The Jerusalem Bible (Standard Edition)

Product Information

If you are a frequent reader of The Catholic Man Reviews, you may know by now that I have reviewed a number of Bibles, and today is another review of a Bible: The Jerusalem Bible, Reader’s Edition published by Doubleday. Of the translations I've seen and read to date, I would recommend this translation above all others. Like the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible makes the uncommon decision to render God's name, the Tetragrammaton in the Jewish scriptures, as Yahweh rather than as " Lord", in 6,823 places in the NJB Old Testament.

Having the modern language translations (French and English) of this updated text in the form of the Bible de Jerusalem / Jerusalem Bible was wonderful for teaching scripture and theology classes. The language, concepts and imagery of the original scriptures are presented more accurately by the RNJB than the colloquial approach of many other modern translations. Unlike other Catholic Bibles I have reviewed on The Catholic Man Reviews, there are not any “extra” features, such as an appendix, glossary or maps.

we like to go from chapter to chapter 3) footnotes would be a great addition, as well as introductory notes into each book 4) options for page colors might be a good thing and 5) STOP bugging people about reviewing the thing.

This claims to be the Reader's Edition (which should contain colour and black and white maps, a Chronological Table, Tables of Measures and Money) but it is actually just the Popular Edition (without the aforementioned extras). Using definitive original language texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical scholars of L'Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem produced a meticulously accurate, wonderfully readable French translation of the complete canon of Scripture (La Bible de Jerusalem). 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. That’s not a bad thing, I think it’s a great balance to have 2 bibles, a very literal, and then a very dynamic translation.

This edition of the New Jerusalem Bible contains the Standard Edition text together with shortened, simplified versions of the notes, introductions, Index of Persons and Chronological Table.

With that said however, The Jerusalem Bible, Reader’s Edition is a great addition to the library of anyone who wants to discover Scripture through a different lens. 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.I thought that the notes of The Jerusalem would be similar in length to that of the New American Bible Revised Edition. This French translation served as the impetus for an English translation in 1966, the Jerusalem Bible. The very first full-text Readers editions of the Revised New Jerusalem Bible (RNJB) – a Bible for study and proclamation. The New Jerusalem Bible is an update to the Jerusalem Bible, an English version of the French Bible de Jérusalem.

The French portion of the Demonstration Volume is available online, [8] together with a single sample of the English translation. But please note that, that is just me… other people may find this “verse number in margin” method more efficient. When it comes to Bible translations, readability and reliability are what count; and on both counts, the original JERUSALEM BIBLE stands alone. The Jerusalem Bible was the first widely-accepted Catholic English translation of the Bible since the Douay–Rheims Version of the 17th century.And the notes are by far one of the Bible’s best features I found the JB to be an excellent balance between thought for thought and word for word. Speaking about the dust jacket, I would like to note how the publishers mentioned that the Bible is “a portable 5 1/2” x 8 1/4” trim size”. This gives brief notes on nearly 200 key words and concepts, with references to relevant biblical passages. The New Jerusalem Bible is recognised as one of today’s most accurate, clear and modern translations, the fruit of long collaboration between leading biblical scholars. The print is not large, but I can read it well enough with my glasses, and will probably use reader's glasses that magnify to make it even easier on my eyes.