The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible

by Sarah Ruden

A dazzling reconsideration of the original languages and texts of the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, from the acclaimed scholar and translator of Classical literature ("The best translation of the Aeneid, certainly the best of our time" --Ursula Le Guin; "The first translation since Dryden that can be read as a great English poem in itself" --Garry Wills, The New York Review of Books) and author of Paul Among the People ("Astonishing . . . Superb" --Booklist, starred review).

In The Face of Water, Sarah Ruden brilliantly and elegantly explains and celebrates the Bible's writings. Singling out the most famous passages, such as the Genesis creation story, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Beatitudes, Ruden reexamines and retranslates from the Hebrew and Greek what has been obscured and misunderstood over time.

Making clear that she is not a Biblical scholar, cleric, theologian, or philosopher, Ruden--a Quaker--speaks plainly in this illuminating and inspiring book. She writes that while the Bible has always mattered profoundly, it is a book that in modern translations often lacks vitality, and she sets out here to make it less a thing of paper and glue and ink and more a live and loving text.

Ruden writes of the early evolution, literary beauty, and transcendent ideals of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament, exploring how the Jews came to establish the greatest, most enduring book on earth as their regional strategic weakness found a paradoxical moral and spiritual strength through their writings, and how the Christians inherited and adapted this remarkable literary tradition. She writes as well about the crucial purposes of translation, not only for availability of texts but also for accountability in public life and as a reflection of society's current concerns.

She shows that it is the original texts that most clearly reveal our cherished values (both religious and secular), unlike the standard English translations of the Bible that mask even the yearning for freedom from slavery. The word "redemption" translated from Hebrew and Greek, meaning mercy for the exploited and oppressed, is more abstract than its original meaning--to buy a person back from captivity or slavery or some other distress.

The Face of Water is as much a book about poetry, music, drama, raw humor, and passion as it is about the idealism of the Bible. Ruden's book gives us an unprecedented, nuanced understanding of what this extraordinary document was for its earliest readers and what it can still be for us today

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity, Theology, Spirituality, Christian, Faith

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2017

About the author

Sarah Elizabeth Ruden is an American writer of poetry, essays, translations of Classic literature, and popularizations of Biblical philology, religious criticism and interpretation.

Reviews

[Rama Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bible: The translation and reinterpretation of selected passages

Author Sarah Ruden takes a fresher look at the translation of selected texts from the ancient Hebrew version of Old and New Testaments. The commonly used Bible is the King James Version (KJV) that is largely focused on religious and theological meaning rather than the cultural and historical significance of the texts. In the last fifty years, Biblical scholars have challenged the idea that New Testament is a sacred scripture. John Dominic Crossan, Robert Funk, James R. Butts, Barnes Tatum and Elaine Pagels have used historical and cultural methods to interpret Jesus’ parables and apostolic writings. This group created “Jesus Seminar” to discuss the Gospels, Epistles, and Parables of Jesus to understand the real Jesus. However the church had the drive to find “God” in these writings, hence many translators and commentators “overlook” smaller details that may have given a different meaning to the texts of the “sacred scripture.”

Christianism arose when a small group of Jews became convinced that their leader, a poor and relatively uneducated man from the tiny town of Nazareth (a back-water of the Galilee), whom the Romans tortured to death as a troublemaker had risen from death. He is known to have paid with his own life for the sins of others. How can another man pay for our sins? Is that logical or rational? Could we tell the judge that someone will pay for our crimes? No, we cannot. God judges in the same way. We have to assume responsibility for our on actions. But for more than two billion people this is a divine truth; we have to accept Jesus as a savoir so that all our sins are forgiven. Then we are reborn and will find ever lasting peace in heaven (John 3:16.)

The first Bible translated by Jerome into the Latin version (Vulgate) occurred almost 500 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Martin Luther’s Bible in German was published in the early sixteenth century. William Tyndale lost his life popularizing the sacred scriptures as the Word of God, and everyone has the right to read it. This was a revolutionary thought for those days but the publication of the King James Version of Bible in 1611 challenged the monopoly of Roman Catholic Church on the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

One interesting conclusion reached by the author is with regards to Paul and his epistles. The first four Pauline epistles in conjunction with the four canonical gospels forms a major work in the teachings of Jesus, but she boldly suggests that Paul did not write about willingness to “give up my body to be burned” (1 Corinthians 13:3.) It is really give up my body so that I can boast about it. But that is not what came out of the pulpit, observes Sarah Ruden. Paul is discussed in greater detail in her previous book, “Paul among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time.”

Some of the passages translated in this book includes; Paul on circumcision (Galatians 5:1-12); Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and Leviticus 19:18); fragile joys of life (Ecclesiastes 9:7-11); Ezekiel’s Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Genesis 1:1-15); the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel II 12:7); The beatitudes of (Mathew 5:3-12); Genesis 1:1-5; and Mathew 6: 9-13 (The Lord’s Prayer).

