Robert Alter (1) (1935–)

Alter makes a convincing case for how bad current translations of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are. To sum it up:

1) Translators sometimes don't understand the meaning of the original Hebrew or pay close enough attention to how the same word is used in other places. Sometimes this results in clear mistranslations. In other cases, it leads to translations that miss the deliberate intent of the author of using the same word in different contexts, i.e., the modern translators translate the same Hebrew word into multiple English words.
2) Modern translators, in their attempt to modernize and simplify the language, rearrange sentences so that the proper emphases are lost. There is a reason why the object of the verb comes at the beginning of the sentence; it is because it is important, and the original writer wanted you to know that.
3) The original Hebrew uses different methods and language for prose, poetry, and dialogue. Prose uses a more limited vocabulary, and translators should respect that rather than introducing more complex English words or--again--translating a single Hebrew word into various English words. The language of the poetry passages is more diverse. While it isn't really possible to reproduce Hebrew poetry in English, translators should at least try to keep the rhythm, but they seldom do. Dialogue has to be treated with special respect as it lets us see the character of the speaker. By basically rewriting much of the dialogue to make it mundane and straightforward, the emotions of the speakers are many times lost.
4) The King James Bible, despite its faults, still goes some way toward displaying the literary quality of the original Hebrew text. The committee which produced it was made up of learned men, but they were men who understood literature and poetry much better than the committees that have come up with our modern biblical translations. In their attempt to convey the meaning of the text, modern translators have lost the style of the original, which in Alter's opinion, was very important. He shows that the authors of the Hebrew Bible were very conscious in their use of words, of alliteration, and of other techniques that must, to the extent possible, be reflected in any accurate modern translation.

Throughout this short book, Alter provides multiple concrete examples of how modern translations have gotten it wrong and compares them with his own translation (available in his 3-volume set of the complete Hebrew Bible with his extensive notes). In almost every case, his translation makes more sense, and in the few cases where his word choice seems a bit odd, we at least have transparency, as he explains exactly why he did what he did. I have Alter's Hebrew Bible on my coffee table, and I look forward to diving into it soon. (Interestingly, it is often the Jewish Publication Society's translation that comes under the most fire, which is surprising, since one would expect it to show more respect toward the original Hebrew than other translations.)

As a critic of literature, Alter brings a totally different perspective, and a much needed one, to biblical translation. I can only hope that when new revisions are made of other versions of the Hebrew Bible, they take into account at least the clear errors Alter has identified, even if they have such a low opinion of their readers' intelligence that they still stick to simplified phrasing that loses not just the beauty, but much of the subtle meaning present in the original text.… (more)