The Twenty Four Books of the Holy Scriptures. [The Hebrew Bible].

First edition of the first English translation of the entire Hebrew Bible by a Jew.

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'.

Rabbi Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) was born in Germany and emigrated to America in 1824. The head rabbi of the Synagogue Mikveh Israel 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.