There is a chapter on the re-interpretation of the Parables of Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), which concludes that you must know who your friends are. Paul on the love of God through Jesus (Roman 8:31-39) and Revelation’s Martyr’s in Paradise (Revelation 7:9-17) are few interesting translations and interpretations I have read in this book. Proverbs 27:19 says, “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man,” which may have played a role in the mind of the author for the title of this book.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t so much a book about translation as it is a book about some of the passages Ruden herself has translated and the cool things she’s found, and the stuff she found was great. I really enjoyed her wit, insight, and humility.

Some of my favorite parts:
- How the Hebrew and Greek words the King James translated as “behold” and “lo” have kind of disappeared from modern translations because they seem redundant, but that in the original language they would be the equivalent of “you aren’t going to believe this, but ...” (Specifically she says it’s more like “Sh*t!” but I can’t really use it that way in ministry, lol.)
- Blessed are the “meek” is literally Blessed are “those who have been tamed” - people who have had the fight tamed out of them, pushed into roles/forms the world has chosen for them. They will eventually get the run of the place.
- How “paths of righteousness” in Psalm 23 would translate literally as “wagon ruts,” well-worn paths that are boring but necessary to the protection of the sheep. And how he protects us “for his name’s sake” means that if he didn’t do it, he wouldn’t be living up to his name.
- A very interesting explanation of the Hebrews words that make up the beginning of Genesis, what was there at the very beginning and what exactly God was doing to it.
- A fantastic translation of Galatians 5 that cuts out the niceties we’ve layered onto it.

In part one, Ruden covers two sections of scripture each chapter - one from the Old Testament and one from the New - highlighting a word or idea that connects them. Then in part two, she covers all those chapters again, this time explaining a little bit of how she translated them. Then in part three, she goes back over all of the chapters again showing the actual Hebrew and Greek words. I wish she had kept all of the parts together for each scripture, and my suggestion to you if you plan to read it would be to read them that way - all the chapter ones, then all the chapter twos, etc.

If you enjoy getting in-depth in Scripture to learn things you hadn’t realized before, you will appreciate this book.

[Charles Haywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Ruden may be my favorite author. It’s not that I’ve read everything she’s written—her main oeuvre is translation of classics such as the “Aeneid,” and I find all the classics hard going. (The “Aeneid” is something that you know you *should* read—in college, I read the Cliffs Notes instead, and have felt guilty ever since). It’s not that I agree with Ruden on politics (she’s a liberal, though a thinking, nuanced one, as far as I can tell) or very closely on religion (she’s a devout Quaker, and there is only some overlap there with my Crusader-oriented theology, though we’re both Christian). I think that, ultimately, it’s two things. First, her work is original and fascinating, which in itself is a great deal. But, combined with the second element, the charm and humor that shines through her work, the reader of her books feels like he’s sitting down for a few hours of conversation in a nerdy version of the Dos Equis commercial—the Most Interesting Woman in the World (or second most interesting, after my wife).

Ruden is the author of several works, including “Paul Among The People,” a highly original view of the Apostle Paul written largely to correct modern misapprehensions about him, showing the revolutionary nature of his doctrine when set against the real pagan world of his time, as opposed to our sanitized, beautified view of that pagan world. “Paul Among The People” should be required reading for every Christian, no matter his politics or brand of Christianity, for it clarifies why Christianity matters. It shows how radical the message of Christianity was (and is); how our society is, even today, wholly permeated by Christian assumptions; and how unpleasant a society without those assumptions really was (and will be, as we hurtle backwards toward it). At the same time, Ruden’s earlier book undermines some of the more simplistic views of some conservative Christians, giving a measure of ammunition to modern Christian liberals. And throughout, Ruden’s glittering writing and even-handed approach enhances the book.

That is not this book, though. This book, “The Face of Water,” is both less ambitious and more ambitious (and has the same glittering writing as “Paul Among The People”). It is less ambitious in that it has little to say about the modern world or our society today; it does not, at least directly, instruct us how to live or how to view the day-to-day world. It is more ambitious in that any new Biblical translator assumes an awesome responsibility. After all, to believers, you are presuming to offer a new view into the actual Word of God, and for a non-believer, the Bible is by far the most important and influential book in human history, and you are presuming to offer something new, that nobody else has offered before.

Ruden is not translating the whole Bible here, of course. Her project is to show, through showing exactly how she translates certain key passages, and why she does it in a certain manner, the meaning of the passages in as deep a way as possible. The object is for the reader to fully understand these parts of the Bible, and to grasp a certain way of seeing the “beauty and meaning” of the Bible. Ruden begins, in her Introduction, with a variety of thoughts about the Bible. She starts with a subtle, detailed and empathetic comparison of the Hebrew and English versions of David’s reaction to his infant son’s death in II Samuel 12:23, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” Her basic point is that the English translation of the phrase, though twice as long in words, is less richly textured than the Hebrew, because (among other reasons), it “has a flattened-out rendering of the tenses.” In Hebrew, the child will never return—but the father will keep moving toward the child. And so forth. This is the basic mode of the book—concentrated grammatical and vocabulary focus on relatively narrow passages of the Bible through the prism of the original languages.

