Customer Reviews

JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The JPS edition of the Tanakh has been in print since 1985 at which time this modern English translation replaced JPS's "Shakespearean" style translation. This translation has been well respected and stand's with the translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan of blessed memory, and the Artscroll translation known as the "Stone Edition." Originally, the JPS edition was published only in English but, they later added editions in Hebrew/English. What I like about this edition is that it is very usable if you wish to recite the trop (cantillations for chanting). This edition is large enough that the trop is easily visible. Often, a full Bible (Tanakh) or a Bible including just the Torah and Haftorah (Chumash) is compacted into a size that makes these trop symbols illegible. In using this edition, I am able to read the English in a comprehensible translation and also study the Hebrew using the trop. I can use it to recite a haftorah (but note, you have to find out of the full text the passages, which include the haftorah, since the haftorahs are not delineated as such).

I already have several other Tanakhs, including the hardcover English only edition of the JPS Tanakh. However, while I was away from home, I was reading a book on theology which required both a Jewish Bible and a Christian Bible for cross referencing. Wanting the Jewish Bible to be a translation done under Jewish auspices, rather than a Christian "Old Testament," I treated myself to this edition. As in the English only version, the text is footnoted with commentary. The footnotes are often cryptic, sometimes clarifying obscure or alternate meanings in the translation. However, I did not buy it for the commentary, but rather for a lucid translation from Jewish sources rather than a translation based on the Greek Septuagent (such as the Kings James Version).

Aestehetically, this edition looks like a Bible!! It has the biblical soft, bendible leatherlike cover and it has a rich, brown color. Therefore it looks great on the bookshelf, it is a good study aid if you wish to read the Tanakh in English, and it is an equally good study aid to read the Tanakh in Hebrew along with the trop. Although I bought it for the translation, I use the Hebrew text when I am studying parshot or haftorot. Because this is a very solid work, both in its substance, and in its physical presentation, this Tanakh serves as a wonderful gift for a bar/bat mitzvah or for anyone else who deserves a nice present. I also recommend the Living Torah by Kaplan (which only includes the haftorahs, not the entire Prophets and Writings) as well as the Stone Edition by Artscroll. All three are wonderful study aids and, I have used all three over the years. If commentary is your primary interest, I might lean slightly towards Artscroll or, the venerable Hertz Chumash. If you are interested more in the text than in commentary, all of these versions are supurb.

the downfall to this version is the binding. The first day I flipped through the book pages started falling out.

Since others have described the contents of the JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (ISBN: 0827606974) I will just say a few words about the incredibly poor binding of this book. Although the book is well-printed on excellent paper, it is being misleadingly touted as "leather bound." In fact, it is cased in PAPER-covered boards, comes with a cheap and nasty glued spine, and seems to have been designed to self-destruct after minimal use.

For a more durable bilingual Tanakh, and one with a much more interesting English translation, readers might take a look at the Artscroll Stone Edition Tanach (ISBN: 0899062695) which is also available at Amazon and is the edition I now wish that I had bought.

Too many publishers today are putting cheap glued paperbacks between cardboard covers, pretending that they are real books, and selling them at inflated prices. Hence the single star.

JPS has produced the best known, non-Christian, translations of the Bible. (There is no such thing as an Old Testament-just a Bible as opposed to a Christian Bible!!) The relatively famous JPS Tanakh (acronym of Torah, Nevi'im/Prophets, and Ketuvim/Writings and spelled various ways--TN'K, Tanach, Tenach)is fine for an English translation and carried out by acknowledged experts. But let's be frank. You don't have a Bible if you do not have the original Hebrew next to the translation.

If you really study Bible you do or will come to realize this, and will never be satisfied with just the vernacular. The English (our vernacular language) is just an attempt to convey the meaning of the Hebrew. So it makes sense to have both, side by side.

There are a number of Bibles that include both, Christian and Judaic products, most notably one of my favorites the Koren Jerusalem Bible.

But here is what you need for a useful tool after you have both Hebrew and English:
*The Hebrew Text should include as much of the Masoretic structure and features as possible (can't go into "Masoretic" here). DOn't expect it to include the Masoretic notation (Mp, Mm)[You'll need a BHS, Aleppo, Leningrad MS in Hebrew for this type of thing and Okla v'Okla]. But it MUST have the parshas (weekly readings for the Torah all Jews worldwide read together). Included in the Masoretic Text are some interesting features like enlarged letters, text written with spaces to appear like stacked brick (song of the Sea Shemot/Exodus 15) for example. There's too many beauties of the Hebrew to describe---but make sure yours get in as many of them as possible!!!!

*Typeface is very important. You are used to English and your mind can "recontruct" words in a bad English font. But Hebrew is a different matter. The Hebrew should be large and clear, especially the niqqudim (vowel-points and accent marks some of the others mention--btw, most Hebrew primary religious texts will show vowel-points). A small Hebrew type can be a disaster (I have to use a magnifying glass and reading glasses to read some of my books like Jastrow's Sefer Millim).

*Personal pref- I like a Bible that tries to bring across Hebrew names instead of Anglicizations (ex., Moshe rather than Moses; Yerushalayim> over <Jerusalem)and a minimum ofeth thine oldeth Englisheth languageth. The Bible did not come from merry old England and the Globe Theatre!!

