(BIBLE. English). Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures

Leeser first published his pioneering English translation of the Bible in 1853 in large quarto form (see previous Lot). He later published a smaller edition because he was “stimulated, by the indulgent judgment pronounced by several eminent men . . . to make an effort to make it more accessible to all classes than an expensive and heavy quarto could expect to be, although he regrets that the [smaller] shape and size of the pages have prevented him appending the notes to this with which the other is enriched. But in preparing this work anew for the press the whole has been carefully subjected to the closest scrutiny, and improved and corrected wherever deemed necessary” (p. viii). Leeser reminded his readers of the pioneering nature of this work: “Many attempts have been made of late years by Israelites in all European countries to furnish new versions in the various languages which they speak . . . Hitherto . . . no other translation in the English had been completed by Jews” (p. v). “In a short time [Leeser’s Bible] became the standard Bible for English-speaking Jews, especially in America” (Orlinsky, 379) and it was even greeted with acclaim in non-Jewish circles. Moses Dropsie aptly remarked in a eulogy for his teacher, “If Mr. Leeser had done naught else, this work alone would entitle him to the gratitude of every English reader” (Moses Dropsie, Panegyric on the Life, Character and Services of the Rev. Isaac Leeser [Philadelphia, 1868])