From here, Ruden establishes a few of her background principles. The absolute historicity of the Biblical account is not all that important, because “[N]o book has experienced such a long, aerobic winnowing of its claims to be revealed truth, and to be truth revealed in the proper forms. . . . I see absolutely no conflict between acknowledging that the production of Scripture is a fallible (if not pathetic) human process and believing that, over time, Scripture reveals God’s will.” The canonical books of the Bible are there for good reasons that are not self-interested; books supposedly suppressed like the “Gnostic Gospels” were not included for good reason and were not “censored.” And, finally, translations may not be perfect, and they may lose many elements of the original, but that does not mean we should despair or whine, for they’re what we have, and they’re actually quite good, being the result of a lot of dedicated, smart people working over a very long period of time.

Against this backdrop Ruden examines several specific passages, from both the Old and New Testaments. These include the story of David, Uriah and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12:7); the Lord’s Prayer (in its two versions); Genesis 1:1-5; John 1:1-14 (“In the beginning was the Word . . .”); the vision of Ezekiel and the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14); the witness of martyrs in paradise (Revelation 7:9-17); the Twenty-Third Psalm; the Beatitudes; and a few more.

For each passage, in Part One, she discusses what she regards as key points, both in the abstract and as viewed, where applicable, against the classical and historical background. For example, she ties “temptation” in the Lord’s Prayer not into its standard modern meaning, but rather to “examination,” under torture, by Roman persecutors. In Part Two, she returns to each passage with a full re-translation, by her, of each one, showing the King James version and her own translation, which while not always euphonious, is meant to convey the meaning as Ruden thinks best—most effective and truest to the original. Finally, in Part Three, she compares the King James for some of the passages to a literal translation of the original language of the passage, shown and translated word-for-word.

Despite Ruden’s leavening of it by humor and chatty asides, this is a dense book, where the reader benefits from close focus and re-reading passages. This is not a book that can be skimmed or read in a few hours of diffident attention; like the Bible itself, it rewards the patient and recursive reader. For example, and related to the title, Ruden spends a long time on Genesis 1:2. First, she establishes that where the Bible tells us that “darkness was upon the face of the deep,” here “deep” is a Hebrew word implying “subterranean water or an abyss, or the fathomless depths of the sea—in any case a horrifying place suggesting the roaring, numbing, consciousness-robbing, subduing underworld bodies of water or bottomless chasms of pagan mythology. . . . not just emptiness or disorder but an ongoing primal catastrophe that preceded God’s creative activity but was subdued by his power.” Thus, when the next phrase is “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” in Hebrew, the spirit “doesn’t just ‘move’ over the water: it hovers or broods or cherishes, like a bird over its eggs or hatchlings.”

The natural reaction to reading this is some degree of confusion on the part of the reader, who doesn’t quite understand how relatively simple English words can have been more flexible in Hebrew (or, to a lesser extent, Greek). The answer is, as Ruden covers in detail, that Hebrew has a much smaller vocabulary than English—but much more possibility of combinations, “to create structures of great size, diversity, and nuance,” which, combined with that it’s an inflected language, give it a flexibility, and sometimes ambiguity, that is simply not found in English.

One thing that becomes very clear through this book is how very many translations of the Bible there are, backed by enormous dictionaries that analyze the classical languages (Hebrew and Greek) in which the Bible was originally written, with both surrounded by endless works of exegesis and analysis. The average Christian is probably aware of five or ten translations (the King James, of course, which is Ruden’s default choice here “because of its beauty and familiarity”; various “Revised” and “Standard” versions that are hard to distinguish; perhaps some dated “contemporary” versions; and, for those a bit more adventuresome, maybe Douay-Rheims). From Ruden’s bibliography and her casual references to academic reference works, the reader quickly becomes aware there is a lot out there—which is daunting, but if the reader is interested, worth pursuing.

For a counterpoint to Biblical translation that Ruden does not mention at all, one might consider the Qur’an. That book has experienced no “winnowing” at all, much less a “long, aerobic” one. Exegesis by those with a more flexible view of Christian doctrine, and textual criticism by those who may not be believers at all, underpins much of the modern view of the Bible (along with the much longer tradition of exegesis by those without a flexible view of Christian doctrine). Certainly, there are many who reject such collective exegesis and analysis, in favor of the supremacy of (generally untutored) individual interpretation, including such extreme versions as “King James Onlyists,” who believe that the King James translation was itself divinely inspired and is inerrant. Naturally enough, viewing the Bible as an organic whole yet in some ways pasted together, for example seeing the Book of Daniel as not prophetic and written at the time of Babylonian Captivity, but rather as written centuries later, during the time of the Maccabees, has its challenges to faith. But there is no reason a believing Christian, whether traditionally orthodox or more, um, supple, can’t combine wholehearted belief in Christian doctrine with a modern approach to Biblical translation and analysis.

