Genesis 1-11: A New Old Translation For Readers, Scholars, and Translators - Softcover

Bray, Samuel L.; Hobbins, John F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1942697376 ISBN 13: 9781942697374

Publisher: GlossaHouse, 2017

Synopsis

This translation of Genesis 1-11 follows the Hebrew text closely and leaves in what many translations leave out: physicality, ambiguity, repetition, even puns. Bray and Hobbins also draw deeply from the long history of Jewish and Christian interpretation. Their translation and notes offer the reader wisdom and delight.

About this title

About the Author

Samuel L. Bray is a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School.
John F. Hobbins is a pastor and scholar of biblical Hebrew. He has taught at the Waldensian Theological Seminary in Rome and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Review

Reviews of Genesis 1-11: A New Old Translation for Readers, Scholars, and Translators

"Reading the notes becomes quite a serendipitous experience: one never quite knows what kind of nugget is about to appear. . . . Even amid the continuing deluge of studies of Genesis 1-11, this will prove a refreshing read, with most to offer on how precisely one should render the text in the light of the many points--linguistic, cultural, historical, macro-contextual, aesthetic and other--that the translators raise for discussion."--Robert P. Gordon, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
"This translation offers a fresh presentation--representation-- of the Hebrew text: not fresh because it is contemporary or shocking or chatty, but fresh in its oldness, its transparency to the Hebrew, in all of that ancient text's splendor and strangeness. And Genesis 1-11 is far more than a translation: it is a statement of first principles and, in its notes, a window on the interplay of those principles."--Joshua M. Jensen, Themelios
"This fine book published by GlossaHouse offers good contributions to biblical translations. . . . A tannin is not a whale, but readers will certainly have a whale of a time with this volume by Bray and Hobbins in their hands."--Marco Settembrini, New Blackfriars
"A new (2017) English translation of Genesis 1-11, which is accompanied by extensive scholarly notes that document and defend the crucial and at times controversial choices that have been made in the innovative translation. This interesting and informative work, which is of special interest to those engaged in the fields of Old Testament and Translation Studies, has already attracted significant academic attention in the United States."--Ernst Wendland, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages
"This translation of Genesis 1-11 is an excellent resource for the interested layman and scholar alike."--David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews
"Here we get a glimpse inside the translators' scriptorium. They lay out candidly and in great detail the reasons why they chose to translate the way they did. They discuss their translation process to a degree I've never seen in book form before."--Dominic Kent, Interpreter
"This book is the best translational thought-provoker in Biblical Hebrew since Robert Alter's retranslation of the Torah."--Jerry Bowyer, Forbes
"The authors . . . remind us that a translation can both be eloquent and rest on modern scholarship."--Kurtis Peters, Expository Times

Additional Praise for Genesis 1-11: A New Old Translation for Readers, Scholars, and Translators
"Bray and Hobbins have themselves given us the best possible description of their Genesis 1-11 book. It is 'a new old translation' for everyone. They resist the temptation to innovate for innovation's sake. They do not fix what's not broken. And their lively writing mines the best of the ancient and the new to give us a dragon's hoard of learned enjoyment. The translation itself gives these famed biblical chapters a more lucid splendor. But more than that, their engaging notes and essay 'To the Persistent Reader' are a journey into the translator's world that will enrich lay-folk and scholar alike."--Raymond C. Van Leeuwen

"This is a wonderfully provocative exercise in translation, commentary, and book-making--certain to bring instruction and delight to any Persistent Reader, and to make this vital portion of the biblical text stand forth in a new light."--Alan Jacobs
"Lively and learned."--Michael V. Fox

"Taking a fresh look at old words, Bray and Hobbins' new translation of Genesis reinvigorates some of the most important verses of Scripture for a new generation of readers."--Eric Landry
"An amazing achievement, both stylistically and in terms of making the historical meaning come alive for the modern reader."--Geoffrey Miller
"For anyone interested in the questions of language and interpretation, here is a translation of Genesis 1-11 that lovingly balances tradition and scholarship, ecclesiastical usage and (accessible) academic rigor."--Jennifer Agee

"This striking presentation of the familiar first chapters of Genesis, from creation to the arrival of Abraham, seeks to render them even more familiar, by returning to a traditional biblical 'register': making the Bible sound like the Bible. The result is vintage wine in suitably old wineskins."--Henry Ansgar Kelly

Edition details

• Publisher: GlossaHouse
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1942697376
• ISBN 13: 9781942697374
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 326