Today we are going to take a brief break from manuscripts and dip our toes into the pool of Bible translations. Specifically, we’ll take a look at six of the most prominent Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible, including:

Jewish Publication Society (1917)
Koren Jerusalem Bible (1961)
New Jewish Publication Society (1985)
Artscroll’s Stone Tanach (1996)
Schocken Bible of Everett Fox (1995, 2014)
Robert Alter’s translation (2018)

For each of these versions we’ll get a brief sense of the translation style from the preface and then we’ll compare four texts from each: Genesis 1.1-3; Psalm 23.1-2; Isaiah 9.6; and Micah 7.20.

—— Books ——

Jewish Publication Society Bible (1917)
New Jewish Publication Society Bible (1985)
Koren Jerusalem Bible
Artscroll Stone Tanach
Everett Fox‘s Schocken Bible
Robert Alter’s three volume Bible with commentary
The Song of Songs by Ariel and Chana Bloch (translation and commentary)

—— Links ——

Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible
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Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

334 Bible 5 – Jewish Bible Translations