The Jewish Study Bible

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HELPFUL NOTES and COMMENTARY - Rated
Have read Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Job and generally found the notes and commentaries helpful, but do not always necessarily agree with the writer's views. However, a most useful translation, and well worth having in one's library.

Not only a great translation but a fascinating book - Rated
I have gone through three different editions of the JPS translation of the Hebrew Bible. My first copy, the standard edition, was just too big and unwieldy, plus I wanted the original Hebrew text. I then got a copy of the Student edition with parallel text, but the format is so small that I, who have always had great eyesight, found it almost impossible to read the Hebrew text (especially the vowel markings). Finally I buckled and got myself a copy of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (for the original text), and also this.

It's not just a good, plain, clear translation. It's also a fascinating encyclopedia of early Judaism. The commentaries are a miracle of compressing thousands of years of commentary into a very small space. The introductory essays to each book are also great, and there are over two hundred pages of supplementary essays at the end of the book, covering everything from the history of Biblical interpretation to "The Bible in Israeli life".

This is quite simply one of the greatest works of popular scholarship that the OUP has produced. I am an atheist who is interested in the Bible partly because of its intrinsic power and beauty as a piece of writing but also because of its enormous influence on the world we live in. This edition ought to be on the shelves of any literate person. Now, if they could just do the same for the Christian Bible...

Good but i was expecting more - Rated
It is a very good to understand the OT from Jewish view, but it favour of the modern theories over the traditional ones, and sometime it has an anti Christian attitude.

I am a Christian, but I still find it very useful.

The Jewish Study Bible: Featuring the Jewish Publication Soc - Rated
I own and read the following versions of the Old & New Testament: CEV, JPS, GNT, KJV, NKJV, NIV, NLT, & TNIV, but there is something really beautiful about the JPS that I keep coming back to it. The commentaries are really interesting, and I believe they tend to be more accurate and insightful in comparison with the NIV & NKJV study bibles. If you lean towards a fundamental approach to the reading of the bible the commentaries may not sit well with you. At the end of the book is a number of very interesting essays written by academics on rabbinical and biblical interpretation.

In the beginning... - Rated
The Tanakh, an edition of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, put out by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), now has a study-bible edition, which is incredibly helpful for scripture study.

The word Tanakh consists of the first letters of the words denoting the three sections of the text: the Torah (the Law), consisting of the first five books; the Nevi'im (the Prophets), which includes major and minor prophets, as well as some of the history books; and the Kethuvim (the Writings), which consists of poetry, wisdom literature, stories and eschatological literature, and some further history books.

The Tanakh is not simply a new translation of the Christian Old Testament. Indeed, most Christian readers would be surprised at the differences inherent in the Tanakh. For one thing, the ordering of the books in the Tanakh is different from the order in the Christian Old Testament. The intent behind the differing order demonstrates one of the key differences in focus of Judaism and Christianity. The ordering of the Old Testament, with the minor prophets, and their call to repentance and future deliverance of the people of Israel by God, is anticipatory of the Messianic age, and hence provide a 'run-up' to the New Testament. Obviously, Judaism does not have the same focus toward Jesus. Thus, the conclusion of the Tanakh leads to the return from exile, the restoration of the people of Israel to the land of promise, and the return of the worship of God to the appointed place, the Temple.

Also, the chapter/verse division is somewhat different. This can be seen in side-by-side comparison with other English Bible translations, but also becomes apparent in comparison with other Jewish editions.

The editors state that English translations usually list thirty-nine books of the Bible. Meanwhile, Hebrew Bibles classically have presented twenty-four books -- counting the following groups as one book each: the two part of Samuel; the two parts of Kings; the Twelve ('Minor') Prophets; Ezra and Nehemiah; and the two parts of Chronicles. Some aspects of our book design presume the thirty-nine-book division: the tables, book openings, and chapter numbers. But we ended only the conventional twenty-four books with a closing prayer and with the sum total of verses.

The Tanakh was originally translated and published in three sections, corresponding to the three divisions of the text. Begun in 1955, The Torah was completed in 1962; then there was a wait until The Nevi'im was released in 1978, and The Kethuvim in 1982. This edition of the Tanakh is the compilation of these efforts by JPS, with revisions, especially of the 1962 Torah translation.

This edition has as its intended readership the scholar or the general reader; it is not set up for liturgical use -- as the preface states: 'It meets only the traditional rabbinic standards (halakhah) for formatting a study Bible, which are less stringent than those for ritual texts.'

The introduction to the JPS Tanakh is quite frank about the difficulties that arise in working with ancient manuscripts. In a section entitled The Unbroken Chain of Uncertainty, the editors address the problem of which documentation and corrective (the masorah, which gives rise to the name masoretic text, meaning, authoritative and 'marked') is used, given the variances that arise in ancient manuscripts with fairly equal claim of authority. Drawing on the MCW (Michigan-Claremont-Westminster) electronic BHS (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia), JPS has a text nearly identical with the Leningrad Codex (a 1000-year old volume of the text, the oldest nearly complete volume known). In using this documentation, JPS editors have also done the following in making the text accessible and authoritative:

- added chapter and verse numbers, all of which were added much later
- redivided the Psalms to 150 (the Codex has divisions into 149)
- inserted markings to show codex paragraphing as well as possible scribal errors
- filling in cross-references

These notes deal with textual anomalies, and are written in such a manner than a glossary helps decipher them.

This is a rewarding volume for anyone who seeks to tap into the power of the Hebrew scriptures.