JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

desirable, not to mention inevitable. The reality is that for
the translator as for the dramatic or musical performer, preconceptions
and prejudices, conditioned both by personality
and historical/sociological background, always play a role in
the final outcome. Thus the success or failure of a translation
will be judged differently by scholars, clergy, and audiences of
various stripes, and often differently within these categories.
Whether the translator’s needs and desires, and attempts at
solutions, correspond to those of an audience will always be
at issue. As an aggregate, however, English translations of he
Bible will continue to reflect the powerful hold this text exerts
on Western minds and hearts.
[Raphael Loewe / Everett Fox (2nd ed.)]
Arabic
Catholic and Protestant Arabic Bibles were, until the second
part of the 19th century, based on the 1671 edition of the (Vatican)
Congregation of Propagation of the Faith when three
new versions appeared. The American Protestant missionaries
in Beirut published in 1864 a translation in modern Arabic,
which was started by Eli Smith and finished by C.V.A.
van Dyck, with the help of Arab scholars, especially Sheik
Nasif el-Yāzijī. This version was reprinted in 1869 and became
known as the Oxford Arabic Bible. The Dominicans of Mosul
published a four volume Bible based on C.J. David’s version
(1874–78). About the same time (1876–80) the Jesuits in Beirut
published a translation in classical Arabic, in three volumes.
The Arabic Bibles in circulation among Christians are based
on those versions, although other missionary work has produced
more modern renditions (e.g., the Book of Life of 1982/
1988, in modern Arabic, and a version published in 2003).
Catalan
A Catalan Bible, probably based on a French prototype, was
prepared in 1281–91 at the request of Alfonso III of Aragon,
but this has not been preserved and perhaps remained unfinished.
Various Catalan translations – Psalms (14th–15th centuries),
part of Genesis (14th century), a complete Bible by Sabruguera
(14th century), and other 15th-century Bibles – were
made from the Vulgate using the French and Provençal versions.
Sabruguera’s Bible was revised by Jaime Borrell and
by Bonifacio Ferrer (c. 1400), the printed edition of 1477–78
reproducing the work of the latter, which was destroyed by
the Inquisition. During the 16th century, some biblical books
were translated from the original Hebrew. In 1832 a complete
Catalan Bible was made by the Protestant scholar J.M. Prat
(published by the British and Foreign Bible Society). Various
Catholic translations appeared in the 20th century, including
those by Clascar (1915), the monks of Montserrat (1926), and
the Catalan Biblical Foundation (1928–48).
Danish
Although Hans Tausen’s Pentateuch (Magdeburg, 1535) is
thought to have been only part of a complete Danish translation
of the Bible, the earliest surviving complete edition – the
so-called Christian III Bible (1550; 1950) – was a reworking by
bible
Christiern Pedersen of Luther’s German Bible. Like its prototype,
the latter was written in an extraordinary pithy style and
had a significant impact on the Danish language. It was later
revised as the Frederick II Bible (1588–89) and the Christian
IV Bible (1632–33). Meanwhile, the need for a translation from
the original languages had been recognized, and in 1607 Professor
(later Bishop) H.P. Resen published an edition of the
Bible that was linguistically distinct from its predecessors. Revised
by Professor (later Bishop) Hans Savning in 1647, this
remained until modern times the “authorized” Danish version
of the Bible. There were also innumerable translations of separate
portions of the Bible; and various private biblical projects,
two of which were a translation by C.A.H. Kalkar (1847),
who was a Jew by birth, and a more significant version by the
Orientalist and theologian J.C. Lindberg (1837–54). The first
Danish Bible to take cognizance of modern biblical criticism
was that produced by Frants Buhl and his associates in 1910;
this was in part the basis for a new translation, directed by
Bishop Goetzsche, of which the Old Testament appeared in
1931. Another new version of the Old Testament in Danish appeared
in 1931, and Catholic Bibles based on the Vulgate were
published in 1893 and 1931. The most recent version, produced
by the Danish Bible Society, appeared in 1992. Another, ongoing
project is a scholarly “secular” translation of the Hebrew
Bible, begun in 1998, which treats the text as a product of the
ancient Near East and eschews the centuries of interpretation
based on Western (mostly Christian) religious traditions. It
uses Hebrew names for biblical figures, as well as for books
(e.g., “When God Began” for Genesis), and retains the Jewish
ordering of biblical books. There have also been some Danish
translations under Jewish auspices, notably the Pentateuch of
Chief Rabbi A.A. *Wolff (1891), published with the Hebrew
text. A new edition, revised by the Jewish education authorities
and to which the haftarot were added, appeared in 1894.
Chief Rabbi Friediger also published Esther with a Danish
translation in 1924.
Dutch
There were several medieval Dutch versions of biblical books,
but the first Dutch Bible – the complete Bible except for the
Psalms – dates from a Flemish work (c. 1300) and was a translation
from the Vulgate (published Delft, 1477). A Dutch version
of Psalms, produced by another translator, was frequently
reprinted from 1480 onward. Later, there was a Dutch translation
of Luther’s Bible (Antwerp, 1526), and an Old Testament
based on Luther and the Delft Bible appeared in 1525.
Claes (Nicholas) van Winghe’s Dutch Catholic Louvain Bible
(1548) underwent many revisions and remained in use well
into the 19th century. The Dutch Protestants – Reformed, Lutheran,
and Mennonite – all pursued their own adaptations of
the Bible, but the first editions based on the original Hebrew
appeared only in 1614 and 1623. Early in the 17th century the
Dutch States-General commissioned the famous Statenbijbel
(Leyden, 1636–37), the text of which was later published in the
German Biblia Pentapla; frequently revised, it remained in use
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 627