Genesis: Translation and Commentary

I have a hardback copy of this for reference on my shelf of Genesis commentaries, but also an increasingly ragged paperback copy that I've been carrying with me everywhere of late. Reading this during any available downtime has proven fruitful, allowing me to reflect again and again on the text.

Robert Alter's translation of Genesis attempts to restore the accuracy, power, and poeticism of the Hebrew text that has been dulled by the stilted, forced, and theologically tendentious renderings of the past. Many versions of the text of Genesis eviscerate it of parallelism and word repetition. Alter lets the Hebrew cultivate both enigma and delight, eschewing *explaining* the text in favour of representing it. Although he is beholden to JEDP show more theories of source criticism and the Documentary Hypothesis, he is not uncritically so. I was appreciative of the philological expertise shining through here. Alter's running commentary in the footnotes, which often take up half the page, were surprisingly helpful and welcome. Recommended to be read repeatedly. show less

A great read. I enjoy Alter's biblical translations enormously. I find them almost novelistic in their style. Additionally, their differences from the biblical phrasings that are familiar in the KJV or the NRSV make me pause and take my time thinking about the text.

This translation also has an awesomely bitchy introduction about the art of translation, and why Alter makes the choices he does.

Lovely translation, which balances the gravitas of the old ones with the readability of the new ones. The extensive notes focus mainly on linguistic matters (of the 'this Hebrew word is the same word used to describe Abraham's mustache' variety) and literary form. There's some discussion of source texts and the various strands that went to make up Genesis, but that's kept to a minimum, since Alter wants to foreground the work that someone put into arranging all that stuff into a reasonably coherent narrative. There's also a couple of notes about historical context, but fewer than I, personally, would have liked. In general, though, I was impressed that he managed to make the notes both copious and not too boring. Anyway, this is the one show more to get for a good translation. If you want detailed historical or theological commentary, you'll need something in addition, but I can't imagine anyone bettering the translation any time soon. Can't wait to get to Alter's Exodus. show less

Looks good so far. I am only up to chapter three, and I compulsively read footnotes which is not the fast way to read this one.

The author has gone on to translate all five books of Moses into English. His painstaking approach is to try to capture the nuances of the original Hebrew. The footnotes explain some of the translation problems such as obscure phrases and double meanings implied in the text.

This contemporary translation of the Bible's book of Genesis is a useful book. This is a helpful contemporary understanding of the beginnings of biblical thought thanks to the author's text and copious footnotes.

"... [T]he "Genesis" for our generation and beyond," Robert Fagles (from the cover).