Last week President Trump appeared for a photo op in front of the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. The event was in response to demonstrations calling for justice and equality for black Americans following the horrendous murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. After the police and National Guard used chemical irritants and smoke to disperse the peaceful protesters, Trump walked to the church and posed for pictures while holding a Bible. After 10 minutes he returned to the White House. While there have been Christian Bibles printed in English for many centuries, English editions of the Hebrew Bible have only been around for about a century and a half. Which of the following is an English edition of the Hebrew Bible?

President Trump outside St. John's Episcopal Church, cropped by The White House is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A. The Jewish School and Family Bible, by Abraham Benisch, published in England in four volumes from 1851 to 1861. Benisch, a respected journalist and Hebraic studies scholar, went on to become the editor of the Jewish Chronicles, the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.

B. The Koren Jerusalem Bible, a Hebrew/English Bible from Koren Publishers in Israel. This edition followed their earlier publication of the Koren Bible in Hebrew, the first bible published in modern Israel, leading David ben-Gurion to state, “Israel is redeemed from shame.”

C. The Jewish Family Bible, edited in 1881 in England by Michael Friedländer, the principal of Jews’ College in London. Friedländer, who taught theology, Talmud, mathematics, Arabic and more, was best known for his English translation of Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed.

D. The Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures, also known as the Leeser Bible. This edition was the first Hebrew Bible published in English in America. Isaac Leeser, a rabbi and educator in Philadelphia, finished this work in 1853.

E. The MAGA Bible, also known as “the bible that Ivanka Trump carried in her $1,540 Max Mara handbag to a photo op for her daddy.” Asked by reporters about the bible, President Trump replied, “It’s Ivanka’s bible. So it’s a Jewish bible. A Hebrew bible. Because Ivanka is now Hebrew, as you know. So she wouldn’t hand me a Christian bible like Eric would. But all bibles are good. Jewish bibles are good. Christian bibles are good. Muslims don’t have a bible. But anyway, the bible I held is more than good. It’s great. I call it the MAGA Bible because one of the ways we can Make America Great Again is by holding bibles. That’s why I went to that church to show the nasty demonstrators that good Americans hold bibles. I’m guessing that George Floyd is looking down and smiling at this bible, and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country. This is a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality and the Bible.”

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