After 24 Years, Scholar Completes 3,000-Page Translation Of The Hebrew Bible

NPR.ORG
By Rachel Martin

lter also tried to imitate the rhythm of the original — which was a challenge because Hebrew is a much more compact language than English.

For 24 years, literary scholar Robert Alter has been working on a new translation of the Hebrew Bible and — "this may shock some of your listeners," he warns — he's been working on it by hand. "I'm very particular — I write on narrow-lined paper and I have a Cross mechanical pencil," he says. The result is a three-volume set — a translation with commentary — that runs over 3,000 pages. Working solo for so long on a project of this magnitude can take its toll, he says: "If you keep going verse by verse, looking at the commentary and wrestling with difficult words and so forth, you can get a little batty." "In trying to be faithful to the literary art of the Hebrew Bible I certainly edged it away from being merely a precursor to the New Testament — which is a different kind of writing all together," he says. [More]