This is, for better or worse, in sharp contrast to Muslim practice, where any textual analysis that involves novelty of any sort is banned and can get you killed, which is why the extremely few scholars who analyze the Qur’an as the Bible is routinely analyzed often hide their identities (e.g., the pseudonymic Christoph Luxenberg). Of course, the majority Muslim position is that the Qur’an is uncreated, which is different than the Christian position that the Bible is divinely inspired, and that suggests that textual analysis, at least of the Qur’an in Arabic, is nonsensical for a devout Muslim, like saying one can have a square circle. On the other hand, the created hadith are also not subject to objective analysis in Islam, other than for their chains of transmission (isnad), and the hadith are more important for actual Muslim doctrine than the Qur’an. Given that there is little to zero extra-Qur’anic evidence for the existence of Muhammad, and that the Qur’an in its current form antedates Muhammad (due to Uthman’s compilation of an “official” version and the destruction of all other proto-documentation), this seems like an area ripe for study. I wouldn’t hold your breath, though, waiting for it. But it would be interesting.

In any case, whatever your religion, this book has a lot to offer. It probably has less to offer atheists, but even they should still find this book of interest, given that the Bible is the common inheritance and (increasingly invisible) skeleton on which our culture is hung. Thus, whatever your perspective, you will be the richer for having read this book.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed her Paul Among the People, but this one seemed a little phoned in. There were some good insights (and some things I object to), but mostly I felt like I was reading her translation notebooks.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hovering on the Face of the Waters.
Review of the Pantheon Books hardcover edition (2017)

I enjoyed the readability and the plain modern day language of Sarah Ruden's recent translation of The Gospels (2021). That was enough for me to want to explore several of her other translation works of which I have now located several via the library. The Face of Water (2017) is one of her recent previous books among the now several Bible related translations and works. Her translation of St. Augustine of Hippo's Confessions (2017) was released around the same time. Otherwise, her translations have been mostly of classic Greco-Roman works such as The Aeneid, Satyricon, and Homeric Hymns etc.

In The Face of Water, Ruden examines about a dozen famous Bible passages in detail. For this she also learned classic Hebrew, a language that was new to her along her knowledge of classical common Greek and Latin, in order to study the original texts of the Old Testament. These are all covered in 3 sections, each with an overview, a context and then a detailed text. The book separates all of these into 3 parts of the text, so it is probably easier to jump ahead through all sections for a certain passage and then go on to the next one in order. The main passages are David & Bathsheba, the Genesis creation story, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, etc.

Although much of this is often strictly grammarian and didactic, it is also very entertaining and educational. Ruden breaks the fourth wall frequently and addresses the reader personally, even asking them not to turn away:

"Don’t close this book, and turn on a PBS documentary about ferrets: what I’m about to tell you is way more interesting."

She also shares anecdotes from her personal life that relate to what she is translating.

I am approaching these books more out of an interest in learning about the context of translation and not as any sort of Christian scholar. I am finding all of Ruden's work to be fascinating for this reason.

Trivia and Links
Other Reviews:
The Word and Its Words at National Review, May 1, 2017.
No Version of the Bible is the Last Word at Kirkus Reviews, January 13, 2017.

