Knox, Ronald (1888-1957), was a British Roman Catholic priest, scholar, and author. He translated the official Roman Catholic Bible, the Vulgate, from Latin into modern English, see Bible (The first translations) . His version received the approval of the Roman Catholic Church. Knox’s translation of the New Testament was published in 1945, and his translation of the Old Testament was published in 1949. He later published several commentaries on the New Testament.
Knox’s numerous religious works and published sermons include Heaven and Charing Cross (1935) and God and the Atom (1946). Less serious writings, including Essays in Satire (1928) and Let Dons Delight (1939), earned him a reputation for satirical wit. He also wrote works of fiction, including six detective novels, beginning with The Viaduct Murder (1925), that feature witty private investigator Miles Bredon. Knox also wrote several detective short stories and edited detective story anthologies. Barchester Pilgrimage (1935) is a parody of the novels of the English author Anthony Trollope.
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was born on Feb. 17, 1888, in Kibworth, Leicestershire, England, the son of an Anglican bishop. He was educated at Eton College from 1900 to 1906 and Oxford University from 1906 to 1910. Knox was a fellow and chaplain at Trinity College, Oxford, from 1910 to 1917. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912. In 1917, he became a Roman Catholic. Knox was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1919. He described his conversion in the autobiographical A Spiritual Aeneid (1918). He served as Roman Catholic chaplain to Oxford University from 1926 to 1939, and, in 1936, was made domestic prelate by Pope Pius XI. Knox died on Aug. 24, 1957.
