Evening star., 1963-03-10
A New Translation
Of the oroh Appraisal

THE TORAH: The Five
Books Of Moses. A new
translation by the Jewish
- Publication Society of
America. published by the
-' Society; $50
The Jewish Bible is divided
Into three parts: The Torah
(the Law), the Nebiim (the
Prophets), and the Kethu-
bin (the Writings). The first
Of these has Just appeared
In a new translation. pre-
pared by the Jewish Pdblica-
ton Society Of America as
the initial step in present.
ing a modern Bible compara-
BILE in design and purpose to
recent versions of Catholic
and Protestant faiths, such
4. as those of Knox, oxford,
and the Revised Standard
Version. 7
The Torah is what is
known to Christians as the
Pentateuch - the first five
books of the Old Testament:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
If there are doctrinal differ
ences between the Torah
and the Authorized Version,
they are as obscure to the
interested reader seeking en-
joyment rather than saliva
tion as are those to be found
between the Authorized and
Roman Catholic translations
of the New Testament. The
. Torah and the first five
books Of the Christian Old
Testament are apparently
identical.
The present translation is
of the Masoretic Hebrew
text. with a few references in
footnotes to other main
sources, such as the Septua-
.gint. The Masoretes were
Jewish scholars of the 7th
century AID. onward. who
attempted to determine from
tradition an accurate text Of
the Bible. The Old Testa-
ment, the originals Of which
are now. and were then. lost,
and Of which the Torah is
the oldest part, comprising
the entire Bible as used until
about 400 BE-, was at first
a history of Israel. and not
uniquely a sacred" book. AS
Hugh j. Schonfield says in
! his excellent History of Bibli-
cal Literature" published last
year and taken over, Incl
dentally. from A. Powell Da-
vies Of Washington, who did
not live to complete it: "The
+. beginnings Of the Hebrew
Bible are to be sought not in
any design to distinguish
between sacred and profane
writings, but TO bring to-
gether the archives and lit
erary products Of the nation.
In a sense, since the art Of
writing was regarded as Of
divine origin. all books were
sacred. With apologies to the
author Of Animal Farm one
might put 1t that all books
are holy. but some are holier
than others" The Book OF
Esther, for example, is his
tory, not religious teaching.
The new Torah is a much
more successful Job Of trans
lation than either the Re-
vised Standard Version or the
recent oxford New Testa-
ment. Less hammered and
perverse than either, II
strives for and often achieves
directness and simplicity.
} "Thee" becomes you" and
"spake" becomes spoke" In
the interest Of, the editors
say. "intelligibility," although
brooks and rivers are often
"wadis." and Gods COM
-mandments "norms." A fair
example Of the style OF the
writing is from Genesis 8:
when men began 10 in
crease on earth and daugh-
ters we're born 10 them. the
divine beings saw how beau-
tiful the daughters Of man
we're, and they took as wives
any they liked. Then the Lord
said. My spirit shall not
shield man forever, since he
Is but flesh; let the days al
lowed him be one hundred
and twenty years It was in