Robert Alter

A Translation with Commentary

The Five Books of Moses

Dana Kraft

I enjoyed reading Alter’s Genesis translation so I decided to read this which includes the next four books. There is less narrative story in these books than in Genesis and so I found myself scanning through long sections of Leviticus and Numbers related to specific practices and laws. The structure/page layout of this book is better than my Bible because translation notes are on each page so I found it easier to glance down when I had a question or didn’t understand something. Even though the notes are about the translation, they provide a lot of context for the writing as well. Actually each page is about 10-20% text and the rest is translation notes which makes the book easier to read than a typical 1,000 page book.

As for the actual texts, I got a great sense of the importance of the overarching story to the Jewish people. I like reading original texts of historical events and that’s what this was like. I got a better sense of what the writers felt. There’s a quote towards the end of Deuteronomy that sums up the sense that I got from reading the whole thing. “For it is not an empty thing for you. But it is your life, and through this thing you will long endure...”

As a Catholic, I’m used to New Testament references to the keepers of the law as being pretty negative and to examples of Jesus doing things that seem to violate the letter of the law. Reading these books helped give me a better perspective on that and in some ways understand and empathize with those who followed it and treated it as “their life.”

I plan to read Alter’s other translations from the Old Testament. This gets five stars because it’s added a bunch of other books to my reading list.

The Five Books of Moses A Translation with Commentary

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