THE HOLY
SCRIPTURES
ACCORDING TO THE
MASORETIC TEXT
The JPS Version Translated by An
Eminent Committee 01 Jewish Scholars
| It is part of Jewish tradition
for sacred things to be beautifully presented. The JPS therefore offers
this edition of THE HOLY SCRIPTURES which is not only handsome, but so
designed that the reader will find it comfortable to hold and read.
Since the completion of the JPS translation in 1917, it has been accepted wherever English is spoken. Jews and Christians have looked upon it as authoritative in presenting Jewish thought and tradition. At the same time, the translators did not abandon the grandeur and rhythm of the English in the King James version. The volume contains a preface in which the story of this translation is told by its editors; a table of Scriptural readings; and a presentation page. The JPS offers this translation of the Bible in the spirit of the scholars who achieved it more than a generation ago—in the confident hope that it will aid the Jewish people in the knowledge of the Word of God. The Jewish Publication Society of America |
The
translation of the Bible by Jewish scholars was an attempt to bring the sacred
writings in English closer to their Hebrew original. Previous translations, having
been made by Christians, reflected Christian tradition; and even when modified
by a Jewish editor — as by Isaac Leeser in his edition of 1853 — fail
to represent the Word of God as Jews have understood it. Professor Max L. Margolis,
editor-in-chief of this translation, expressed it thus in the preface to this
Book: ”. . . The Jew cannot afford to have his Bible translation prepared
for him by others. He cannot have it as a gift, even as he cannot borrow his soul
from others. If a new country and a new language metamorphose him into a new man,
the duty of this new man is to prepare a new garb and a new method of expression
for what is most sacred and most dear to him.”