Evening star., 1909-06-06

from Adam. But for the synagogue there
Is no alternate reading at all Moreover.
the English Bible puts keith twritten
text In the text of its translation. even
when all the ancient versions. like the
Greek and Latin and Syriac. all express
the 'kere' (the reading. the manner in
which the text is read.
There are, of course. cases in which
the 'kere' yields no sense and where it
may become necessary to place the keith
in the text of the translation: but such
cases are rare. Then again the English
Bible sometimes records alternate read
ings where they do not exist at all. Thus
In / Kings, J:4. the reading. with all
his servants which is recorded on the
margin. is found only in faulty prints
of later date. In other words, it is a
plain misprint.
1T is needless to say" continued DR..
Adler, that in a Bible translation pre-
pared by Jews for Jews the books will fo!-
low in the same order as in the Hebrew.
Moreover. the chapters and verses will be
the same as in the Hebrew editions. But
for the benefit of those who may wish
to locate reference given according to
the English there will be a note on the
margin calling attention to a change in
numeration. The weekly portions of the
law Torah) will be marked off by their
Hebrew headings. and at the end of the
volume there will be given a table of
prophetic lessons.
"A translation is far from taking the
place of commentary. No translation
of a difficult passage can be made in
teiligibly by itself. 1t is for this reason
that commentaries exist, some learned
and enriched by ponderous apparatus,
some for the purposes of the lay reader.
more condensed. giving the results of
scholarship rather than the manner in
which those results have been attained.
A concise popular commentary on the
Bible for Jewish readers Is a great neces-
slty. and series of such commentaries is
now contemplated by the Jewish Publ-
cation Society. A specimen volume, con-
tanning the commentary on the Book OF
Micah. Is expected to be out shortly.
.'All translator may reasonably ac-
complish is to guide the reader to an
as they can be understood without a COM
mentary. In general, the ideal OF a trans
lat1on Is to render that which Is clear
more clearly. But where the original is
ambiguous. admitting of more than one
rendering. the translator should aim. If
he can. to initiate the ambiguity of the
original. but to introduce no fresh am
biguities. Otherwise there will be COM
mitting of q passage to a definite sense
whereas another meaning is quite. con-
sonant with the Hebrew wording, The
English reader should not lose the many
sidedness Of the original through a one
sided rendering. Frequently an ambig-
uity is removed by the insertion OF word
or series of words not found in the
original. When such additions are war
ranted by Hebrew idiom it would he
pedantic to mark them. Certainly not
by italics. as is done in the English Bible.
for italics are currently used for an entire
ly different purpose and mislead the reader.
But where the addition is tantamount to
an amplif1cation 1t should be marked. let
US say. by brackets. Italics should be
reserved for Hebrew words left untrans-
lated and not in common English usage.