Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Peter wrote:-

>If anyone is confusing them, it is Bill, for he wrote of "Alter's
>slightly quirky translation style". What I said was that Alter's
>translation was "bad English", and I was referring to Alter, not Fox.

Whatever your powers as a mind reader may have been, they have suffered
a reversion to the mean  :-)  It's a physical impossibility for me
to confuse them as I have never seen Fox's translation.

Alter often reverses normal English word order to achieve a particular
rhythmic effect. It's a bit odd, but given what he is trying to
acheive it seems perfectly legitamate. No one who can read a newspaper
should have any problems with understanding these reversals.

At the moment I'm translating in Leviticus and I've found Alter's
translation so good that its now one of three standards I check
against. It has displaced the JPS, the other two are the NASB and
Milgrom's Anchor Bible translation and commentary.

I read the other posts up to the end of Vol 35, Issue 28 and I don't
understand the venom being poured out against Alter's work. This is
one man's translation of five books of the Hebrew Bible coupled with
an extensive introduction and integral commentary. If you judge it
by a standard other than what Alter has clearly stated in his
approx 40 page introduction, then you do it and yourself a
disservice. This was my point, which Rolf also made earlier, that
your (Peter's) view of translation is so narrow you can't appreciate
fine work outside your theoretical ideal. However, Karl's comments
are par for the course, he has a serious case of Frustrated
Einstein Syndrome.

Herman wrote:-

>Does anyone really think that the masoretes didn't see the problem of
>Gen. 1,1-3?

It's hard to tell about the Masoretes but if you read Rashi he is well
aware of the problem and makes extensive comments on it.



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