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FYI, The editor of the Torah: A Modern Commentary (rev. ed. 2005), Rabbi David Stein, sent me the following announcement/link. Sheryl Stahl -----Original Message----- From: David E. S. Stein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 7:36 AM To: Sheryl Stahl Subject: Hebrew Bible: Textual criticism and gender-accurate translation -- new web-based materials Announcing a new section of the URJ Press web site: The Torah: Documentation for the Revised Edition <http://www.urjpress.com/torahrevision/documentation.html>www.urjpress.com/torahrevision/documentation.html More than 360 pages of new online material from URJ Press refers to its recently published (2005) revised edition of The Torah: A Modern Commentary (1981), edited by Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut. Written in English, this material spotlights the Masoretic Hebrew Bible text and a gender-accurate Bible translation of four of its books. Both have been subjects of longstanding controversy in Jewish circles and beyond. Part I describes the editorial policy for the preparation of the revised edition's Hebrew text, followed by a catalog of changes to that text, both for the Torah (Five Books of Moses) and the haftarot (prophetic lectionary). The broader significance of this work arises from the fact that the first edition's Hebrew text had been a fairly standard "received" text, whereas the revised edition's text is based on a collation of reliable manuscripts by the master Tiberian Masorete, Aaron ben Asher, and those most closely associated with him. Consequently this catalog of changes may well be the most detailed comparison to date of the differences between representatives of the two major types of "Masoretic" Hebrew text in use today. Of the discrepancies between the two types of Hebrew text, nearly all are on the relatively minute level of cantillation, secondary accents, word count, and reading rhythm. One of the stated goals of the catalog is to enlighten readers as to the types of variance in the text of the Hebrew Bible as we have received it, and what can go wrong in its transmission. Therefore the documentation not only tabulates more than 800 discrepancies between the two versions but also classes them by quality and significance. It shows where the Masoretic textual reading in the old manuscripts differs from that in all "received" editions, versus where it differs from only some of the "received" editions. In other words, it sheds lights on the little-known fact that editions of the Hebrew Bible, including the "received" editions, all differ from each other in manifold small ways that are not simply typographical errors. Part 2 of the documentation accounts for the revised edition's gender-accurate translation of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. For those books, the revised edition adapted the New Jewish Publication Society (NJPS) translation, a philologically based, sense-for-sense rendering. (For Genesis, the new edition relies upon a different translation altogether.) Based on recent archaeological and social-science reconstructions of ancient Israelite society, the adapted translation portrays social gender in the biblical text the way that the original ancient audience would have understood those references. It also gives consideration to how contemporary readers understand -- or misunderstand -- the construction of gender in the ancient Near East. The documentation answers Frequently Asked Questions about the methodology used to adapt the NJPS translation. Furthermore, it includes more than six hundred translator's notes, edited for online publication, which provide an unusually rigorous, detailed, and systematic analysis of biblical gender ascriptions. WHO: Rabbi David E. S. Stein is revising translator and author of the new documentation. Previously he served as production editor for Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary (2001) and as managing editor for The JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (1999). Consulting editors for the translation adaptation effort were Prof. Carol Meyers (Duke University) and Prof. Adele Berlin (University of Maryland). WHY: The material is available for free download, as part of the URJ Press commitment to be accountable to readers for its revisions to a best-selling work. The URJ Press, based in New York City, is the publishing arm of the Union for Reform Judaism. <http://www.urjpress.com/torahrevision/documentation.html>www.urjpress.com/torahrevision/documentation.html Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
