Image from amazon.com
Why feature yet another translation of the Torah? Are we not content with our translation of choice, Everett Fox’s THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES?
As we have previously announced, once we are able to secure a copy of THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES by Robert Alter (RA), we will feature it as well, to further complement Fox’s. Why not? The more translations we can compare with each other, the better for all, specially those who cannot read the original Torah in biblical Hebrew . . . which includes all of our Sinaite core community and most likely, majority of our web visitors.
As we have mentioned in our introduction to Revisit: MUST OWN: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox – 1:
We will “Alter”-nate with Robert Alter’s THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES, also with commentary; this is another MUST HAVE for your personal library, Alter’s literary language is ‘par excellence’. The reason we chose Fox over Alter is the NAME — Fox uses it all over while Alter does not.
Back Page Text
Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Translation
Winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award for Translation
====================
Through a distinguished career of critical scholarship and translation, Robert Alter has equipped us to read the Hebrew Bible as a powerful, cohesive work of literature. In this landmark work, Alter’s masterly translation and probing commentary combine to give contemporary readers the definitive edition of The Five Books of Moses.
“Thrilling and constantly illuminating.
After the still, small voices of so many tepid modern translations,
here is a whirlwind.”
—Michael Dirda, Washington Post
“A masterpiece:
Robert Alter’s translation of the Five Books of Moses
is the crown of this distinguished scholar’s career.
This superb book is a cause for celebration,
an act of faith that merits our study, our devotion,
and our thanks.”
—Robert Fagles, translator of THE ILIAD, THE ODYSSEY and THE AENEID
“The poets will rejoice.
Alter’s language ascends to a rare purity
through a plainness that equals the plainness of the Hebrew.”
—Cynthia Ozick, NEW REPUBLIC
“Alter’s translation can be fairly described as godsend. The foundational texts are here
given their due in prose
at once modern and magnificently cadenced. Immediately readable,
immensely learned,
an education and a restitution.”
—Seamus Heaney, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
ROBERT ALTER is the class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published many acclaimed works on the Bible literary modernism, and contemporary Hebrew literature. His other translations include The David Story, The Book of Psalms, and The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.
==================
Image from amazon.com
Here are more praises for Robert Alter’s translation:
“[An] astonishing translation. Out of mr. Alter’s close reading and translation, something grander really does take shape, along with a conviction that the Bible is not just incidentally mysterious, posing challenges because of its antique references and sources. It is essentially mysterious.”
—Edward Rothstein, New York Times
“[A] remarkable new translation of the Pentateuch, a monument of scholarship . . . . The result greatly refreshes, sometimes productively estranges, words that may now be too familiar to those who grew up with the King James Bible . . . . Alter’s translation brings delight because it follows the precepts of the committee of King James, but is founded on a greatly deeper conversance with Hebrew than the great 17th century scholars could summon. And Alter . . . brings to his own English a scholarly comprehension of the capacities of literary usage. . . . Especially fine is the way Alter seems to dig into the earth of the Hebrew to recover, in English, its fearless tactility.”
—James Wood, London Review of Books
“In the ancient Hebrew, Alter discovers a profound music. He can raise an already beloved text to new heights of resonance and reality . . . . Alter’s combination of a freshly minted text and splendidly concise commentaries makes the biblical words resonate.”
—-Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor
“This is a masterpiece of clarity, erudition, and synthesis. Alter uses his talent as a literary critic to inspire in the reader a passion for studying the text . . . . This work abounds in stimulating thinking and eloquent writing. He honors those he invites not just to follow him but to accompany him.:
—-Elie Wiesel, Bible Review
“The arrival of this new translation of The Five Books of Moses—a heroic and literary achievement that captures in almost standard English the rhythms, repetition, and beauty of the Hebrew original—is cause for celebration . . . [This translation] well might become the definitive text for readers and scholars alike.”
—-Pearl Abraham, The Forward
“Alter has admirably—one could say miraculously—succeeded.” —-Earl Dachslager, Houston Chroicle
“The renowned scholar Robert Alter has produced a fresh translation [and] backed it up with an enlightening commentary. The result offers Old Testament newcomers, long-term absentees, and veterans a compelling reading experience.”
—-Matt Love, Sunday Oregonian
“The Five Books of Moses is a fine work that deserves admiration for it sheer scale and literary power. The commentary is at least as important as the translation, and the two together make up a unique contribution both to biblical studies and to the understanding and appreciation of a text that is central to Western culture.”
—-John Barton, Times Literary Supplement
“Magisterial . . . an extraordinary achievement by any measure. Alter is indeed a magician with words.”—-Diana Lipton, Booklog
“Alter has succeeded admirably in conveying to English readers something of the flair, mystery, majesty, and power of the original Hebrew.”
—-John W. Rogerson, Church Times
“Has a story ever been at once so comprehensive, so intricate, and so integral as the one Alter gives us here? One is tempted to call it inspired.
—-Alan Jacobs, First Things
“Alter demonstrates a general reverence for literature that is complete, and his reverence for the power of the original text is compelling as well. The thrill of discovery occurs often.”
—-David M. Levine, Congress Monthly
“Alter’s accomplishment is immense. He has produced a translation of the Pentateuch that respects and captures the beauty and majesty of the original.” —Eric Ormsby, New Criterion
In the sequels to this introductory post, we will feature excerpts from the INTRODUCTION by Robert Alter himself, according to following sub-titles:
I. Approaching the Five Books
II. The Bible in English and the Heresy of Explanation
III. On Translating the Names of God
IV. About the Commentary
RA’s commentary verse by verse will be added to those of EF and the Pentateuch & Haftorahs [P&H], edited by Dr. J.H. Hertz. By doing ALL this painstaking work for our own benefit and yet shared with our web visitors in this website, we are serving our God YHWH, the Revelator on Sinai whose Guidelines for Living known as the Torah will hopefully be disseminated to as many hungry or curious seekers of Truth who might otherwise have no access to the books we have featured in our category MUST READ/MUST OWN.
NSB@S6K
Reader Comments