This work is actually a lot more than a translation, as Ed
explains in his lengthy (21 page) Introduction. Essentially, when seeking to
extract meaning from the Book of Job we are faced with a text that was written
for readers who are separated from us by millennia. These readers not only spoke
a different language; their social, cultural and spiritual reference points were
different too. Interwoven within the text there are words with resonate with
others, puns, allusions and metaphors which we are not in a position to
appreciate on a superficial basis. Comprehension of this difficult work also
requires a passing familiarity with Aramaic and other Semitic languages, in
much the same way as a work written today in English might expect the reader to
be familiar with some words in French, Latin tags, Greek and Roman mythology
and so on.
Ever since the time of Onkelos it has been accepted,
sometimes happily and sometimes with reluctance, that there is no such thing as
a translation that is not also a commentary. That this work too is more than a
mere word-for-word rendition of the original is affirmed by the online blurb
for Job: A New Translation, which describes the book thus:
The book of Job has often been
called the greatest poem ever written. The book, in Edward Greenstein’s
characterization, is “a Wunderkind, a genius emerging out of the confluence of
two literary streams” which “dazzles like Shakespeare with unrivaled vocabulary
and a penchant for linguistic innovation.” Despite the text’s literary prestige
and cultural prominence, no English translation has come close to conveying the
proper sense of the original. The book has consequently been misunderstood in
innumerable details and in its main themes.
Edward Greenstein’s new
translation of Job is the culmination of decades of intensive research and
painstaking philological and literary analysis, offering a major
reinterpretation of this canonical text. Through his beautifully rendered
translation and insightful introduction and commentary, Greenstein presents a
new perspective: Job, he shows, was defiant of God until the end. The book is
more about speaking truth to power than the problem of unjust suffering.
Ed’s translation has a refreshingly modern feel to it, but meaning
is not sacrificed on the altar of modernity. It is also sustained by a regular flow
of footnotes that point the reader to, among other things. allusions to other canonical
texts that are found in the original Hebrew but which would be concealed from
an English reader.
So, to conclude: if you struggle with the “these” and “thous” of older, more formal English translations and are daunted by the sheer bulk of the heavily annotated ArtScroll, which where the commentary is in danger of getting in the way of the narrative, this book could be your ideal solution.
