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Knox Bible republished today


Mgr Ronald Knox

Mgr Ronald Knox

Baronius Press has announced the launch of the Holy Bible – Knox Version (also known as the Knox Bible) for the first time in more than 50 years, stating that the translation’s clarity and beauty will help Catholics deepen their knowledge of scripture in this Year of Faith.

Welcoming the return of the Bible, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor said: “I welcome the publication of this new edition, as his remarkable work is likely to continue to be of interest for many years to come. I sincerely hope that many will read and profit from this new edition.”

The translation was described as "a masterful translation of the Bible" by Time Magazine and was the first vernacular version to be approved for liturgical use in the 20th Century.

In his introduction to the new Baronius Press edition Dr Scott Hahn writes: “Knox had a profound love for Sacred Scripture, a passion to make the Bible accessible to as many people as possible.”

As part of the republication of the Knox Bible, Baronius Press has worked with Biblegateway.com — the world’s most visited Christian website with ten million unique visitors each month to allow free access to a searchable text of Monsignor Knox’s translation. Rachel Barach of Biblegateway.com said: “As BibleGateway.com seeks to encourage Bible reading and Scriptural understanding among Bible readers of all denominations, we are delighted to be able to share the Knox translation on our website.”

Monsignor Ronald Knox was commissioned in 1939 by the Bishops of England and Wales to produce a fresh translation of the Holy Scripture and, for the next nine years, he worked alone to achieve this task. He used Pope Clement VIII’s edition of the Latin Vulgate as a base for his translation, diligently comparing it to Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldean manuscripts to determine the meaning of ambiguous passages.

He aimed at a Bible that was understandable to modern audiences and yet rooted in Catholic tradition and “written in timeless English”. He wanted a Bible that did not merely translate the original but made it read as if an Englishman had written it.

Knox’s Bible received great acclaim when it was first published. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury of the time recommended it, and it became the preferred translation of Fulton Sheen. The Bishops were so pleased with the completed version that it was authorized for liturgical use, and the Knox translation of the Bible was used as the official version in the churches of Great Britain, Ireland and Australia for the decade leading up to Vatican II – and the first version sanctioned for liturgical use in England and Wales.

Available today from Baronius Pressin a hardback leather edition with gold gilded edges, two ribbons and a complimentary copy of “On Englishing the Bible” in which Msgr. Knox describes himself how he tackled this mammoth project.

Baronius Press is a Catholic book publisher based in London. It was originally founded in 2002 and takes its name from the Venerable Cardinal Caesar Baronius, a Neapolitan ecclesiastical historian from the late 1500's. Its logo is a biretta, which together with a cassock forms the traditional image of a Catholic priest.

The main objective of Baronius Press is to raise the quality of traditional Catholic books in order to make them more appealing to a wider audience. In an age of mass production and cost cutting overriding aesthetic beauty, Baronius Press is retypesetting (rather than producing facsimiles) classic Catholic books, to obtain clear text which is easy to read. These are then published in high quality bindings that are beautiful and durable. The time and effort that is invested into each title is enormous, but this is a small gesture of love for the treasures of the Holy Mother Church whose literary treasures Baronius is publishing. The first title Baronius Press published was the Douay Rheims Bible – the first retypeset edition for several decades. Since then, this title is available in three different sizes and three colours and also as a pocket size Psalms & New Testament only.

The company has made history by updating and republishing a number of titles that previously were out of print for many decades. In 2004 the company was the first to publish the 1962 Daily Missal with an Imprimatur since the mid 1960s and in subsequent years continued to expand the range with a series of Christian Classics in both paperback and leather bound editions. These included the only edition of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin to include the Gregorian Chant and the republication of the Carmelite classic Divine Intimacy. In 2012 after five years of preparation, Baronius Press released the first 1963 Roman Breviary in nearly fifty years. Currently, the company has over 50 titles in print.


For more information see: www.baroniuspress.com

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