Jerusalem Bible

This article is about the Catholic translation. For the Jewish translation, seeKoren Jerusalem Bible.

The Jerusalem Bible (JB orTJB) is anEnglish translation of theBible published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As aCatholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with theHebrew Bible, along with the sevendeuterocanonical books, as theOld Testament, and the 27 books shared by all Christians as theNew Testament. It also contains copious footnotes and introductions.

The Jerusalem Bible

Full name	The Jerusalem Bible
Abbreviation	JB or TJB
Complete Bible published	1966
Textual basis	Old Testament:La Bible de Jérusalem,Masoretic text with strongSeptuagint (especially inPsalms) and someVulgate influence.New Testament:La Bible de Jérusalem, Eclectic text with high correspondence to theNestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece with major variant readings from theMajority text andsacred tradition (i.e.Comma Johanneum and thelonger ending of Mark) incorporated or noted.Deuterocanon: Septuagint with Vulgate influence.
Translation type	Dynamic equivalence
Copyright	1966, 1968, 1998, 2019 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Co. Inc.
Webpage	www.dltbibles.com/the-jb
Genesis 1:1–3 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. John 3:16 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.

For roughly half a century, the Jerusalem Bible has been the basis of thelectionary for Mass used inCatholic worship throughout much of the English-speaking world outside ofNorth America, though in recent years variousbishops' conferences have begun to transition to newer translations, including theEnglish Standard Version, Catholic Edition, inthe United Kingdom andIndia^[1] and theRevised New Jerusalem Bible inAustralia,New Zealand, andIreland.^[2]

History

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In 1943Pope Pius XII issued anencyclical letter,Divino afflante Spiritu, which encouraged Catholics to translate the scriptures from theHebrew andGreek texts, rather than fromJerome'sLatin Vulgate. As a result, a number ofDominicans and other scholars at theÉcole Biblique inJerusalem translated the scriptures into French. The product of these efforts was published asLa 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.^[a]

Translation

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The editor of theNew Jerusalem Bible,Henry Wansbrough, claims the Jerusalem Bible "was basically a translation from the FrenchBible 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 theDouay–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 theEpiscopal Church.^[4]

J. R. R. Tolkien translated theBook of Jonah for the Jerusalem Bible, although its final version was heavily edited, and he is listed among its "principal collaborators".^[b]^[6]

Translation of the tetragrammaton

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The Jerusalem Bible returned to the use of the historical nameYahweh as the name of God in the Old Testament, rendered as such in 6,823 places within this translation. IfLa 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, CardinalFrancis Arinze, Prefect of theCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote to the presidents of all conferences of bishops at the behest ofPope Benedict XVI, stating that the use of the name Yahweh was to be dropped from Catholic Bibles in liturgical use^[9] (most notably theCTS New Catholic Bible which uses theJerusalem Bible text), as well as from songs and prayers, since pronunciation of this name violates long-standingJewish andChristian tradition.^[10]

Updates

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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 theNew 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 theCatholic Truth Society published theCTS New Catholic Bible, consisting of a revision of the original 1966Jerusalem 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 theCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments^[11]^[12] and thePontifical Biblical Commission.^[13] The name "Yahweh" has been replaced with "the LORD" throughout theOld Testament, and thePsalms have been completely replaced with the 1963Grail Psalter. The revised text is accompanied by new introductions, and textual and liturgical notes, supplemented as needed with material from the notes to theNew Jerusalem Bible.^[14]
Last updated in 1998, the FrenchLa Bible de Jérusalem is currently the subject of a revision project operating under the titleThe Bible in its Traditions.^[15] According to the notes, more weight will be given to theSeptuagint in the translation of theHebrew Bible scriptures, though theMasoretic Text will remain the primary source. The French portion of theDemonstration Volume is available online, together with a single sample of the English translation.^[16]
Publisher Darton, Longman and Todd published theRevised New Jerusalem Bible in 2019. Substantially revising the JB and NJB texts, the new translation "appliesformal 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 byHenry Wansbrough.^[17]

Notes

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^This is explained in the Editor's Foreword to the Jerusalem Bible.
^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]