The Art of Biblical Translation, by Robert Alter

The Art of Biblical Translation
Robert Alter
Princeton University Press
March 2019
127 pages

This short volume comes on the heals of the culmination of decades of work with the publication of The Hebrew Bible, a Translation with Commentary.
Previous works include The Art of Biblical Narrative (1981) and The Art of Biblical Poetry (1985).

The prelude of this book contains a brief history of how he stumbled into biblical translation, his proficiency in both biblical and modern Hebrew as well as an advanced academic education in classic literature lead to a request to work on a Norton Critical Edition of the book of Genesis.
He admires the classic work the translators of the King James Version but recognized two profound faults, the first being the lexigraphic and grammatical drift of the English language over the past four centuries, the second being, “the seventeenth-century translators, for all their learning, had a rather imperfect grasp of biblical Hebrew.”

“From the beginning my translation was impelled by a deep conviction that the literary style of the Bible in both the prose narratives and the poetry is not some sort of aesthetic embellishment of the “message” of Scripture but the vital medium through which the biblical vision of God, human nature, history, politics, society, and moral value is conveyed.” p. xiii.​

Alter’s translation is a unique work, rarely does a single author complete a translation of such magnitude.

In the chapters of this book Alter discusses the adjustments in syntax that must be made in every translation and their “unfortunate consequences” when working with the Hebrew Bible.

He spends a chapter noting word choices, including the inaccuracies in the modern translations. In the chapters that follow the author notes aspects of the Hebrew Scriptures missed by current translations, the sound and word play, rhythm, and the language of dialogue.
Alter expresses firmly that translations that fail to exhibit these inherent feature are deficient and do a disservice to the one studying its pages.

Rob