The Hebrew Bible conveys its sundry visions of God, humankind, history, morality, covenant, and much else through a subtle and often complex literary vehicle, both in the prose narratives and in the poetry. Previous translations have not done much justice to this vehicle. What Professor Alter attempted to do is to represent as much as is feasible in English the rhythms, the word play and sound play, the expressive use of syntax, and the strategic word choices of the Hebrew, honoring the formal conventions of the narrative and of the poems.
Robert Alter, Ph.D. is professor of the Graduate School and emeritus professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (Norton), a three-volume, 3,000-page work that represents the culmination of nearly two and a half decades of work. He is also author of the recently-released The Art of Bible Translation (Princeton University Press) and of two dozen other books. He is recipient of the 2019 Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Contribution to American Letters, among other honors. He lives in Berkeley, California.
OPEN TO THE COMMUNITY!
$0 for Jewish Center members
$18 for PRE-REGISTERED community members (by 3/24)
$25 for WALK-IN community members
$10 for students
For more information please contact info@thejewishcenter.org or call 609-921-0100 x200.
