Posted on 01/25/2019 7:17:12 PM PST by OddLane
One morning this fall, at his home high in the Berkeley hills, the literary critic and translator Robert Alter chatted with me about the dilemmas he faced while translating the Hebrew Bible. Alter, who is 83, sat on a sofa with a long-limbed, feline watchfulness. Behind him, a picture window looked out onto a blooming garden; now and then a hummingbird appeared over his left shoulder, punctuating his thoughts with winged flourishes.
He occasionally cast a probing eye on his brand-new, complete translation of and commentary on the Hebrew Bible — from Genesis to Chronicles — which, at more than 3,000 pages, in three volumes, occupied most of an end table. Published this month, it represents the culmination of nearly two and a half decades of work.
Alter told me about his decision to reject one of the oldest traditions in English translation and remove the word “soul” from the text. That word, which translates the Hebrew word nefesh, has been a favorite in English-language Bibles since the 1611 King James Version. But consider the Book of Jonah 2:6 in which Jonah, caught in the depths of a giant fish’s gut, sings about the terror of near-death by water. According to the King James Version, Jonah says that the Mediterranean waters “compassed me about, even to the soul” — or nefesh. The problem with this “soul,” for Alter, is its Christian connotations of an incorporeal and immortal being, the dualism of the soul apart from the body. Nefesh, to the contrary, suggests the material, mortal parts, the things that make us alive on this earth. The body...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If the NYT is for it, I’m agin it.
Trying to take religion out of the bible.
Yes, since Jesus Christ is the author, I'm pretty sure he's biased in this regard.
Not religion, Christ.
ping
Amplified is good for reference.
I couldn’t get through the flowery first paragraph!
Didn’t RTFA, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he mistranslates Psalm 22, Zechariah 12:10, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9, and Isaiah 53.
Just a guess, mind you.
UC Berkeley’s Alter will not produce a faithful translation. (Never mind the irony of his name.)
And frankly, little to naught rivals the KJV. (The JPS 1917 translation is extremely similar.)
Alter told me about his decision to reject one of the oldest traditions in English translation and remove the word “soul” from the text. That word, which translates the Hebrew word nefesh, has been a favorite in English-language Bibles since the 1611 King James Version.
But consider the Book of Jonah 2:6 in which Jonah, caught in the depths of a giant fish’s gut, sings about the terror of near-death by water. According to the King James Version, Jonah says that the Mediterranean waters “compassed me about, even to the soul” — or nefesh.
The problem with this “soul,” for Alter, is its Christian connotations of an incorporeal and immortal being, the dualism of the soul apart from the body. Nefesh, to the contrary, suggests the material, mortal parts, the things that make us alive on this earth. The body.
It's just a way to undermine Christian tradition. NO thanks!
Yeridat ha-dorot. Hebrew expression for “the decline of the generations”. No way I trust this translation on par with the KJV.
NY Times recommends that all you Christians fight each other over this.
My impression is that it's also in large degree an act of hubris, because I haven't seen anything to indicate that Alter believes in a God of any kind, but have seen him deprecate countless other Hebrew and English-language translations of the Old Testament.
You want a good direct from Hebrew translation try the Stone translation. It is excellent.
As the great Gerald Celente often calls the NYT: “The toilet paper of record”.
This is so interesting, but I’m sorry to say this piece is not well written. I’m going to try it again, but great subject and I shared this on FB. Thanks for posting.
If there really was a Hebrew Bible that was as good as the KJV, that would be an excellent thing.
“I couldn’t get through the flowery first paragraph!”
Holy Moses that was bad!!! (See what I did there?)
I made it past that, but only by another paragraph or too. I did share it on FB because it is so interesting.
I hope the guy who did the bible translation writes a lot better than the person who wrote this article!
I'll take second to none in my devotion to Christ but the above statement is entirely accurate.
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