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Examples
Comparative Translations
As Speiser describes, the translator must walk a tightrope. If a translation leans to the side of the origin, it will be more literal. For Genesis, here are four translations we will use (in order of literalness):
- Fox: Based on the approach of the Buber/Rosenzweig translation into German, Fox strives to follow the Hebrew
- SJV: The Standard Jewish Version (the original JPS translation, 1917) is a Jewish translation based on the style of the King James.
- NJV: The Jewish Publication Society published a new translation in 1962. This is the translation that appears in Plaut's commentary published by the UAHC: The Torah.
- Speiser: The Anchor Bible's Genesis volume is at the other end of the spectrum: highly idiomatic, while still being very scholarly.
Of course, you might not have four different translations immediately available to you. Now with a number of (Christian) English translations on line, you can compare different translations even if you don't have a collection of Bibles (though I do highly recommend Everett Fox's translation to anyone interested in reading and studying the Biblical text.)
Several Christian translations are explained here, then try searching yourself by visiting the search page. Under Bible version select All, and Genesis (you can specify starting chapter and verse, and how many verses to display- remember the number you type is multiplied by five, though!). Scroll through and compare translations!
You can basically check out any verses at random and be sure to get some great material. I can't pick any one verse over another, they're all too great. If you want, start with Genesis 2 for some fascinating insights into the Garden of Eden! Share any fascinating results!
I've done a sample here with Exodus 2:2,3. I've highlighted the differences. Words that translators disagree on will often be fruitful areas to explore. Note the differences in styles and word choices!
2
NIV and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.
RSV The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
DBY And the woman conceived, and bore a son. And she saw him that he was fair, and hid him three months.
3
NIV But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
RSV And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river's brink.
KJV And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
DBY And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of reeds, and plastered it with resin and with pitch, and put the child in it, and laid [it] in the sedge on the bank of the river.
YLT and she hath not been able any more to hide him, and she taketh for him an ark of rushes, and daubeth it with bitumen and with pitch, and putteth the lad in it, and putteth [it] in the weeds by the edge of the River;
