Robert Alter

A new translation of the first book of the Bible honors meanings and literary strategies of the ancient Hebrew language, while bringing the stories together in a narrative format that makes it read more like a fully integrated book

Genesis

Dana Kraft

I read this along with the New American Bible version of Genesis. I have very little knowledge of Genesis beyond the creation stories so I can’t say that this translation changed my mind about Genesis. Instead, it was a good reason to read it through to the end with the benefit of some well-informed, thoughtful commentary on the culture in general and the text in specific. I was continually reminded of comments by Jonathan Sacks in his book, Not in God’s Name. He notes that the creation stories are the shortest part of the book of Genesis, and that the creation of the universe is seen as simple for God compared to the difficulties humans have in living together in families and communities. The translation notes were most interesting to me in helping me understand the culture of the time, which I still don’t really understand. That said, the notes are very helpful to understand the motives of the characters and writer(s). If I decide to read more Old Testament books, I think I’ll need a resource like this.

From a faith perspective, it’s easy to focus on the life and death parts of the stories and gloss over the very human jealousy, greed, egotism and love that motivate the characters.

Genesis

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