The Orthodox Psalter Project
The Liturgical Psalter – A Proposed Table of Contents
for a new comprehensive English-language edition, currently in production, with original Slavonic text materials available on this web site.
Commentaries on the Proposed Table of Contents
Translations – Introduction
Coverdale
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer) Translation
- Wikipedia: Coverdale Bible
- Note: The original text (that is, the original spellings of the text of the first edition) is copyrighted. [Miles Coverdale Bible (1535) – © 2003 StudyLight.org, ul Schuberta 42, Gdansk Poland and Christian Library, ul. Pintera 18-27, Donetsk, Ukraine. The text of the Myles Coverdale Bible (1535) was developed into electronic form through the work of dozens of laborers in the Ukraine. Please refrain from using this material without written concent of the copyright holders.]
- William Peterson, of the Univ. of Maryland, has an online PDF (Adobe Acrobat) version of the Coverdale translation of the Psalms. This is an excellent resource, but the exact dating of this version of the psalms is somewhat unclear.
— Mirrored here: 
The Psalter (Coverdale Translation, 1535 or 1552, with modern spellings)
- Coverdale's Psalms (only the first 25 are posted here, but the brief introduction is informative)
- The Book of Common Prayer (includes the Coverdale Psalms from 1662 onward) – links to just about every historical version.
(NOTE: The importance of the BCP and the Coverdale Psalms cannot be understated, not so much for its content, but for its contribution to the English language of a style of liturgical language that has become ingrained into the common culture as deemed "appropriate" or even "hallowed" for worship. Any successful translation of the Orthodox Scriptures and services must necessarily draw upon this literary tradition in some measure. The following resources are for those who want to further investigate the use of traditional liturgical language and its style.)
The Authorized King James Version Psalms
Douay (Douay-Rheims) Psalms
Other Online Translations
- [HTM] The Psalter According to the Seventy (copyright by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, MA, 1987) (review) – available online at:
- The Psalter (2nd edition) – .DOC file – Archimandrite Lazarus Moore, The Holy Psalter: The Psalms of David from the
LXX. Diocesan Press, Madras, India. (1st printing 1966, 2nd revised printing
1971.) Fr. Moore's edition is remarkable for its innovative literary style. The translation has an abundance of fresh interpretations which capture the original meaning with amazing clarity. (It is possible that the translators of the Boston Psalter made extensive reference to this translation.) However, as a liturgical text it would need extensive editing to clean up the multitude of grammatical problems which plague this work. —
Although I am posting an accurate reproduction of the 2nd edition here as a .DOC file, a scan of the complete book is also available in .PDF form for the sake of posterity, although I caution the reader to be aware of its large size (57.8 mb).
- Psalter translated from the Septuagint (Contos) – .TXT file – The Fr. Leonidas Contos translation (actually Contos and De Vinck?), included in "Byzantine Daily Worship", published by Narthex Press, 19??.
Comments: Caution: Some theology might be questionable since it was prepared by and for Uniates. There are a lot of positives about this translation. For one thing, it gets the 'Hades' thing right. But it could have used a LOT of editing. There are numerous inconsistencies: both 'naught and 'nought' are used; both 'Sion' and 'Zion' are used; both 'Canaan' and 'Chanaan' are used; etc. The mechanics are terribly poor: punctuation seems almost random; capitalisation is full of mistakes; misspellings are rampant; tenses change mid-sentence; number changes mid-sentence, etc.
- [NETS] "A New English Translation of the Septuagint and Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under That Title: The Psalms" (Albert Pietersma, trans., Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), ISBN 0-19-529753-9. – The NETS Psalms may be downloaded for preview HERE.
- Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre – A Hebrew-English Bible according to the Masoretic Text, and the JPS 1917 Edition – The whole Hebrew Bible in parallel verse by verse with the English translation of Jewish Publication Society edition of 1917.
Translations For Sale:
- The Liturgical Psalter, Paradise Press, Rye, NH – draft edition 2009, David James, editor – (the fruits of this project, not yet published)
- [CTOS] The Psalter of the Prophet and King David with the Nine Biblical Odes, CTOS / Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, Etna, CA, 2008 (advertisement) — SAMPLE (PDF) of published edition, 2009 (Note: this is the published edition of Michael Asser's revision of the KJV text [see above *]; however, there are significant textual differences, as CTOS has chosen to revise Michael Asser's revision. A review is forthcoming.) This edition was compiled, emended, and arranged by Michael Asser, Hieromonk Patapios, and Archbishop Chrysostomos, conforming to the language of the King James and Douai-Rheims language but translated to reflect the Septuagint text. It was adjusted and retranslated to conform to the text used by the Orthodox Church and arranged according to Orthodox Liturgical usage, with full kathismata and verses.
- [OSB] The Orthodox Study Bible (information forthcoming) – a controversial publication which has been extensively reviewed (and criticised for both its translation and commentaries)
- The Orthodox Study Bible — A Review
- The Canadian-published psalter blessed for use in the Archdiocese of Canada by His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada, is entitled "The Psalter according to the Seventy, that is, the Septuagint, Ecclesiastical Text" (Westport, Ontario: The WORDsmith, for the Archdiocese of Canada, Orthodox Church in America, 2001). ISBN 0-9688818-0-7. A translation into modern English, it includes the Psalms in 20 Sessions (Kathismata), Biblical Canticles, "Prayers after Reading Several Sessions, or, After Reading the Entire Psalter" (pp. 295-298); "The Following of the Twelve Psalms" (pp. 299-320); "Magnifications" (pp. 321-349). 350 pages plus introduction (24 page). Standard edition, with basic footnotes. It is Published for The Archdiocese of Canada, Orthodox Church in America by The WORDsmith, Box 599 Westport, ON K0G 1X0 Canada, Tel./Fax (613) 273-3222. The Psalter is available directly from the publisher: Softcover $18.95 Canadian, Hardcover $29.95 Canadian, plus shipping, plus GST (7%). — (Reviewers complain that the layout is poorly done.)
- The Monastery of the Holy Myrrhbearers published an edition of the Psalter in 1995. (details forthcoming)
- For the Troparia following each Kathisma, the nuns at the Monastery of the Transfiguration, in Ellwood City, PA have a volume translated from the Slavonic, which they sell for $3.50. It has the tone listed for each set of Troparia.