A minor

A Gift of Books: Contemporary Hebrew Bible Translations

Today I received a surprise package from Amazon. I opened it to find two items from my wish list: Genesis (Norton, 1996) and The David Story (Norton, 1999), both of which are translations and commentaries by Robert Alter, UC-Berkeley professor of Hebrew and comparative literature. Thanks so much, Emeth!

Speaking of contemporary Hebrew Bible translations, I recently picked up The Great Poems of the Bible (Free Press, 1999) by James Kugel, Harvard professor of Hebrew literature. Interestingly, in his introduction, Kugel basically mocks the translation style and choices of Everett Fox, Clark University professor of Judaic and biblical studies, whose The Five Books of Moses (Schocken, 1995) and Give Us a King! (Schocken, 1999) have been touchstones to me. It seems to me that there's a place for both - on the one hand, Fox's odd, literal, aurally-oriented translations, and, on the other, Kugel's polished English renderings. In other words, I think Kugel may offer a false dilemma. Hopefully one day I will know enough to knowledgeably engage in such discussions; right now I'm just trying to take it all in.