Knox's Translation of the Vulgate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Holy Bible: A Translation From the Latin Vulgate in the Light of the Hebrew and Greek Originals is a Catholic version of the Bible in three volumes translated by Monsignor Ronald Knox, the English theologian, priest and crime writer. It is more commonly known as the Knox Version [1].

Ronald Knox was requested by the Catholic hierarchy of England in 1936 to undertake a new translation of the Vulgate with use of contemporary language of the time and in light of Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. When the New Testament came out in 1945, the new version was not intended to replace the Rheims Version but to be used alongside it, as Bernard Griffin, the Archbishop of Westminster said in the preface of the Bible.

With the release of the Old Testament in 1950, the popularity of translations based on the Vulgate was hampered as the church allowed the use of Bibles based primarily on Hebrew and Greek text. It was however one of the approved vernacular Bibles used in the lectionary and Mass between the period of 1965 to the early 1970's along with the Confraternity Bible, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner Revision), the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition and the Jerusalem Bible.

The style of the translation is in idiomatic English and much freer in renderings of passages than the Douay version. With the Deuterocanonical books, the interpretation of the passages was made close to the Septuagint. When the Latin appears to be doubtful, the translation placed on the text is based on other languages with the Latin translation placed in the footnote.

Templegate Publishers produced a facsimile of the New Testament in the early 1990s, but it is no longer in print [2] (ISBN 0-87243-229-7). Baronius Press have recently secured the rights for the work from the Diocese of Westminster and is currently in the process of producing a new complete edition of Monsignor Knox's translation.

See Modern English Bible translations.

[edit] External links