Two new (very different) Old Testament translations

Lonely, on the run from the papal henchmen, and chagrined at being out of the public eye, Martin Luther holed up in Wartburg Castle and began translating: “Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erde” (Gen. 1:1). The shock, the heated controversy, was that there was a translation, any translation, for the people. But Luther wasn’t the first. John Wycliffe had preceded him, publishing the Bible in English, striving to correct ecclesiastical abuse. His bones were exhumed and then burned for his efforts, only a slightly happier fate than that of fellow translator William Tyndale, who wound up strangled and burned before burial.

For a long time, church folk were content with (and even adamant about) having just one English Bible, the King James Version. Now there are—how many? Of the making of many translations, there is no end, Qoheleth might say if he were around today.

Over the years, I have reviewed several translations in these pages. These two new ones could not be more different from one another in style, results, packaging, purpose, and intended use. Samuel Bray, a professor of law, and John Hobbins, a pastor and scholar, provide a lovely rendering of Genesis 1–11. They also provide much more, as the actual translation of the text fills only 19 of the book’s 326 pages. Their introduction is a wise and eloquent reflection on the art of translation and what is at stake in approaching it. Their extensive notes not only explain why they translated the way they did but also function as a fairly profound commentary on the text itself.