The translation of the Bible by Jewish scholars was an attempt to bring the sacred writings in English closer to their Hebrew original. Previous translations, having been made by Christians, reflected Christian tradition; and, even when modified by a Jewish editor - as by Isaac Leeser in his edition of 1853 - fail to represent the Word of God as Jews have understood it. Professor Max L. Margolis, editor-in-chief of this translation, expressed it thus in the preface to this Book: "... The Jew cannot afford to have his Bible translation prepared for him by others. He cannot have it as a gift, even as he cannot borrow his soul from others. If a new country and a new language metamorphose him into a new man, the duty of this new man is to prepare a new garb and a new method of expression for what is most sacred and most dear to him.
Since the completion of the JPS translation in 1917, it has been accepted wherever English is spoken. Jews and Christians have looked upon it as authoritative in presenting Jewish thought and tradition. At the same time, the translators did not abandon the grandeur and rhythm of the English in the King James version.
The volume contains a preface in which the story of this translation is told by its editor; a table of Scriptural readings; and, pages for a family record.
The JPS offers this translation of the Bible in the spirit of the scholars who achieved it a generation ago-in the confident hope that it will aid the Jewish people in the knowledge of the Word of God.