(Bible, English). Torah Nevi’im U’kethuvim- The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures. Carefully Translated According to the Massoratic Text, After the Best Jewish Authorities and Supplied with Short Explanatory Notes. By ISAAC LEESER

AUCTION 15 | Tuesday, March 12th, 2002 at 1:00
Fine Hebrew Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art The Property of Various Owners

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Lot 25
(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

(Bible, English). Torah Nevi’im U’kethuvim- The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures. Carefully Translated According to the Massoratic Text, After the Best Jewish Authorities and Supplied with Short Explanatory Notes. By ISAAC LEESER

FIRST EDITION. Text in English. Printed in two columns pp. iv,1011,(4). Trace foxed on a few leaves, family record in manuscript on final unnumbered leaves. Contemporary elaborately gilt-tooled crimson morocco, gilt dentilles, gilt extras, gently rubbed with expert repairs to spine and corners retaining gilt-titled back strip. Lg. 4to Deinard 847; Singerman 1271; not in Darlow & Moule

Philadelphia: L. Johnson & Co 1853

Est: $5,000 - $7,000
PRICE REALIZED $8,500
THE FIRST JEWISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO ENGLISH. Isaac Leeser, a pioneer of American Judaism, published the first Jewish translation of the entire Bible into English to wean American Jews (most of whom could not read Hebrew) off the King James Version and its Christological interpretations. “In presenting this work to the public, the translator would merely remark, that it is not a new notion by which he was seized of late years which impelled him to the task, but a desire entertained for more than a quarter of a century, since the day he quitted school in his native land to come to this country, to present to his fellow-Israelites an English version, made by one of themselves, of the Holy Word of God.” Leeser’s translation has become the standard Bible for English-speaking Jews, especially in America. It was greeted with acclaim by all circles and continues to be used in synagogues to this day. See J. D. Sarna and N. M. Sarna, The Bible and Bibles in America in: Jewish Bible Scholarship and Translations in the United States, pp. 84-90; Murray Friedman, Jewish Life in Philadelphia (1983) p.35