[Amy Heck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first became acquainted with the work of Sarah Ruden due to the praise she receives for her translation of the Aeneid, one of the first modern translations by a woman. I was drawn then to the freshness and breath she brought to Virgil’s text and invested in a classroom set for my students this past year, lobbying with my administration that springing for the more updated Ruden edition was going to translate into greater student engagement and understanding than the much cheaper editions translated over 100 years ago. It was worth it.
I came across this work by Sarah Ruden, The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible on a friend’s shelf last summer. I immediately asked to borrow it. I only knew Ruden as a classicist, but was interested in what her insights would bring to Scripture. It turns out there was a lot there.
Ruden’s 2017 work is delightful run through the mind of a fellow grammar geek, appreciator of rhetoric, and purveyor of the beauty of ideas both secular and sacred. Working through both Greek and Hebrew texts, she brings her reader through the process by which she approaches the text. She demystifies translation with a self-deprecating humor which is particularly hilarious for someone who is one of the most celebrated classical translators on the contemporary scene. With part-seriousness and part-mirth she attributes the “main cause” of her “success as a translator so far is that [she] can look words up” (159). That’s true. But I would argue that she can do a little more than that.
Some of the texts she tackles include the narratives of David and Bathsheeba, the Genesis creation story(ies), and Ezekiel and the Dry Bones. She also examines other passages in the varying genres of scripture including poetry from Ecclesiastes, Psalm 23, as well as various pieces from the Gospels, the Epistles, and Revelation. Altogether, there are fourteen passages that she treats.
I struggle identifying Ruden’s intended audience: does she write for people like me--trained language and theological instructors who know just enough of what is behind the veil (or to change my metaphor, “under the hood” of the car of ancient texts) to be dangerous? Does she write for those who are new to the mechanisms of translation? In some ways I would say that it is both. She writes for those with an interest in the text, those who have an interest in understanding how translators get from Point A to Point B in their translation work. In many ways she does demystify it, yet at the same time maintains the sense of reverence and beauty in these texts. Her purpose is to illustrate both the challenges and choices one must make in translation. That said, there are parts in which she can get into the weeds of language that can begin to feel tedious at times, but still--she warned us. And the structure of her book is such that the reader doesn’t get lost in the technicalities too long. In addition, she does it all with a great sense of humor and merriment that grabs the reader’s attention just as she feels our attention begin to lag (“Don’t close this book and turn on a PBS documentary about ferrets: what I’m about to tell you is way more interesting,” [11]).
She addresses the same fourteen passages from Scripture in a cyclical manner in each of three sections, all with a particular purpose. The first, looking at the “Character of the Languages and Texts,” in which she introduces her texts in the KJV, their themes, and their translation problems and possibilities. The second part, “Possibilities Put Forward,” focuses on her own new translations of her chosen passages, including some commentary on her translation choices.She addresses particular words and particles which, due to the nature of ancient languages like Hebrew and Greek, provide broad semetic ranges for the translator. The third part, “An Account of the Fuller Facts,” includes her own parsing of the text. She removes the veil between the final version that most readers are used to seeing (part two) and the fabric and stitching on the other side of the tapestry. To use another metaphor that I am fond of using with my own students, she does the job of a “language mechanic,” opening up the hood while the engine is running so that you can see the nuts, bolts, gears, and pistons underneath, all doing their own parts with precision. In part three she presents the KJV test verse by verse, immediately followed by a transliterated original text along with the English translation choices she has made. The choice of cyclically reworking each of those fourteen scripture passages does serve to illustrate the challenges and choices one must make in translation.
At times during the later parts of the book, I did find myself wanting to re-read the previous sections as it pertained to a particular text, to knit her exegesis more firmly into my brain. She could have made the choice to treat each passage according to each of the three steps, but I’m sure there would be some who would have argued against that as well and would lose the cyclical pedagogy which has been proven to provide more lasting impressions in the brain than one-time exposure.
In summation, Sarah Ruden is a delightful author and translates on the fine line between capturing the spirit of a text, while not ignoring its content. This book is a great companion not only to her other classical translations, but for any future translator who is curious about the decisions necessary for any translator to make, demonstrating what takes place “under the hoods” or “behind the veil” of the texts that we hold so sacred and so dear.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for anyone truly interested in the language of the Bible, and as such a great caution about anyone who believes the Bible can be read, let alone understood, “literally.”

As one interested in Scripture, I enjoyed it and found it of great interest. However, it is a not a work I would recommend to the general reader.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before picking up this book from the library, I had been reading the gospel according to John. For the first time, I noticed the theme of water throughout the book: there is the water of baptism, the miracle of water into wine, the living water Jesus described to the Samaritan woman, and the pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed the lame man who was unable to get into the water, among other examples. On the same day I told my brother-in-law how I had noticed this theme, I walked into the library to return some other books and I noticed The Face of Water standing up on a shelf, standing out from the other books. On the inside flap it stated that the author is a Quaker and I had also been reading a lot about the Quakers, so I figured I had to read this book. I had high hopes of really enjoying it, but it was just okay.

The author’s stated purpose is to “bring a fuller and more nuanced discussion of the Bible into the public sphere, where it belongs.” To be honest, the writing style is often dense, difficult to follow, and sometimes impenetrable. Although she states she wants to bring discussion into the public sphere, the ideal readership of this work may be translators in general or biblical translators in particular. I can’t recommend this to a general audience, or even to a general Christian audience interested in biblical commentary or study.


Big Ideas:

+ Problems/challenges with biblical translation
- Sometimes the historical context is unclear or uncertain
- Ancient Hebrew has a much smaller vocabulary than English, which means that one word can have multiple meanings and proper understanding depends greatly on context
- Forms of grammar and syntax in Hebrew and Greek are different from English, for example: conjunctions (and, but) and prepositions (on, after) function differently in Ancient Hebrew and are often lacking, which means that the exact way in which words are connected is not always clear. According to the author, this means the writing is not pre-sorted by human rationality but is closer to a description of things as they are, without judgment, leaving the reader to sort it out. Just consider the difference between “I like you, but” compared to “I like you, and…”

+ Interesting tidbit (which everyone but me probably already knew)
- Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, which split from the northern kingdom called Israel, the capital of which was Samaria. Eventually the entire Jewish territory came to be known as Israel

