PRICED AS PER CONDITION. Your chance to own the following incredibly rare antique piece of American Judaica history. Isaac Leeser: 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. Built upon Leeser’s 1845 translation of the five books of the Torah, previous editions published by Jewish translators in England (such as Levi and Alexander) had simply utilised the King James translation. Leeser’s Preface explains that this massive undertaking sprung from’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’. Readers would now’have an opportunity to study a version of the Bible which has not been made by the authority of churches in which they have no confidence’. The head rabbi of the Synagogue Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, he became America’s most influential Jewish writer, editor, and teacher. He promulgated Jewish culture and religious activity in the United States by providing American Jews with the numerous basic religious texts and conceptual tools they needed. This work marks a major milestone in scripture translation as it is the first complete translation of the Bible by a Jew. Indeed, in the early 19th century, most American Jews couldn’t read the Bible because they were not literate in Hebrew and an adequate English translation didn’t exist. Isaac Leeser’s “The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, ” first published in 1854, attempted to fill this need. Soon after its publication, this work became the standard for American Jews not conversant in Hebrew as well as an important contribution to Jewish American culture. Leeser spent 17 years on this landmark translation, relying almost exclusively on Jewish scholarship. Some age wear/scrapes of leather covers but can be sympathetically restored. Pages fully intact and still bound beautifully. Front cover worn away, back cover detached, but can be sympathetically repaired. Reach out for more info or photos.
