Ronald Knox’s achievement depends in no small degree on his astonishing translation of the Vulgate, which some – including Evelyn Waugh – have considered one of the landmarks of twentieth century English literature. It is certainly a great translation, in some of its strengths unique. I wouldn’t be without it.

And now, for the first time in decades, it is with us again in a magnificent Baronius edition. And its reappearance has already brought tears to the eyes of Elizabeth Scalia:

“Still, there is a restlessness, and in recent weeks, when that feeling comes upon me, I have found an outlet in an unexpected source—Baronius Press’ newly released edition of Msgr. Ronald Knox’s translation of the Saint Jerome’s Vulgate Bible; The so-called Knox Bible, which he began at the urging of the bishops of England and Wales in 1936 and completed nine years later. A beautifully bound volume, I find myself responding with fresh eyes to the layout, which is formatted like prose, and the minimal distraction of footnotes. This is not a study bible; it’s a reading bible, and Knox’s language pulls us into the scriptural stories and images we know so very well and then elevates us with its staggering beauty.

Opening the book at random, I encountered the Song of Songs:

What a wound thou hast made, my bride, my true love, what a wound thou hast made in this heart of mine! And all with one glance of an eye, all with one ringlet straying on thy neck!

There, in a few dozen words, I got a glimpse of the whole mystery of God’s design and his ineffable love for us. The Creator so beguiled with his Creation that he is willing to become vulnerable to it; willing to live and bleed and die for the sake of such a love. Knox’s translation crystallized the truth that we can too easily forget in our electoral anxieties, that yes, God’s hand has been involved—from the first nanosecond, in all of our human affairs—and it remains, even when society seems adrift, and when the princes of the world seem wholly inadequate to their offices.

Yes, I read it and I wept. Not in fear, not in despair, but in consolation at the reminder, rendered so beautifully by Knox, that the world has resided in the madness of sin and shadow since Eden, but we are never abandoned, and need never be afraid. “
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/10/gratefully-weeping-through-the-knox-bible