Hellavan article re new Psalms translation

[SeattleUte]

This article is really enlightening re Bilblical translations in general as well as a most interesting review of the new Psalms translation by, Robert Alter, the same gentlement who did the celebrated translation of the Pentateuch a couple years back.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critic...rbo_books_wood


The article will make you appreciate the KJV more, for all its poetic license with the Hebrew. Many passages in the article itself, penned by James Wood, are wonderful. I especially liked the opening, which made me think of some recent discussions here.

"What is God like? Is he merciful, just, loving, vengeful, jealous? Is he a bodiless force, a cool watchmaker, or a hot interventionist, a doer with big opinions, a busy chap up in Heaven? Does he, for instance, approve of charity and disapprove of adultery? Or are these attributes instead like glass baubles that we throw against the statue of his invisibility, inevitably shattering into mere words? The medieval Jewish thinker Maimonides thought that it was futile to belittle God by giving him human attributes; to do so was to commit what later philosophers would call a category mistake. We cannot describe his essence; better to worship in reverent silence. "'Silence is praise to thee,' Maimonides wrote, quoting from the second verse of Psalm 65."

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

This article is really enlightening re Bilblical translations in general as well as a most interesting review of the new Psalms translation by, Robert Alter, the same gentlement who did the celebrated translation of the Pentateuch a couple years back.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critic...rbo_books_wood


The article will make you appreciate the KJV more, for all its poetic license with the Hebrew. Many passages in the article itself, penned by James Wood, are wonderful. I especially liked the opening, which made me think of some recent discussions here.

"What is God like? Is he merciful, just, loving, vengeful, jealous? Is he a bodiless force, a cool watchmaker, or a hot interventionist, a doer with big opinions, a busy chap up in Heaven? Does he, for instance, approve of charity and disapprove of adultery? Or are these attributes instead like glass baubles that we throw against the statue of his invisibility, inevitably shattering into mere words? The medieval Jewish thinker Maimonides thought that it was futile to belittle God by giving him human attributes; to do so was to commit what later philosophers would call a category mistake. We cannot describe his essence; better to worship in reverent silence. "Silence is praise to thee,' Maimonides wrote, quoting from the second verse of Psalm 65."

Thanks for sharing that. It was a good article. In my wildest dreams, when I'm overseeing the definitive translation of the Bible, I put my ace translator on the Psalms material. The psalms are very difficult, both because their poetic qualities are inseperable from their meaning and because they are quoted and extensively alluded to in the NT. A strict word-for-word translation, like the NASB, butchers the Psalms.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

Thanks for sharing that. It was a good article. In my wildest dreams, when I'm overseeing the definitive translation of the Bible, I put my ace translator on the Psalms material. The psalms are very difficult, both because their poetic qualities are inseperable from their meaning and because they are quoted and extensively alluded to in the NT. A strict word-for-word translation, like the NASB, butchers the Psalms.

Yes, it's like the Iliad or the Odyssey or the Divine Comedy. The translator himself must be a poet, and to just trot out a rote translation does not itself do the original Hebrew justice.