André Chouraqui

La Bible Chouraqui, translated by the French-Algerian Jewish scholar André Chouraqui, was originally published as a series of individual books in the early 1980s. Based on the feedback he received, he later compiled all of them into a single volume, entitled La Bible Chouraqui.
Chouraqui's translation has several aims:

• attempting to bring out nuances of the original Biblical languages which have sometimes been obscured in more traditional Biblical translations;
• attempting to translate the same Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek words consistently throughout, enabling readers unfamiliar with these languages to see patterns of usage (many modern vernacular translations will translate the same Hebrew or Greek word with several different terms, depending on the context); sometimes this yields rather awkward results, but it can be a very useful tool for students of the Bible who wish to trace the use of particular themes or terms;
• to produce a translation which is largely independent of other "standard" translations, which has a certain "shock value" and often forces readers to stop and re-think whether there may be more to the Biblical text than they have been taught to believe. Chouraqui largely avoids traditional theological terms, opting instead for his own versions, which, although accurate, are generally not what people expect.

Chouraqui's Bible quickly became popular in France, and has gone through several subsequent editions, each of which corrected mistakes or inconsistencies in earlier editions. The latest edition was published in 2003.

André Chouraqui died in Jerusalem in July 2007.

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