James D Tabor

The Book of Genesis: A New Translation from the Transparent English Bible James D Tabor

The first book of the Bible presented in an authentic translation that allows the English reader to "peer through" to the Hebrew and "come as close as we will probably ever come to the original text." This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure. This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure. This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure. Countless readers pour over concordances to try to find the exact meaning of the original Bible. Interlinear translations try to convey the exact meaning of the text, but their unintelligible syntax make them impossible to read. TEB combines the power of a readable translation, with the precision of a concordance or interlinear translation. Most modern translations routinely use a wide range of traditional theological terms. Words such as: atonement, covenant, soul, angel, hell, redemption and salvation, are familiar to traditional ears but misleading and ineffective in conveying the original Hebrew or Greek concepts. This new translation reveals the original or "plain" meaning of the original languages allowing readers to reexamine inherited interpretations of key stories and concepts in the Bible. For example, the notion that women were given "pain" in childbirth as a punishment for Eve's transgression disappears in the original Hebrew text. The Hebrew word used is precisely the same as the "hardship" that men are allotted in working the soil of the earth, as explained below .