*binding

So how does JPS H/E Tanakh stack up here? Typography excellent!!! Masoretic features-parshas, no Masoretic notes really, and all is shoved in a column for sake of page layout instead of MT format. JPS uses the anglicizations ;-( but is in modern language ;-)

The JPS H/E Tanakh comes in several bindings. I have the "leatherish" thick, flexible, industrial strength plastic and I think it will hold up. It has a ribbon marker insertd in the binding. In other words, this binding (and paper)is similar to the binding on Christian Bibles. (You could walk down the street with it and not be missionized!!!! ;-)

Get it. It is well worth $... The Koren Bible I mentioned differs in that it keeps much more MT format, but its typography is tooo small, but it does not anglicize proper nouns and even symbolizes Het and Tsade (whch I can't do here). So if you must choose one, choose the one you can see all the text with the naked eye--JPS H/E.

Regarding the act of translation, the great Greek scholar and translator Robert Fagles has written: "It begins with attraction, then a kind of attack, and it ends, if you are lucky, with a strong impersonation of your author." (See Fagle's Foreward to his masterful translation of "The Oresteia" of Aeschylus). For those of us amateur and striving souls who yearn to read the Tanakh in the original tongue, a "strong impersonation" of the Word of God is never enough.

Having learned to savor Greek in Harvard's beautifully bound and highly servicable Loeb Classical Library editions, I am ecstatic to find a parallel Hebrew/English Tanakh to serve as my temporary crutch as I study the Hebrew. I say temporary, because I am anxious to pursue my lifetime studies of the Bible in the original Hebrew, as fast as I am able. (At that point I intend to abandon this lovely little crutch and rely solely thereafter on the definitive "Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.")

This edition is not only well bound and a joy to hold, but the Hebrew font is large and easily read. I am also pleased to see the poetical lines formatted as such -- much of the Bible text is, after all, a glorious Song.

I say, do not be satisfied with a "strong impersonation", but let the Tanakh speak for itself.

Overall, a fair edition, though it has many superiors.

Presently, I am not certain how the text differs from the text found in the BHS, though I'm most certain this is not intended to be a critical Hebrew text.

I personally could do without the English translation. Though some may find it helpful, the translation fails to live up to its promise as elegant. The English is standard fair prosiac English, as is found in most of the major Bible translations these days. Sigh.

The binding is quite horrible. Again, following an all too typical modern publishing convention, JPS binding is glue as opposed to sewn, as such, it breaks easily.

Could one do worse? I suppose, though one can obviously do much better than the JPS. For scholarship purposes, the Bibla Hebraica is the easy winner. The definitive critical text of the Tanakh and the standard among universities and seminaries.

Whether you are a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim or none of the above, if you want to understand the bible then you must buy this book. You can read the scriptures in English, or, look at the Hebrew. If you have any doubts about the translation that the JPS came up with in this edition - the Hebrew is right there and you can make up your own mind. It's as simple as that. This is also why this book is good for people who know varying levels of Hebrew. If you don't know a lot, you've got the English right there. If you do know a lot, you've got the Hebrew right there. What a wonderful book to own!

Among the Bibles that contain the Masoretic Text and a translation, the JPS version definitely holds first place. The Hebrew text is ultra-clear, the English type is very attractive, and both the English and Hebrew are well-spaced for ease of reading. Notes are good. The Hebrew text occupies the right column of every page and verse numbers are in standard Arabic numerals. The student edition, listed above as paperback, is actually the same as the leatherbound version, but with a plastic, leather-textured cover. The JPS translation is almost compulsively readable, with some reservations. It is generally faithful to the sense, if not always the words, of the Hebrew text. YHWH is rendered as LORD, the bull of Jacob is still denatured into the mighty one, but at least Shaddai is Shaddai! And when the reader feels the translation has moved too far into the abstract, the Hebrew is right there for comparison and study. There is, however, a very peculiar aspect to the JPS translation. While the introduction calls this an idiomatic translation for our time, the English is peppered with archaic terminology more appropriate to the Elizabethan stage and difficult crossword puzzles than to ANY spoken or literary English of our time. I have to wonder in what circles "hark", "lo", "hither", "sojourn", "adjuration", "levir" and other goofy, but poetic, words constitute idiomatic language. "Levir" doesn't even rate its own entry in my Webster's collegiate dictionary. It appears as the Latin root of "levirate", an 18th century term, not exactly common parlance!

I own several copies of the "New" JPS translation (it has been around for a few decades now). I own the original three volume edition, the full-size and the pocket size with and without Hebrew text. And despite the fact that I have a few other bibles (including the Judaica Press edition of various books and the entire Soncino Bible) this is the one that I refer to the most.

The translation is readable and accurate although not in the literal sense. When they stray from the literal meaning, it is included in a footnote, as good scholarship requires.

The Hebrew-English addition has the original text facing the translation, which is sometimes helpful if you want to improve your vocabulary, but only beware, the translations is not always word for word.

'Tanakh' is the Jewish acronym for what we Gentiles call the Old Testament: that is, Torah, the Law, Nbi'im, the Prophets, and Ktubim, the Writings

I wasn't looking for a bilingual Tanakh/OT, I was just looking for an easily legible Hebrew text. I got that, and as it turns out I'm glad to have gotten the English translation with it

It's a linguistic truism that true translation is impossible. And Robert Frost said 'Poetry is that which is lost in translation'

Any translation varies on a scale from translation to paraphrase. The JPS translation here is a little too paraphrastic for my taste as an English 'Bible', but it's close enough to give a reasonable 'pony' for a student like me to ride as I slog my way through the Hebrew