The proper translation of sacred texts is a challenge for all people of faith. A new Bible translation has been called scandalous, pernicious and even fraudulent; one critic says “it cuts the heart out of the Bible.”
The translation at issue here is a translation of the Bible into modern Hebrew. The proponents of this new translation propose that Israelis do not speak Hebrew so much as Israeli modern Hebrew. (Perhaps this is analogous to Microsoft’s oft-derided use of the term “U. S. English”?)
Gil’ad Zuckermann, a professor of linguistics…asks: “How many Israelis know that an egla meshulleshet [Genesis 15:9] is not a triangular cow but ‘a heifer of three years old’? If they studied [the new translation]… they would know because it is translated as such: egla bat shalosh.”
Read the full story here (courtesy of the Biblical Archaeology Society).
H/T: Tom Poelker.
–ca
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