New Jerusalem Bible

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New Jerusalem Bible
Full name:	New Jerusalem Bible
Abbreviation:	NJB
Complete Bible published:	1985
Textual Basis:	25% deviation from Nestle-Aland 27th edition (NT)
Translation type:	12% paraphrase rate
Religious Affiliation:	Roman Catholic
Genesis 1:1-3
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters. God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.
John 3:16
For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985.

[edit] Source of the NJB

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, this version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jérusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jérusalem.

Source: Henry Wansbrough, "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

[edit] Review of the NJB

The Bible in English +/-
Old English (pre-1066)
Middle English (1066-1500)
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Modern Christian (1800-)
Modern Jewish (1853-)
Miscellaneous

It is an update to the Jerusalem Bible, an English version of the French Bible de Jérusalem. However, the Jerusalem Bible was not a translation from the French; rather, it is an original translation heavily influenced by the French. When the French version was updated in 1973, the changes were used to revise the Jerusalem Bible, creating the New Jerusalem Bible.

The revisions were substantial. The revised version is said to be less literary but, for the most part, more literal. The introductions and footnotes, translated almost entirely from the French, have also been thoroughly revised and expanded, making it one of the most scholarly editions of the bible.

The New Jerusalem Bible uses some "inclusive language", as in Exodus 20:17: "You shall not set your heart on your neighbor's spouse", rather than "neighbor's wife" or "neighbor's woman". For the most part, however, the inclusive language is limited to avoiding a "preference" for the masculine, as the translators write in the foreword. The New Jerusalem Bible uses more gender inclusive language than the Jerusalem Bible, but far less than many modern translations such as the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition which changes "brothers" to "brothers and sisters", throughout the New Testament. For the inclusive language that it does contain, it has been rejected by many conservative American Catholics, in favor of the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, the New American Bible, or the Douay-Rheims Bible. Outside of America it has become the most widely used Catholic translation in English-speaking countries.

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 or God. Yahweh is what is commonly believed to be the pronunciation of YHWH, the Hebrew holy name of God, though it has in the past, due to a misunderstanding, been spelled "Jehovah". The World English Bible, an unfinished revision of the American Standard Version, also uses Yahweh. The American Standard Version and the New World Translation both use Jehovah.

The New Jerusalem Bible also transliterates the Hebrew term "Sabaoth" rather than using the traditional rendering, thus "Yahweh Sabaoth" instead of "Lord of hosts". This is for the sake of accuracy, as the translation of "Sabaoth" is uncertain. (New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition, footnote to Samuel 1:3)

The French text received a third update in 1998, so an English counterpart may be on its way soon.