+ Examples of nuanced ways to understand certain passages anew:
- In the Lord’s prayer, “our daily bread” is more like “our daily ration of bare subsistence” and “lead us not into temptation” is more like “spare us from having to defend our faith by trial and unto death by the Romans.” The passage beginning with “for Thine is the kingdom” seems to have been added later by early translators and is not found in original manuscripts.
- In the gospel of John, the “word” at the beginning is more like “the light of Truth that explains the whole purpose of existence”
- In Ezekiel’s dry bones, the ruach of God seems to function in many ways: as a spirit hand guiding the prophet (and blurring the lines between the spirit and physical realms), and as either a spirit breath animating soldiers or a wind filling them with life
- In Psalm 23, it’s more like, “He will guide me to a place of rest, where I can quench my thirst, and where the water is at peace.” And “He restores my soul” is more like, “He causes my life force to return.”

[Raully · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning disclaimer: I don't have the expertise to judge the academic side of this book. But I did really like it.

Sarah Ruden is a translator of classics with a love for the Bible predicated upon her Quaker faith. So she is enough of an outsider to the inbred world of Biblical hermeneutics to cast some fresh light on how the languages of Hebrew and Greek/Aramaic work -- and what is often, so to speak, lost in translation for the modern believer. Well worth the time.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Greek scholar examines some of the most well-known stories and passages in the Bible: Genesis 1, John 1, 23rd Psalm, Beatitudes, David & Bathsheba and the Lord's Prayer, even sections of Ezekiel and Revelation. Some of this sailed right past me, yet she is a good writer whose commentary is eye-opening.

[Donald]

Review forthcoming (in First Things, hopefully).

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A valuable book on so many counts!
As Ruden says at the outstart, she is not a theologian or a pastor or anything of the sort. She is a classics translator, Greek and Latin texts. In that capacity, she 'stumbled onto Paul of Tarsus's letters and began to learn Biblical Greek'. Further, she recognized that to some degree we define ourselves in relation to the Bible, whether we mean to or not. She decided to learn Hebrew as well, and the result is this book.

When I was a theology student, I balked at the language requirements, reasoning that no matter that I passed the courses, I would never be good enough in those languages to translate in any truly adequate way. This book affirms that in my case, and at the same time corrects my thinking that learning them wouldn't matter beyond fulfilling academic requirements.

Far from stuffy, Ruden writes for any reader who loves language. Or who is curious about the Bible, maybe. Or who simply enjoys learning how we have arrived here culturally speaking. It illustrates the art of translating in such a straightforward way that you can't fail to get an appreciation for the meaning and beauty of the Bible.

A key point is that ancient languages are not like modern ones, serving mainly to convey information... Rather, biblical texts, like all ancient rhetoric and poetry, are 'primarily a set of live performances, and what they meant was tightly bound up in the WAY they meant it'.
An example of this is the story of Jonah, which is a comedy in the Hebrew. How many times have I heard or read that story, and missed the fun of it.

My favorite part of Ruden's book is Part 1, on grammar, vocabulary, voice, style, poetry.
It sets the stage for Parts 2 and 3, in which she offers her translations side by side with the traditional King James version.

In the end, you have not only a much better appreciation of the art of translation, but in her illustrations, you will have been offered an overwhelming feeling for the transcendent beauty of the Bible.

I loved reading this book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book with pencil and notebook in hand, anticipating taking many notes. I have been listening to Tim Mackie's podcasts (The Bible Project) about Hebrew poetry and have grown super interested in the challenges and opportunities of translating poetry from one language to another effectively.

But after awhile I stopped trying to take notes, because I realized Sarah Rueden wasn't actually going to teach me how to translate Hebrew or Greek. She couldn't possibly do that. I had hoped that what I read here would transfer to helping me a better reader of the scriptures elsewhere, and I assumed it would do that by teaching me some linguistic tools and skills. It WILL make me a better reader, but not because of tools or skills; it will help me simply because now I have a healthier respect for how immensely difficult it is to grasp a "dead" language (one that no one currently speaks anyhow) and appreciate the many nuances of meaning. I won't be quite so quick to say "Oh, this is what this word means in Hebrew" because I will know that even scholars better learned than I can't quite pin down precisely how a word was used or the feelings it evoked in its listeners. I learned how little I know.

And I enjoyed it. Sarah Ruden pulls together a Hebrew passage and a Greek passage that either present similar challenges in translation, or mirror one another in some way. And that alone is worth the price of this book. Her insight into scripture, her honest assessments of how different translation options will land on the ears of English speakers, and her deep regard for the beauty of biblical languages all make this book rich. She is a little idiosyncratic in some of her references and sometimes appears to be heading off the beaten path in her writing, but I really appreciated her rather unacademic and inviting approach to sharing the challenges of translation. I'm tempted to go back and read it again just to appreciate her wit once more.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Ruden's Paul Among the People I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, the material might have best leant itself to a series of articles; there are some valuable insights to be gleaned but only after a great deal of tedium.

