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Article: A POWERFUL PENTATEUCH; Capturing the authority and force of the Bible's first five books.(BOOKS)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- February 13, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Washington Times LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Martin Sieff, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
"Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness after the flesh," the author of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes wisely admonishes us. And of no thing is that more true than books of translation and commentary about the Bible itself. Yet there are exceptions to every rule and Robert Alter's wonderful new translation and accompanying commentary to the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses or Jewish Torah, is most certainly a case in point.
A dark age of bureaucratic arrogance and mediocrity enveloped the field of biblical translation from the 1880s onwards when the dire Revised ...