Catholic Bible Public Domain

In general, English Bible translation has been less central and not as widespread among Jews as among Christians (the latter having produced dozens of modern translations and versions in English along with sets of initials to distinguish them).[5] This is partially due to the fact that English became the major spoken language among Jews only in the era since the Holocaust, jewish bible commentary. Before then, even Jews in English-speaking countries were still part of an immigrant culture to a large extent, which meant that they could either understand the Hebrew Bible in its original language to a certain degree or, if they required a translation, were still not fully comfortable in English. Many translated Bibles and prayer books from before the Holocaust were still in Yiddish, even those published in countries like the United States.

A further reason that English Bible translation is less central to Jews than Christians is that often, those Jews who study the Bible regularly still do so, to a greater or lesser extent, in its original language, as it is read in the synagogue. Even those who require translations often prefer a bilingual edition.[5] Nevertheless, complete jewish bible translations of the Bible to English have become far more widespread, especially since the 1980s, jewish bible english, and been made available in numerous complementary versions and styles