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Joel M. Hoffman (1) (1968–)

Autor(a) de In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language

Para outros autores com o nome Joel M. Hoffman, ver a página de desambiguação.

4+ Works 308 Membros 10 Críticas

About the Author

Obras por Joel M. Hoffman

Associated Works

The Sh'ma and Its Blessings (1997) — Tradutor, algumas edições173 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome legal
Hoffman, Joel Manuel
Data de nascimento
1968-09-15
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
New York, New York, USA
Locais de residência
Westchester, New York, USA

Membros

Críticas

The first question prompted by the title is “according to whom”. Among the shelves of religion you are just as likely to find a secular perspective as a religious one, and the religious ones have a religious interpretation of one stripe or another. Hoffman's credentials is in linguistics and he's (as far as I can tell) from a liberal jewish cultural background. This means a lot of of hairsplitting over words and some incredible pretzel logic to put the most tolerant spin on what's fairly obviously not a progressive book written in the second millennium. While discussing the exact wording of the text of the Bible is the bread and butter of the text and what should be most rewarding, all too often it's accompanied by real humdingers of interpretive reach that pays no mind to the historical and cultural context of when these words were written, instead wanting to stress that a modern reader can interpret it in such a way as to make it more palatable to his sensibilities. This is at direct cross purpose to the idea of a critical linguistic analysis in my view, and far more into theological juggling (which is odd given the author doesn't seem to be playing for a denomination as is usually the pitfall here).
In one illustrative attempt to swipe at Christopher Hitchens for attacking the God of the Bible as a murderous tyrant he uses the most contrived interpretation possible to paint Hitchens' problem being that wars are "mentioned" in the Bible (as if it had no bearing to the nature of God, and just described things happening) - this to sell a point about context. Of course the context of Hitchens argument is that it is God that's directly commanding a lion's share of the violence in the book, making the author look incredibly inelegant and fumbling the ball on precisely the point he intended to stress.
While this book was a mixed bag of partly illuminating and entertaining points, the credibility of the material raised is in severe doubt given these frequent jarring attempts to spin and slant the matter discussed.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
A.Godhelm | 1 outra crítica | Oct 20, 2023 |
Perhaps my favorite discussion in the book was in the preface, where Dr. Hoffman briefly tells of a major dispute involving how to translate the Bible into Klingon. In the actual text, he convinces me that translation is impossible. Probably, reading the Bible in its original language with our modern eyes and ears will also not reveal its true meaning. And poetry and clever word plays and the sounds of words all disappear when a different language is used. And yet, people who are not Hebrew scholars want to know what the Bible has to say.

A helpful "Appendix: A Guide to Translations and Further Reading" critiques the major translations. He talks about Everett Fox and Robert Alter's works (my favorites because of all the footnotes and commentary) and recommends Alter's Psalms. He also recommends the New Revised Standard Version; in his opinion, it "remains the best translation available, though it, too, suffers from significant shortcomings." [p. 213] He suggests his book, In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (2004) to learn more about Hebrew and Douglas Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau due Marot: In Promise of the Music of Language> to learn more about translating.

BTW, I think there's a typo or two: Somewhere, the author mentions King Samuel when he means King Saul and he may have referred to the wrong chapter of Proverbs once but I don't want reread the book to find it.
… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
raizel | 4 outras críticas | Sep 13, 2022 |
In this book, Hoffman explores some of the terrible translation errors that have worked their way into translations of Biblical Hebrew. Some of these mistranslations have theological significance. Others make the text harder to comprehend. Others give up the beauty of the original for translations that are textually reasonably but poetically junk.

This book has some serious flaws. As a friend of mine commented in our discussion,
So, yeah Hoffman, tends to be a bit... uneven. It's like he knows what he's talking about and yet is simultaneously full of shit. It's kind of strange. I think he's probably the sort of person who just never questions himself.
I think that assessment is right on.

What Hoffman does well is explore the meaning of a word or phrase. For each word or phrase that he chooses to examine, he looks at it in all the different contexts it appears. Based on those contexts, he explains why the common translation conveys the wrong meaning. He then tries to find a better translation; these discussions tend to flop. He acknowledges that there is no perfect translation for many of these phrases, so he sets out a number of alternatives and chooses between them. The problem is that this choice often displays his own bias as to what aspect of the original is most important.

I will discuss one of the phrases in detail to give you a taste for what the discussions are like. The first topic Hoffman explores is the phrase commonly translated as "heart and soul". He has this to say about it:
The combination "heart and soul" or some variation of it, appears nearly forty times in the Bible, further emphasizing how important these two ideas were in antiquity. But here's the problem. The Hebrew words for 'heart' and 'soul', the words in Deuteronomy 6:5 that Jesus quotes, are levav and nefesh, respectively. And they are severely mistranslated. In fact, the translations miss the point entirely.
Looking at these words in the contexts they are used, both individually and together, Hoffman concludes that levav seems to represent the seat of both emotions and reasons in people. "Heart" is a bad translation because it excludes the rational element. "Brain" or "mind" fail because they tend to emphasize the rational over the emotional.

In a similar treatment, nefesh fares even worse. It is often translated as "soul". However, looking at the word in context shows that while nefesh is related to the essence of that which gives life, it is generally connected with the physical essence such as blood, breath, and flesh. Looking at levav and nefesh together, Hoffman concludes,
While nefesh was everything about life that could be touched, levav was its counterpart, representing everything about life that could not be touched.
Given this meaning, it is clear that "heart and soul" completely fails to convey the essence of those two terms.

As I said, the book tends to flop in its attempts to provide a better translation. What he comes up with in this case is "mind-body," as in "the mind-body connection". This translation is certainly better than "heart and soul", but it has connotations of its own that Hoffman does not really explore.

Hoffman follows this same pattern with other terms and phrases: look at it in context, determine what ideas the word conveys, compare it against the standard English translation and find it lacking, and try to find a better translation.

The other topics he covers are

- The words used for various rulers and leaders, including those commonly translated as "king" and "shepherd". "Shepherds" in antiquity were way more awesome than the modern conception of shepherds.

- The words that give rise to the disturbing translation "My sister, my bride" in Song of Solomon: The word translated as sister was probably meant as an indicator of equality.

- The word that is commonly translated as "covet" in the 10 commandments: It certainly meant more than just covet. It probably meant a particular type of taking.

- Words used to refer to women: The word translated as "virgin" in Isiah 7:14 most certainly did not mean "a woman who has never had sex".
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
eri_kars | 4 outras críticas | Jul 10, 2022 |
As an amateur student of scriptural origins, I am always on the lookout for scholarly insights into why and how our current canon came to be, and what else was excised, edited, added, or alternately translated. Dr. Hoffman gives a whirlwind history of the world events leading up to the era of scriptural writings, mostly Old Testament texts, but links them to New Testament passages where appropriate.

Hoffman's narrative is necessarily brief but he wisely chooses several significant areas of study including the Dead Sea scrolls, the Septuagint, biblical insights from the writings of Josephus, and a look at the Book of Enoch. The ending appendix contains a wealth of information and additional readings in specific areas of study.

The approach is different, and the author uses his skills as a linguist to bring about insight into translational aberrations that have affected modern interpretations. This is a worthy addition to the library of those who are not afraid to look outside the cover of our modern bible.

This was received in e-book format as an advanced Reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
… (mais)
½
1 vote
Assinalado
mldavis2 | 1 outra crítica | Sep 2, 2014 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
4
Also by
1
Membros
308
Popularidade
#76,456
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
10
ISBN
20
Línguas
1

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