The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, translated by Isaac Leeser, Philadelphia: L. Johnson & Co, 1854

4to (10 7/8 x 8 3/8 in.; 277 x 214 mm). Title somewhat soiled, light marginal spotting throughout, bookplate removed from front endpaper. Contemporary black pebbled cloth, blindstamped floral work on both covers, gold-stamped title on spine; scuffed, head and foot of spine chipped, joints rubbed.

Purchase notation 1855 New York (but no name given), printed invitation to consecration of Beth-Israel in Portland Oregon, dated 8 August 1861 mounted on final endpaper

Deinard 847; Singerman 1271; Goldman #12, see also  J. D. Sarna and N. M. Sarna, in: "Jewish Bible Scholarship and Translations in the United States"  in The Bible and Bibles in America E.S. Freriches ed., 1998. Lance J. Sussman "Another Look at Isaac Leeser and the First Jewish Translation of the Bible in the United States" in Modern Judaism, Vol. 5, No. 2, (May, 1985), pp. 159-190

4to (10 7/8 x 8 3/8 in.; 277 x 214 mm). Title somewhat soiled, light marginal spotting throughout, bookplate removed from front endpaper. Contemporary black pebbled cloth, blindstamped floral work on both covers, gold-stamped title on spine; scuffed, head and foot of spine chipped, joints rubbed.
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the first english translation of the complete hebrew bible by a jew

Isaac Leeser's literary magnum opus and most lasting contribution to Judaism in America was his English translation of the entire Hebrew Bible. Printed in 1854, complete with "short explanatory notes," Leeser's efforts at biblical translation had actually developed in stages, beginning almost two decades earlier.  Leeser's first biblical translation was The Law of God, a Pentateuch in five volumes; although printed in 1845, Leeser actually began the work in 1838.  

According to Lance Sussman, three factors were involved in his decision to begin systematically working on a translation at this time. First, Leeser had recently completed his six-volume rendition of The Form of Prayers According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1838) and felt encouraged by his English version of the Psalms in the Sephardic Liturgy.  Second, Rebecca Gratz's Sunday School met for the first time in March 1838, in Philadelphia, and was desperately in need of appropriate study material. Students were compelled to use the King James Bible for want of a Jewish alternative.  Religiously objectionable passages in other texts provided by Protestant organizations were either pasted over or torn out by Gratz's staff.  Leeser, who supported the Sunday School and was its chief academic resource person, felt compelled to find more suitable texts for the students. Finally, a popular German-Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible by Leopold Zunz had just been published in 1837-38.  Leeser used the translation in Zunz's liturgy as the prototype for his own work.

Lesser first produced The Law of God included a vocalized Hebrew text of each of the Five Books of Moses together with an English translation and notes, as well as the haftarot (prophetic readings). He then published his Biblia Hebraica in 1848, the first vocalized Hebrew Bible printed in America. Finally, after more than fifteen years, Leeser realized the culmination of all his efforts, completing his magnum opus, (the present lot) Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures in 1853 and saw it to press in 1854. Leeser's Bible, as it has come to be known, quickly became the standard Bible for English-speaking Jews, especially in America.

The impetus for Leeser throughout was always his desire to provide the Jews of America with an English text of the Bible that was produced by one of their own and was not tainted by conversionist motivations.  In his preface to the present volume, Leeser characterizes this culmination of his long years of endeavor as having finally provided for his fellow Jews "a version of the Bible which has not been made by the authority of churches in which they have no confidence."