The Knox Bible

Construction: This is a well put together Bible! The very thick hardcover (about 3-4 mm thick) is wrapped with a nice shiny bonded leather with gold lettering that is straight and crisp. It has two ribbon markers made out of some kind of synthetic material (maybe polyester or nylon), one gold and one red so that you can easily flip between pages/books. The ribbon ends do fray though so I would suggest taking a lighter to the ends to lightly fuse the ends together. You can also use clear nail polish or some other bonding agent like glue (the lighter works the best though). The pages are very thick as far as Bibles go. There is very little text of the other pages behind visible when you're reading and, of course, the binding is stitched, which is to be expected from a Bible like this. It's not a compact Bible that you'd want to carry around everywhere but it's not too large either. It's somewhere in between. Just normal sized.Layout: The font is fairly large compared to other Bibles. It is arranged in single column paragraph style for ease of reading. This is definitely not a study Bible. It is a Bible that is meant to be read and enjoyed sitting down in your favorite chair on a rainy day with a cup of coffee or tea. You won't find many extras alongside just the actual text. The only things included besides Knox's original text and commentary is a table of contents, a foreword by none other than Scott Hahn (love this guy), and a Publisher's note that includes some of Knox's remarks on his translation. After these three extras begins the book of Genesis and from then on it's sacred text all the way to the last page. No concordances, no pictures, no maps. This is a no nonsense Bible that is meant to immerse you in the sacred text by only including what is necessary: the text itself!Translation: Honestly, THE BEST TRANSLATION I have every read. Msgr. Knox is a literary master! It is beautiful poetic language that is easy to read. It is not as cumbersome or awkward as the Douay Rheims can be sometimes. It results in language that is distinctly British and just so beautiful you want to cry when you read certain passages. It just flows!Here's an example from the Book of Tobias (Tobit) one of my favorite. The elder Tobias believes he's about to die and gives his son some words of wisdom:"And do thou, while thou hast life, think ever upon God, nor lend thyself to any sinful design, nor leave the commandments of the Lord our God unfulfilled. Use thy wealth in giving of alms; never turn thy back on any man who is in need, and the Lord, in thy own need, will have eyes for thee. Shew to others what kindness thy means allow, giving much, if much is thine, if thou hast little, cheerfully sharing that little. To do this is but to lay up a store against the day of distress; alms-deeds were ever a sovereign way of escape from guilt and death, a bar against the soul's passage into darkness; none has less to fear when he stands before the most high God than he who does them." -Tobias 4: 6-12When the Angel Raphael reveals himself:" Prayer, fasting, and alms, said he, here is better treasure to lay up than any store of gold. Almsgiving is death's avoiding, is guilt's atoning, is the winning of mercy and of life eternal; the sinners, the wrong-doers, are enemies to their own souls. Come, let me tell you the whole truth of the matter, bring the hidden purpose of it to light." -Tobias 12: 8-11.Absolutely beautiful language! It gives me goosebumps every time I read it! If you want a Bible simply to read and enjoy reading (as is proper for sacred scripture) then I suggest buying this Bible! Who knows how long Baronius will have it in print? This is one of the only quality Bibles in the Knox translation that I could find! Don't hesitate!

How, I wondered, could there be a "new" copy of this Bible, last (re)published in 1963? Was it sitting around wrapped in cellophane in a warehouse? I took a chance and ordered it from Amazon. It came from Baronius Press, London, and it actually is brand, spanking new, having been republished in 2012. This is a leatherbound hardback with one bookmark ribbon. Does it have maps in the back? No. A concordance? No again. Journeys of St. Paul? Negative. But it does have, surprisingly, an introduction by Scott Hahn.Arnold Dunn, who used to regularly attack Ronald Knox in print, was later brought into the Church by him, and became one of the liveliest apologists of his age. However, in his book, "And Yet So New", Lunn still attacked Knox's translation, noting places where the Authorized (King James) read better. Knox might plead no contest, but his hands were tied. The (Latin) Vulgate had always been the Catholic Bible, so he had to produce his vernacular translation from the Vulgate. Knox was, however, acutely aware when the Hebrew or Greek read better or proved more accurate, and notes these instances throughout the notes in this translation.Included with this purchase was the brief book of Knox's essays, "On Englishing the Bible" (later republished as "Trials of a Translator", in which he provides fascinating insights to the process and problems of translation, and his attempt to produce "a literary, not a literal translation". Those new to Catholic Bibles may wonder why there are seven more books in the Old Testament (they were originally in there but were removed during the Reformation, and are now sometimes called Apocryphal Books). Lunn asks in his book why Catholics have to have different names for some Bible Books, and some Bible characters. Knox agrees this is a problem, and his preface says he's changed the names of some personnel to better known ones. But the reason for the odd names is that they are the Latin titles, and the Vulgate was a translation into Latin.I advise the reader to take some other Bible translation better known to them, and open both it and the Knox Bible to the contents page, as a way of comparing the same books. Knox saw his task as helping readers to understand the Bible, not just revere it. Since he undertook this commission in 1936, a great many new translations have appeared, mostly on the Protestant side, usually aspiring to the same goal, but in some cases failing to achieve the literary qualities which make the King James version such likable reading.The most readably literary translation which has been produced is the Revised Standard Version. With new findings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars sought to revise the already standard versions, upgrade them to 2.0, as it were. The veracity and readability of the RSV has been recognized continually, as other translations have worked from it, among them the ESV on the Protestant side, and the RSV 2CE (RSV 2nd Catholic Edition) on the Catholic side. But the forerunner in the effort to produce a readably literary, yet clear and cogent vernacular translation began here, with the Knox Bible. Now with this beautiful edition from Baronius Press, this Word, so ancient, is also so new.

An excellent and readable modern translation of the Latin Vulgate.Accepted worldwide.Vatican II required translation directly from ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek. This is translated from Vulgate with consultation with original languages for clarification by Monseignor Ronald Knox. The translation of the Psalms are so beautiful they are still used in the modern Breviary (Christian Prayer).