The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter
I think that it would be a good idea to produce "The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter" on Logos. I am lookng to buy the book on Kindle since it is not on Logos. It is a translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew and Aramaic. It was fully published in 2018.
It looks like a fantasic translation. It brings out the beautiful literature of the Hebrew Bible like the King James version does. No modern version takes the literary affects (style) of the Hebrew into account in their translations. They translate accurately and ignore any literary devices of the original. That is why they are so unpleasant to read. It took Robert Alter 25 years to produce it.
It is fantastic because it is very literal and very accurate. At the same time it brings out as much of the cadences (the musical flow of the words) better than any other modern translation. Robert Alter is very concerned for his translation to bring out as much of the Hebrew behind the translation as possible. He translates the words that keep repeating in a section with the same English word each time to show exactly what the Hebrew is doing. He shows the beautiful play on words that the Hebrew does. He does not explain the text by giving a different word in Engish to what the Hebrew says. He just gives the English translation of each of the words. The words also flow much better than other modern translations. He is concerned that his style reflects the Hebrew better . Othe modern translations largely ignore the style. That is why they sound so bad. As he says his translation is a translation and not heresy where he is puting in a translation that is not actually in the Hebrew like all the other so called accurate modern translations do.
The King James Version (KJV) avoids changing the original words to a large extent. That is why the King James always sounds so good compared to any modern translation. The advantages of Robert Alter's version over the King James version is that he does this more than the KJV and also includes all the scholarship of the last 400 years to also make it much more accurate a translation than the KJV.
Modern translations are "accurate" translations with bad English style. The King James Version has an inaccurate translation with good English style. Robert Alter apparently has produced an Old Testament that has an even more accurate translation than the other modern Bibles and has good English style at the same time. Please look inside his book on Amazon to see for yourself.
It is expensive but definately worth it.
Comments
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Agreed add your votes The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter | Faithlife Feedback and/or Books by Robert Alter | Faithlife Feedback
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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I'll add another vote! Logos, if you are able to make it happen, please add the Robert Alter Bible.
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yes!!!
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Ditto. It is a great resource.
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MJ. Smith said:
This has been marked "Planned" for months. I wonder how long it takes them to put that plan into action?
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Agreed. And "planned" is quite vague. Does that mean "sometime in the next 50 years, we'll get around to it, after we do all this low-key pop Evangelical stuff no one's actually requested" ?
"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected."- G.K. Chesterton
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Is there any update on this? It's hampering my studies to not have this book available on the Logos platform. Any semi-serious OT studies really requires this.
I don't want to purchase the dead-tree version, the only alternative is to get it in Kindle format.
Unless there are licensing roadblocks, Logos really needs to get on this.0 -
Yes, please.
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Ben said:
And "planned" is quite vague
I have always assumed, without evidence, that "planned" implied that they were at least aware of who they needed to obtain rights from and perhaps have even gone so far as to be in contact with the owner of the rights. I keep reminding myself of Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. St. Louis: B. Herder Book Company, 1957. as how uncertain the determination of rights can be.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Based on your continued requests, Rosie, I devoured all 6000 pages of Alter's The Hebrew Bible. Now his comments are scattered through my Notes. Thank you for pointing me in his direction.0
