Host: Christopher Rose, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Guest: Leonard Greenspoon, Professor of Near Eastern Civilizations and Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Creighton University
Greenspoon: That’s an excellent question. We might go back, to the Greek term hermeneo, which means “to translate” and it means “to interpret,” so that translation in and of itself is interpretation. This is especially the case when we go, for example, from Ancient Hebrew to modern day English, because we’ve got several thousand years of time that separate the two cultures, and the languages are different in that English is Indo-European and Hebrew is Semitic.
The question about the status of translations in Judaism is an interesting one because, for the most part, the translations are intended to complement or accompany the original, but not to take their place. On the other hand, there have been some Jewish translations that were intended to be essentially “the Bible,” in Arabic or in German or in Greek. What I can say is that, as far as I know, there’s no synagogue, no matter how reformed, modern, no matter how non-traditional that has the scrolls–you know, every synagogue has at least one scroll that contains the Torah or the five books of Moses. So far as I know, every synagogue, everywhere in the world has that in Hebrew. And when it’s taken out and read, it’s read in Hebrew. So, there’s an expectation that at least the religious and often the lay leadership of the synagogue–and some of its members–will be conversant and familiar with the Hebrew, and be able to read it—sometimes essentially on sight. But it’s not expected, even in a traditional synagogue, that everyone will understand the Hebrew, and so consequentially every synagogue, including ultra-Orthodox synagogues, will have a translation and will make some use of it. So, in general, I would say that in Judaism it’s not that it must be in the original in order to be the sacred text, on the other hand we might say that Judaism occupies a midpoint between Islam and Christianity, especially Protestantism.
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Author: Leonard Greenspoon
Keywords: Bible translation, Septuagint, LXX, Jewish Bible, Jewish scripture, Jewish scribe
Bible reference(s): Genesis 1:1
Source: “How Jews Translate the Bible and Why,” 15 Minute History podcast, Episode 67.
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