We are missing something in our reading of the Bible, something basic and beautiful: the literary style of the original. So says Robert Alter in his provocative essay, “The Bible in English and the Heresy of Explanation,” in the introduction to his translation and commentary of Genesis (Norton, 1996), also included in his more recent translation of The Five Books of Moses (Norton, 2008). Poetry is more evident in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament, in Christian terminology) than English translations allow and the prose narratives are more lively than usually portrayed. There is intrigue in the scriptures that our versions fail to show and nuances of meaning that they deny to us because, says Alter, “The unacknowledged heresy underlying most modern English versions of the Bible is the use of translation as a vehicle for explaining the Bible instead of representing it in another language, and in the most egregious instances this amounts to explaining away the Bible.”
Alter, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that by underplaying the marvelous literary qualities of the Bible and treating it as a textbook for study English, translators have removed fundamental dimensions for discovering meanings in the texts. He says, “modern English versions – especially in their treatment of Hebrew narrative prose – have placed readers at a grotesque distance from the distinctive literary experience of the Bible in its original language.” Considering that the original was meant to be heard more than to be read, the elimination of rhythms in lines, the elaboration of sentences which find their punch in brevity, the attempt to add variety by using synonyms instead of allowing the repetitions which helped original hearers get the point, have the unintended effect of hiding meanings which the authors desired to convey through various literary devices. “Modern translators, in their zeal to uncover the meaning of the biblical text for the instruction of a modern readership, frequently lose sight of how the text intimates its meanings – the distinctive, artfully deployed features of ancient Hebrew prose and poetry that are the instruments for the articulation of all meaning, message, insight, and vision.”
Modern translations have, in the name of clarity with the intent to help readers understand the text, removed some of the literary artist's techniques for communicating meaning and, particularly in scripture. allowing ambiguity. “Literature in general, and the narrative prose of the Hebrew Bible in particular, cultivates certain profound and haunting enigmas, delights in leaving its audiences guessing about motives and connections, and, above all, loves to set ambiguities of word choice and image against one another in an endless interplay that resists neat resolution.”
The literature of the Bible is story, it is poetry, it is music, not an instruction manual. The messages, and there are always multiple messages in scripture, come through more in hearing it as an enthralling story or reading it in a reflective mode than in a studious examination of details. “Finally, the mesmerizing effect of these ancient stories will scarcely be conveyed if they are not rendered in cadenced English prose that at least in some ways corresponds to the powerful cadences of the Hebrew. … The most pervasive aspect of the magic of biblical style that has been neglected by English translators is its beautiful rhythms. An important reason for the magnetic appeal of these stories when you read them in the Hebrew is the rhythmic power of the words that convey the story.”
Some of us love our study Bibles and devote many hours to reading text and notes. Some of us have found in paraphrases rich insights that traditional translation seemed to hide. Some of us welcome the versions prepared “for public reading” because of the smoothness of the language. Yet, in all of these we are missing something integral to the Bible itself: its original voice. I do not mean that we all must learn Hebrew to understand the scriptures, but I join Prof. Alter in acknowledging that the versions we use deny to us something we would do well, very well, to discover. It is in the poetry and music, the un-clarity of the text, that we will hear a message that reading “accurate translations” will not yield. I recommend reading Alter's translations (available for the first five books of the Old Testament and for the Wisdom Books), but even more I recommend hearing the Bible. And, I believe that hearing it in community, in a small group where you can share your responses to the sound and flow of the text (not just your interpretation of it) will open new senses for knowing it.
These comments are about the Old Testament. Kenneth Bailey's commentaries on the Gospels offer similar keys for discovering riches in New Testament texts that are missed by English translations, translations that cannot speak with a Middle Eastern voice.
