The Book of Jonah
The Book of Jonah is a translation of the Book in the Old Testament by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is his contribution to the Jerusalem Bible.
Tolkien completed the draft in 1957, and submitted his final text to the publisher in 1961. In the 1966 published Jerusalem Bible, however, a lot of editorial interventions were made on Tolkien's text. These were nevertheless consulted with Tolkien, so the printed Jonah does represent Tolkien's work.
The original, unmodified text was first published in the Journal of Inklings Studies, vol. 4 no. 2 in 2014, followed by a commentary by Brendan N. Wolfe on its background and features.
From the publisher[edit | edit source]
A beautiful new presentation of one of the best-loved Bible stories in a translation by J.R.R. Tolkien. Editor Brendan Wolfe tells the little-known story of how Tolkien, then at the height of his fame as the author of The Lord of the Rings, agreed to join the team of Catholic writers and scholars working on a major new translation of the Bible into English in the early 1960s. The result was the Jerusalem Bible, still celebrated for its elegant, timeless English. Wolfe shows the resonances between the story of Jonah and the whale, Tolkien's contribution to the JB, and themes in his other writings.
Planned book[edit | edit source]
The Book of Jonah was intended to be published as a separate book in 2010 by Darton, Longman & Todd. However, for unknown reasons the publication was cancelled (possibly due to a legal controversy).[1] The book was intended to include a Foreword by Sir Anthony Kenny.[2]
See also[edit | edit source]
External links[edit | edit source]
- The Book of Jonah online article
- Tolkien's Jonah, an accompanying commentary
References
- ↑ Jason Fisher, "Sometimes the whale wins ..." (accessed 6 December 2010)
- ↑ Jason Fisher, "More information on The Book of Jonah" (accessed 6 December 2010)