A Fairytale? Twenty Translations of Job

The opening of Job immediately places severe challenges on the translator.  A split among translations is evident in the first few words, between those translators who view this story as a fairytale or parable (and try to translate the idiomatic Hebrew beginning of the story) and those who translate the prologue to the story as straight narrative.  A further split occurs in the notes in folk etymologies of the name “Job,” between those who view Job as an originally Hebrew story and those who think of it as a translation from another language.

Who is Job?  Where is he?  When is he?  What sort of story is this?

As part of my ongoing series examining the translations of the book of Job, here is a look at how different translators have rendered the opening words of the book.

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Author: Theophrastus

Keywords: Job, Satan, Job Satan, Adversary, Yetzer hara, Yetzer ha ra, Yezer hara, Yezer ha ra, Yetser hara, Yetser ha ra, Evil inclination, Fallen angel, God Satan, Satan Evil Inclination, Devil, Devil Satan

Bible reference(s): Job 1

Source: “Twenty Translations of Job Part 4: Is Job a Fairytale? (1:1),” Bible * Literature * Translation, January 18, 2012.

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