For Muslims, the Koran is scripture only when it is read in the original Arabic language; English translations are mere educational aids. Jews have a broader concept, but Bible readings in Hebrew remain part of worship in most English-speaking synagogues and homes.
"We will always be a bilingual people," says Ellen Frankel, chief editor of Philadelphia's Jewish Publication Society. Even the best rendition in English, she says, "will never replace that original."In that spirit, the society has just issued its landmark "JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh," which puts a computer-generated version of the ancient Hebrew in columns parallel with a modern English translation. The gilt-edged first edition is $69.95, but less costly bindings will be issued later.
(The title "Tanakh" for the Bible, what Christians call the "Old Testament," is an acronym from Hebrew initials for the three scriptural sections of law, prophets and writings.)
Virtually every rabbi and library will want this volume. But it's also useful for Christian clergy who have a smattering of Hebrew. Hershel Shanks of Moment magazine claims that even those who know no Hebrew will feel "it is an inspiration to see the accompanying ancient words in their original language."
Perhaps. But Christians or Jews with neither Hebrew nor 70 bucks to spare should at least own JPS's English-only Tanakh, available in paperback. The JPS English translation was published in 1985, but a slightly updated version is used for the 1999 Hebrew-English edition.
The tale of the Hebrew text begins around 930 A.D. when a scribe in Israel researched all available texts to compile an authoritative Bible manuscript. This version was further corrected by a successor in Egypt in 1010. The precious 1010 manuscript, long out of circulation and essentially unknown, was rediscovered in 1840. Known as the Leningrad Codex, it is housed in the Russian National Library.
The JPS edition follows the Leningrad text except for adding chapter and verse designations and dividing the Bible into the common 39 books rather than Leningrad's 24.
There are numerous medieval Jewish Bibles. And, according to Rabbi David Sulomm Stein, editor of the 1999 edition, "amazingly, manuscript differences are truly minor." The texts agree "99.9 percent of the time."
The Leningrad is the oldest surviving "Masoretic" manuscript of the full Bible, so named for the school of rabbis that maintained scriptural traditions. There are only a few dozen characters in the Leningrad that cannot be read clearly because of stains, flaked ink or ambiguous pen strokes.
Bible fanciers may purchase a beautiful $255 facsimile edition of the Leningrad Codex pages, issued last year by Eerdmans, a Protestant publisher.
The 1999 Hebrew is further based on a 1977 edition of the Leningrad text that was put into computer-readable code in 1987. This electronic version was prepared by teams at the University of Michigan, Clarement Graduate Schools and Westminster Theological Seminary.
The JPS says Jews and Christians alike recognize its English version as "the most authoritative translation of Hebrew scripture." The claim is highly debatable. Several Christian translations are excellent, too, though Jews don't use them because Christian Bibles include the New Testament.
Translators differ on what to do with ancient Bible manuscripts outside the Masoretic tradition. In the past half-century, for example, the Dead Sea Scrolls have yielded portions of almost all books of the Hebrew Bible that are a thousand years older than the Masoretic manuscripts.
Christian translators usually incorporate changes based on the scrolls. But the JPS sticks with the Masoretic tradition, listing variants or clarifications drawn from other sources in hundreds of footnotes. Most of the differences are minor.
With the resurfacing of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Leningrad Codex, and other resources, modern Jews and Christians alike are able to produce Bibles that are notably closer to the original than editions that were prepared centuries ago.