The Hebrew Bible

September 24, 2018
Alter (The Art of Biblical Narrative), professor of Hebrew at the University of California, Berkeley, aspires to represent “biblical narrative prose” in this meticulously cited but clunky translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original ancient Hebrew. Alter begins with his stated goal of translating the Hebrew Bible “in a language that conveys the semantic nuances and the lively orchestration of literary effects of the Hebrew and at the same time has stylistic and rhythmic integrity as literary English.” His intentions are in evidence from the very outset, beginning with his translation of the opening of Genesis: “When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, ‘Let there be light.’ ” In a footnote, Alter explains why he used the obscure word “welter”—to create an alliterative parallel to the rhyme of the Hebrew tohu wabohu. Such explanations are frequent, especially in places where his version differs substantially from the King James version. Because of these choices, readers will differ on the degree of Alter’s success in creating a version that has broad appeal, and many will find the heavy footnoting a distraction if they simply want to read the Bible. Nonetheless, this volume, the first single-author literary translation of the complete Hebrew Bible, is a triumph of diligence and scholarship.