Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament... New commentary?

Hallo:

Sorry to bother in this part of Logos Forums, can someone tell me what is the commentary series Herders Theologischer Kommentar sum Alten Testament?

Is it a new theological commentary? will it eventually be released in English?

Thanks ahead of time for your input.

Peace and grace.

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Comments

Tobias Gerbothe

Maybe this is helpful: https://community.logos.com/forums/p/182462/1055489.aspx#1055489
It is a pretty large commentary, so I don't know, if it will be translated. (Not impossible, but don't think so.)

HJ. van der Wal

Shalom Hamilton, welcome to this part of the forums!

As you can read in the post that Tobias linked to HThKAT is a major academic commentary series. You can find additional information on the publisher's website and on Wikipedia:

https://www.herder.de/theologie-pastoral-shop/reihen/herders-theologischer-kommentar-zum-alten-testament/c-37/c-252/

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herders_Theologischer_Kommentar_zum_Alten_Testament

When you look at the names of the contributing authors you will notice that some volumes are translations/adaptations from other languages (English/Dutch/Hebrew), e.g.:

Japhet on 1 and 2 Chronicles (Old Testament Library) - https://www.logos.com/product/153645/i-and-ii-chronicles

Greenberg on Ezekiel (Anchor Yale Bible) - https://www.logos.com/product/41439/the-anchor-yale-bible-ezekiel-1-20

Beuken on Isaiah (Commentaar Oude Testament) - not in Logos

Zakovitch on Song of Songs (Mikra le-Yisra'el) - not in Logos (expanded in HThKAT)

The commentary on Psalms by Zenger and Hossfeldt has been published in English in the Hermeneia series:

https://www.logos.com/product/50203/hermeneia-psalms-2-a-commentary-on-psalms-51-100

https://www.logos.com/product/50204/hermeneia-psalms-3-a-commentary-on-psalms-101-150

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140279#Comment_1140279

Thanks HJ. van der Wal, shalom.

Right now the commentary series is offered at a discount price with the Portfolio package, is it worth in your view to get it?

That some volumes are available in English is good, I would eventually like to learn to at least be able to read German, mostly theological type, so that would be an advantage for comparison.

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140268#Comment_1140268

Thank you Tobias.

From what I got from google translate, the commentary moves away from grammatical and leans more towards theological interpretation...

Do you consider it to be written in relatively easy to understand language?

Tobias Gerbothe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140309#Comment_1140309

I don't have much first hand experience. I heard it depends on the author of the volume (so at least some will be difficult to understand, even for a native speaker.) I think HJ has more experience.

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140328#Comment_1140328

Ok Tobias thank you.

I was thinking about Worldview [Weltanschauung], at one point it seemed that people of a particular language developed a very particular worldview, that made them approach orthodoxa and orthopraxis in certain way as adaptive mechanisms to their particular contextual situation.

Mark Ward in one of his Logos Blog articles explained that Worldview is not evenly distributed among the speakers of a particular language in a given region, that many times, sub cultures within that region had a varied worldview.

It is very interesting that within certain theological themes / thrusts, different traditions see things different, but even particular believers of a particular linguistic region (country), focus on the same themes in a different angle.

Is fascinating, and Germans were the firsts that articulated such concept.

I noticed that in the packages that each language has, there is treatment of particular subcategories with different emphasis for their own Christian Living so to speak.

I will wait to see what others say, but I think I would be interested in obtaining the commentary set in the package at it has a very discounted price that way.

Peace and grace.

Ben Misja (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140333#Comment_1140333

I've only worked with the Psalms and Jeremiah volumes of this set in some depth (IIRC), but I came away with a very good impression. Both were thorough, exegetical, and more up to date and comprehensive on textual scholarship than practically anything else out there.

That said, academic theological German is not for the faint of heart. It may not be a series you'll be able to casually read with a dictionary or Google Translate.

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140382#Comment_1140382

Thanks Ben for the input.

That said, academic theological German is not for the faint of heart. It may not be a series you'll be able to casually read with a dictionary or Google Translate.

LOL, true, but sometimes only by trying the impossible can we achieve the satisfactory, LOL.

Peace and grace.

SineNomine

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1140382#Comment_1140382

That said, academic theological German is not for the faint of heart. It may not be a series you'll be able to casually read with a dictionary or Google Translate.

What about the auto-translate feature in Verbum, now that this set has been included in Verbum 10 Portfolio?

Ben Misja (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1248285#Comment_1248285

That's an outstanding question! HThKAT was certainly included in Verbum 10 Portfolio for this very reason. And in our internal tests of our translation providers, DeepL and Google Translate, I was pleasantly surprised how well both were able to recognize and render very specific theological terminology, right down to the specific rendering of Bible references or terms like parousia. DeepL, which is used to translate from German to English, stood out to me in particular. They also both impressed me with their ability to render very complex sentence structures flawlessly or close to flawlessly in translation.

That said, I haven't actually used it much in practice (for obvious reasons), and I could see that complex academic language might pose some challenges, combining the technical context with complex sentences. My guess is that German commentaries such as HThKAT or IEKAT might certainly serve as a stress test to our translation providers, and I'd predict that you should get mostly usable output, even if there are individual terms or clauses with minor but noticable errors.

Has anyone reading along here actually worked with German exegetical texts and Autotranslate and may be willing to share their experience?

SineNomine

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1248380#Comment_1248380

HThKAT was certainly included in Verbum 10 Portfolio for this very reason.

I thought so. As it happens, the (heavily discounted) cost of HThKAT is why I haven't purchased Verbum 10 Portfolio.

My guess is that German commentaries such as HThKAT or IEKAT might certainly serve as a stress test to our translation providers, and I'd predict that you should get mostly usable output, even if there are individual terms or clauses with minor but noticable errors.

The keyword here is probably "noticeable"... if I actually do need a translation service, unlike you, what errors in translation will I miss?

Has anyone reading along here actually worked with German exegetical texts and Autotranslate and may be willing to share their experience?

I hope so....

Stephan Thelen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1248427#Comment_1248427

iOS App 23.0.0 wenn man nur ein Wort zum übersetzen markiert, erscheint plötzlich im Kontextmenü nur noch das englische Wort. Um die Übersetzung zu lesen, muss man die mehr Taste drücken. Das war in den vergangenen Updates nicht so.

Insgesamt finde ich die Übersetzungsfunktion auch qualitativ gut. Völlig sinnentstellende Übersetzungen habe ich bisher noch nicht festgestellt.
schade ist das der Text in der Desktop Version immer noch auf der linken Seite ständig flattert (wegen der Markierungslinie), wenn man durch den Text nach unten scrollt. das hatte ich schon vor geraumer Zeit gemeldet, aber leider ist es immer noch nicht abgestellt

Stephan Thelen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1248481#Comment_1248481

Die Übersetzungsfunktion in der iOS App finde ich nach wie vor ziemlich unbefriedigend vom Handling her. Das hatte ich aber schon mal geschrieben.

Michael Samuel

The text has been modernized and recast with other contemporary biblical scholarship. It is very enjoyable reading.

Michael Samuel

The text has been modernized and recast with other contemporary biblical scholarship. It is very enjoyable reading.