[Karl Nehring · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting points, but overall it just seemed to lack focus.

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted this book to be good, but is kind of a meandering dud. Years from now Ruden will rue that she did not wait until she was older and wiser to write this book.

It is always good to take a fresh look at Biblical passages from a fresh perspective, especially passages we know and love. As a classicist in the Greek and Latin tradition, Ruden has experience in this field, but much of the book is made up of somewhat random observations on various OT and NT texts. Not much depth here, not any clear-cut strategy or philosophy she was trying to impart.

Ruden is a Quaker, which these days means one who believes just about anything. Certainly the type who likes Scripture because it's inspiring, not because it's inspired. She is very wary to take anything at face value, including thousands of years of God's people's wrestling with these texts and forming theology. And it certainly takes a level of chutzpah for one person to attempt to correct 500 years of English Bible translation, but Ruden does not shy away.

At the end of the day, her fresh translations aren't bad. No one will accuse her of being a poetess, but something can be gained from getting the "normal" translation bumped around by something that isn't afraid to dive into the root meanings of words we sometimes take for granted. As someone who craves a "literal" translation, I found things to like in many of her translations. Here's her Psalm 23:

The Lord is the one pasturing me:
I will never go without.
He will always invite me to strethc out in pastures full of green shoots;
He will not fail to guide me to a place of rest, where the water is at peace.
He will bring my life back to me.
He will lead me along wagon-tracks of fair dealing--he would not be who he is if he did otherwise.
I tell you, though I have cause to walk through the valley of deadly darkness, there is nothing fearsome there, nothing for me to fear,
Because of you, you there with me. Your weapon and your crook--I see them, and I know I am safe.
You arrange a feast on a table where I sit, though my enemies loom on the other side.
You refresh my head by bathing it in oil; you fill my cup again and again.
Certainly goodness and unfailing mercy will chase after me everywhere I go, as long as I exist,
And I will live in the Lord's house through all my length of days.

Not bad. One of my biggest pet peeves is "translating" YHWH as "the Lord," and I have no idea why she carries on that tradition/superstition. I do like "unfailing mercy" for hesed, although I've always thought "lovingkindness" worked well too.

[Harry Allagree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah Ruden is my kind of scholar...not afraid to step outside the discipline in which she's been trained, and apply her skills, in this case in Greek/Hebrew literature, to a recently discovered interest, in this case the Hebrew & Christian Scriptures. A Quaker by background, in 2010 she wrote a terrific book on St. Paul -- her first sally into Scriptural translation -- & recently she translated St. Augustine's "Confessions". In this book she delves into a number of well-known, key passages from the Bible. She goes to great lengths to state that she doesn't fit the slot of "Biblical scholar", but is rather a translator seeking to get as close as possible to what the Hebrew and/or Greek really says in these passages. And in doing so, she'll surprise you with a refreshing & wicked sense of humor. Amazingly what we Christians, especially, have seen all these centuries isn't always quite as accurate as we'd like to believe. Ruden claims no certainty that she captures the "real" flavor of the passages, but IMHO I think she does a great job, though I'm no Biblical scholar or expert either. What she translates, for the most part, grabs you in the heart. However, I must say that, as much as I really like most of her translation of the Prologue to John's Gospel (1:1-14), her use of "Idea" in place of "Word", though probably closer to the actual Greek meaning, just strikes me as too "rational", for want of a better term, & doesn't convey the expressiveness that "Word", in that context, conveys.

I'll go out on a limb by saying that I think Ruden's book should be a "must read" for every preacher-in-training, if for no other reason than simply to enjoy Sarah Ruden's exquisite & delicious translations.

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

a deeply personal invitation to learn more about the mystery of translation. Ruden cracks open the original biblical languages and meditates on how best to represent these meanings in modern English. Ruden's approach to translation is so fascinating. Her love for language--both the original, and the target language--is so apparent. Ruden makes such interesting choices in her book to make her thesis accessible to everyone--the original biblical languages are transcribed phonetically in the roman alphabet, for instance--and I enjoyed following her description of the meticulous choices any literary translator needs to make, word by word.

Ruden gives an overview of how biblical translations reflect countless theological interpretations and even political compromises. She delves just deeply enough into how the original languages differ from English and what particular challenges these differences make for the translator. She includes familiar passages from King James translation side-by-side with her new translations of the same text. Her translations are like a clear window. She has no particular theological bone to pick, but her approach isn't just one of literary interest--her translations feel deeply interested in, and respectful of, the faith of the people who wrote down the original words, thousands of years ago. Some of her conclusions are delightfully speculative--she posits missing pieces of the original poetry of the psalms, for instance, when some bits don't really make sense together, or repeat oddly--and her delight in speculation was in turn delightful to me.

