New Jewish Publication Society of America Version
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The New Jewish Publication Society of America Version of the Jewish Bible (i.e. the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament) is the second translation published by the Jewish Publication Society of America (JPS), superseding its 1917 Jewish Publication Society of America Version. It is a completely fresh translation into modern English, independent of the earlier translation or any other existing one. Current editions of this version refer to it as The Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation.
The translation follows the Hebrew or Masoretic text scrupulously. The main text avoids the emendations found in most 20th Century translations, though emendations are occasionally mentioned in footnotes. The order of the books is that in published Hebrew Bibles, rather than the usual English order. In particular, it has the traditional Jewish division into Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings or Wisdom Literature). Further, the division into chapters, following Hebrew tradition, occasionally differs from other English Bibles, and in the Psalms the titles are often counted as the first verse, causing a difference of one in verse numbering for these psalms from other English Bibles.
The editor in chief of the Torah was Harry Orlinsky, who had been a translator of the Revised Standard Version and would become the only translator of that version to work also on the New Revised Standard Version. The other editors were E. A. Speiser and H. L. Ginsberg. It appeared in 1962, with a second edition in 1967.
The Five Megilloth (Five Scrolls) and Jonah appeared in 1969, the Book of Isaiah in 1973 and the Book of Jeremiah in 1974. Revised versions of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Jonah appeared in Nevi'im, edited by Professor Ginsberg assisted by Professor Orlinsky, published in 1978.
A separate committee was set up in 1966 to translate the Ketuvim. It consisted of Moshe Greenberg, Jonas Greenfield and Nahum Sarna. The Psalms appeared in 1973 and the Book of Job in 1980. Revised versions of both, and the Megilloth, appeared in the complete Ketuvim in 1982.
[edit] New enhanced versions
- The first complete one-volume edition of the NJPS translation was published in 1985.
- A bilingual Hebrew-English edition in facing columns (with the Hebrew based on the masoretic text as found in the Leningrad codex) was published in 1999.
- The JPS Jewish Study Bible, first published in 2003, contains the new translation in one volume with introductions, notes, and supplementary material.
- The recent series of JPS Bible commentaries all use this translation.
- Etz Chayim, the Humash published by the Conservative Movement, uses this translation (with minor modifications) as the basis for its own.
