Who should use this guide? Anyone who desires to pronounce the names of people and places in the Bible with confidence. Do you read passages of the Bible in public? This book is for you. In private devotions, do you skip the difficult names? This book is for you. This book was originally begun as a pronunciation guide for myself as I was recording the Douay-Rheims Audio Bible. When I was commissioned to do that work, I was surprised to find that there was apparently nothing currently in print specifically for the Douay-Rheims version that could help me to properly pronounce names of people and places. In order to expedite the narration, I began to compile a list of names and carefully researched pronunciations, and that list became the book that you now hold in your hands. Somewhere along the way, I decided to include the spellings and pronunciations of all the English translations I could find. As far as I know, every spelling of every name in every English translation of the Bible is included in this guide. Since the the genesis of this guide was for the Douay-Rheims Audio Bible, which is a Catholic Bible, names included in the Apocrypha appear here as well. Great effort has been made to include every English Bible translation’s names and places in this work. If the reader would be so kind as to write to me at [email protected] if the reader is aware of omissions, I will include additions in subsequent editions of this guide. It is important to note that in my research, I became aware of the fact that there are differing opinions on the correct pronunciations of many of the names contained in the Bible. Often there really is no one correct way to pronounce a specific name. Languages do morph over time, and pronunciations can change. This guide includes the generally accepted pronunciations in the United States in the year 2012.