It's unique.

[Stven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this text strays into extremely wonky-detail territory for many a long stretch, I like the approach the author is taking and a lot of it I find fascinating. This is not merely a selection of Biblical passages freshly translated but a patient discussion of the means, methods, challenges and pitfalls of attempting Biblical translation. "Don't be like me," she writes, "sitting in Beginning Hebrew class during the fourth week of the term and becoming convinced that this was all a practical joke, and that at any moment the teacher would whip out the real, logical rules...."

Much illumination was found herein, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in examining meaning in the Bible. The author's tone of voice is relatively light (but not precious or cute, a trap some writers fall into when trying not to sound too academic) and her train of thought nicely plain and followable.

[Matt Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure why, but I was expecting more comparisons to the Bible in light of contemporary ancient literature. It’s not much of a disappointment, however, because even a deceptively humble focus on meaning and grammar in the closest possible translations yields beautiful reflections on, to name a few, Revelation, Jonah, and Leviticus/The Good Samaritan that each justifies the purchase of this book. Through discussion, re-translating/re-imagining and showing her work, Sarah Ruden more than makes her case that losing some of the beauty of scripture in its original form takes from the meaning as well. I’m thankful for her effort.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed sections of this book, but found it to be uneven, often lacking focus. The early part of the book is the best. In this part, the author explores the difficulties involved in translating the bible. This is very well done; one gets a sense, not only of the times and cultures of the bible, but also of the imprecision of the language (as seen by a translator attempting to render it into English). This is interesting stuff.

The latter part of the book lacks focus. It is an aggregation of material that is intended to be demonstrative of something, but it is not clear to me what that is.

[Eric Morrissey]

This book is a dive into what makes translating scripture difficult, and gives insight to someone like me who wants to know more, but doesn’t want to learn Hebrew and Greek from the ground up. This gets pretty in the weeds, grammatically speaking (which should be expected). Some of it was tricky for me to understand, and that might be a me problem. But I was able to glean some more about how Hebrew works, how early scripture was read/performed, and get a little deeper knowledge on some specific passages. I found it interesting as a whole, but not quite a book I’d recommend or re-read any time soon.

[Read Wilder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good assortment of small essays showing what reading ancient languages can be like and how that attitude of reading enlivens texts in ways that translations often never have. Still, I wasn't sure it needed to be a book and I think it could've retained its effect in the form of a long essay. At times, I felt my eyes wander from the page. I like its humor for the most part and its satire of a certain kind of biblical purist/academic, but other passages, like her meditation on experiences in apartheid South Africa, struck me as a bit off.

[Ivan L Hutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delight to get behind the scenes, into the mind of, a translation/translator. Sarah Ruden brings alive ever-so-familiar Bible passages, and provides new meaning, color, perspective on what were "old" familiar words, and they are now dnew, fresh, and some times even provocative and unexpected meanings. A delight! to get a taste of how a 1st century Jew and/or Gentile would have understood words that have been transformed over 2000 years of reading, copying, mis-copying, mis-translating, mis-interpretating the original written word(s) of God. Wow.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love her translations at the end of the book. There are sections of insight and commentary that I swoon over in the book & know I will go back to read time and time again. All that said, it’s a tough book to work through- this is no passive reading!
It’s an unenviable task to try and convey a PHD level of knowledge in ancient languages and context to the average reader. I think she did a remarkable job trying to tackle this on a fascinating topic that certainly benefits from her dedication

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A translator of secular ancient texts looks at the problems facing Bible translators ... the author even takes certain passages from the King James Version, such as the 23rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer, and explicates the critical decisions necessary, offering her own translations ... the ending chapters of the book are devoted to literal, word-for-word translations of these passages ... very interesting ...

[Mme Forte · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF.

I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book okay but when I got to the part where she re-translated the passages from that first 2/3, I gave up.

I just couldn't go back to that. If all this material had been included with the first time those passages were translated, I would have taken it in stride, but this...I would have had to go back and read again from the beginning to recall all the detail and I do not have it in me.

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-plus. Entertaining, irreverent and lots to get your teeth into. A shorter book than it seems, depending if you want to plough through word-for-word translations and worth sticking with even if you think some of the content is a bit dry. I'm generally suspicious of "magic translation" solutions to problems, but this is thoroughgoing, honest and opens up meanings and interpretations in a light, good-natured way.

[Kimberly Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have to admit, this was way over my head...and I really enjoy grammar and other languages and stuff. Most of the book was about how and why she translated the way she did, but I honestly didn't get anything from it. I did enjoy her translations of Bible passages, though. Really refreshing to read them. Just wish there were more.

[Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very well written and stuffed with interesting information. Sarah Ruden has quickly become my favorite Classicist-Translator-Theologian hybrid (not that there are a ton of those). As someone who lives in those worlds as well, her work is spectacular and I've loved everything she's put out.

Now, on to her Augustine.