Download The Art of Bible Translation Robert Alter 9780691181493 Books

Product details Hardcover 152 pages Publisher Princeton University Press (March 19, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0691181497

The Art of Bible Translation Robert Alter 9780691181493 Books Reviews

• Prof. Alter spends the first 6 pages giving his credentials, which invariably is a sign of a self-important windbag. (As my friends would say “takes one to know one.”) Not that Alter doesn’t have excellent scholarly credentials with more than 2 dozen books to his credit and competence in both ancient and modern Hebrew. But he seems to think that other translations “don’t see the artistry (p61), “bleach the biblical dialogue of its vivid color (108), give in to “the impulse to spell out everything…at the cost of both rhythm and stylistic decorum” (91), engage in “egregious” modernizing (91), ignore word play (76), “manhandle the Hebrew (120) among other “woeful inadequacies of 20th century English translations” (2) like the esteemed New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, and the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) version. His favorite The 1611 King James Version—widely regarded by scholars worldwide as the least authoritative and accurate version. In short, he doesn't care for the newfangled, easier to read, authoritative translations which conflict with his.
  
  All that aside, let’s consider several significant problems with this book. (1) He seems to get confused when he uses the phrase “biblical prose” (p.4) as to whether he’s referring to KJV or what he sometimes calls “the original Hebrew.” E.g, “in biblical narrative there is only one word for ‘light.’” But which bible—the “Hebrew” or the KJV? (2) Nowhere does he even bother to identify what he considers “the original Hebrew.” This is an egregious academic lapse. Maybe it’s obvious to him but the point of being a biblical scholar is to say what your source is. (3) On a point of simple readability, he lets his paragraphs blather on far beyond what even a scholar wants to endure — paragraphs running 60- and 70-lines (2-3 pages-worth) are commonplace. In short, he has no concept of where to break up a graf into manageable units. (4) He often presents three or four versions of the same verse in one long graf instead of giving the reader an eye-break by setting each version on its own line.
  
  But the most serious problem, in my admittedly non-scholarly view, is (5) he doesn’t seem to acknowledge that there is no “original Hebrew,” that is, an “autograph” manuscript. In other words, we only have handwritten copies of these books And, as Bart Ehrman points out, in reality, we only have copies of copies of copies. In short, there is no “original Hebrew” ('autograph') to translate from. “We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed from the originals and different from them . . . in thousands of ways. (Ehrman, in "Misquoting Jesus"). We do have Dead Sea Scrolls>—fragments dating from 150 BCE—and other codex fragments in Greek, Syriac and Latin dating from 300 BCE. Then there’s the Masoretic text — often referred to as the “original Hebrew Bible text” and considered by many experts as being perhaps the most authoritative Hebrew text. But these docs range from 100 CE to 1000 CE—not exactly the trustworthy actual words and stories of any 600-1000 BCE prophets—several hundred to two thousand years earlier.
  
  Now, there are arguments somewhat mitigating the absence of an “autograph text.” For example, there is the idea that original texts can be “recovered” across multiple reliable manuscripts (such as Qur’anic scholars were said to have done 20 years after Muhammad’s death, see Uthman’s Codex). There is also the strategy of using attributions from other sources that refer to a particular text that has been lost. And there is the argument from oral tradition which says that information passed down orally from generation to generation is actually “the original.” That is, just because something has not been written on a parchment or papyrus, a stele or the ribs of palm leaves does not mean it doesn’t exist. Or, as one religion professor insists “Textual scholars can determine, with a relative degree of certainty, which of these readings were original and which were not.”
  
  The bottom line here is that if you’re going to rely on a document only set in fixed form 500 to 2,000 years after the events, maybe you shouldn’t be quibbling about fine points of parataxis, word play, dialogue and “rhythm.” Absent some evidence that he’s managed to latch onto original biblical writings from 1000 to 6th century BCE (the time of the Babylonian Captivity) the best that can be said is that Prof. Alter does a scholarly job of deciphering and translating texts from questionable copies of copies of translations.My general impression is that, despite the impressive Princeton imprimatur, this is essentially a self-publishing vanity project that sidestepped editing, copyediting and scholarly review due to the author’s reputation.
  
  Verdict read only if you enjoy fine points of ancient Hebrew diction, dialogue and style but you don't care what actual source is being translated and don't mind wading through 2-3-page paragraphs.
• The author's English language versions of Biblical texts are the ultimate in contemporary translations; thus, his insights shared in this entertaining little book are of tremendous value to readers. This title compliments the earlier titles on Biblical prose and Biblical poetry, all must reads.
• Fascinating glimpse into the problems of translation and especially the challenges of capturing the lyricism and poetry of the original texts.
• This short, very readable volume comes on the heals of the culmination of decades of work with the publication of The Hebrew Bible, a Translation with Commentary.
  Previous works include The Art of Biblical Narrative (1981) and The Art of Biblical Poetry (1985).
  
  The prelude of this book contains a brief history of how he stumbled into biblical translation, his proficiency in both biblical and modern Hebrew as well as an advanced academic education in classic literature lead to a request to work on a Norton Critical Edition of the book of Genesis.
  He admires the classic work the translators of the King James Version but recognized two profound faults, the first being the lexigraphic and grammatical drift of the English language over the past four centuries, the second being “the seventeenth-century translators, for all their learning, had a rather imperfect grasp of biblical Hebrew.”
  
  “From the beginning my translation was impelled by a deep conviction that the literary style of the Bible in both the prose narratives and the poetry is not some sort of aesthetic embellishment of the “message” of Scripture but the vital medium through which the biblical vision of God, human nature, history, politics, society, and moral value is conveyed.” p. xiii.​
  
  Alter’s translation is a unique work, rarely does a single author complete a translation of such magnitude.
  
  In the chapters of this book Alter discusses the adjustments in syntax that must be made in every translation and their “unfortunate consequences” when working with the Hebrew Bible.
  
  He spends a chapter noting various word choices, including the inaccuracies in the modern translations. In further chapters the author notes aspects of the Hebrew Scriptures missed by current translations, the sound and word play, the rhythm, and the language of dialogue.
  Alter expresses firmly that translations that fail to exhibit these inherent feature are deficient and do a disservice to the one studying its pages.
• We have begun including Alter's landmark translation of the Tanach in our weekly Torah study group. It flows like literature. depicting the Bible as the epic poem it really is in form. Our group was fascinated to read Alter's principles of translation of Biblical books when this new book was released this spring. We frequently go back to the original Hebrew to see what a phrase is really saying, providing our own translations when possible and referring to the translations of several editions that we are using, and he truly does capture the sense of the Hebrew. A peek behind the scenes as a master does his work. He shows us how he walks the tightrope of keeping the integrity of the Hebrew while creating literature.