For roughly half a century, the Jerusalem Bible has been the basis of the lectionary for Mass used in Catholic worship throughout much of the English-speaking world outside of North America, though in recent years various bishops' conferences have begun to transition to newer translations, including the English Standard Version, Catholic Edition, in the United Kingdom and India[1] and the Revised New Jerusalem Bible in Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.

[2] In 1943 Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical letter, Divino afflante Spiritu, which encouraged Catholics to translate the scriptures from the Hebrew and Greek texts, rather than from Jerome's Latin Vulgate.

He also writes: "Despite claims to the contrary, it is clear that the Jerusalem Bible was translated from the French, possibly with occasional glances at the Hebrew or Greek, rather than vice versa.

[4] J. R. R. Tolkien translated the Book of Jonah for the Jerusalem Bible, although its final version was heavily edited, and he is listed among its "principal collaborators".

[b][6] The Jerusalem Bible returned to the use of the historical name Yahweh as the name of God in the Old Testament, rendered as such in 6,823 places within this translation.