the Bible into French was the work of the French theologian Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples in 1530 in Antwerp. This was substantially revised and improved in 1535 by Pierre Robert Olivétan. This Bible, in turn, became the basis of the first French Catholic Bible, published at Leuven in 1550, the work of Nicholas de Leuze and François de Larben. Finally, the Bible de Port-Royal, prepared by Antoine Lemaistre and his brother Louis Isaac Lemaistre, finished in 1695, achieved broad acceptance among both Catholics and Protestants. Jean-Frédéric Ostervald's version (1744) also enjoyed widespread popularity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Name Bible</span> Bible translations that use Hebraic forms of Gods personal name (YHWH)

Sacred Name Bibles are Bible translations that consistently use Hebraic forms of the God of Israel's personal name, instead of its English language translation, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have LORD.

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor was an Irish Dominican priest, a leading authority on St. Paul, and a Professor of New Testament at the École Biblique in Jerusalem, a position that he held from 1967 until his death.

Maurice Benoit, also Pierre-Maurice and Maurice-Marie Benoit, better known as Father Pierre Benoit, was a French Catholic priest, exegete, and theologian who became an expert on the archaeology of Jerusalem. Pierre Benoit impressed with his combination of both unswerving Christian faith, and skeptical and open-minded approach to biblical history typical for a scientist, the one side never impeding on the other.

<i>Revised New Jerusalem Bible</i> 2019 Catholic English translation of the 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.

References

Citations

  1. "The New Lectionary for England and Wales". www.liturgyoffice.org. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  2. "New Zealand helps with new lectionary project". www.cathnews.co.nz. 2021-05-10. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  3. Wansbrough, Henry. "How the Bible Came to Us". Archived from the original on 2015-03-22.[ clarification needed ]
  4. Episcopal Church 2016, p. 61.
  5. Tolkien 1981, letter 294.
  6. "Read a rare, unedited translation of Jonah by J.R.R. Tolkien". Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture. 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  7. La Bible de Jerusalem (1956), Genesis 2:4, et passim.
  8. Archer 1971.
  9. "Letter to the Bishops Conferences on the Name of God". 2007-12-31. Archived from the original on 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  10. CatholicMusicNetwork.com (26 August 2008). "Vatican Says No 'Yahweh' In Songs, Prayers At Catholic Masses". Catholic Online. Catholic.org. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  11. Arinze, Francis; Ranjith, Malcolm. "Letter to the Bishops Conferences on The Name of God". Bible Research: Internet Resources for Students of Scripture. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  12. Gilligan, Michael. "Use of Yahweh in Church Songs". American Catholic Press. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  13. Roxanne King (15 October 2008). "No 'Yahweh' in liturgies is no problem for the archdiocese, officials say" (PDF). Denver Catholic Register. Archdiocese of Denver. Retrieved 25 November 2014.[ dead link ]
  14. Wansbrough, Henry, "Foreword," The CTS New Catholic Bible.
  15. "École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem". EBAF. Archived from the original on 2007-03-10.
  16. "La Bible en ses Traditions". bibest.org. Archived from the original on 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2015-01-27.
  17. "Revised New Jerusalem Bible". dltbooks.com.

Bibliography

Further reading