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Summary: A major translation of the First Five Books of The Bible
Review: A glorious book that is magnificently printed. Mr. Fox's translation is pure poetry. The commentary is the best I have ever read. For the Bible student and layman this is a version of the first five books of Moses that should not be missed. Will undoubtly become a classic in Bible literature. The translation from the Hebrew is a joy to read and brings new insights to this the greatest of all books written.
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Summary: disgusting and scary that people actually believe this trash
Review: Anyone capable of rational thought should be thoroughly repelled by the messages found in these books. Thankfully, the truth about them is slowly coming around, thanks in large measure to the growing acceptance of evolutionary theory which unavoidably trashes the primitive notions of our origins found in Genesis.
Few things have inhibited human progress more than deity-based religions have, in particular Judeo-Christianity. These writings have perpetuated some of the most evil aspects of the human condition, most likely far beyond the point when they ordinarily wouldn't have been tolerated any longer. For example - "God" himself condones slavery repeatedly in these books. Look at Exodus 21. How would you like to have to choose (after serving your master as a slave for six years) between freedom without your wife and children (assuming your master has "given" you your wife) or a LIFETIME of slavery with them? The "lifetime" part clearly supercedes any notion of "endentured servitude" (itself no walk in the park and certainly not tolerated by today's standards) espoused by apologists. Most Christians and Jews are too brainwashed to even be able to comprehend the EVIL inherent in Exodus 21 perpetuated by their god. You won't read it in your old high school text book, but slave owners used the Bible to defend their revolting practices in pre-Civil War America. Do some research. Many other examples of evils condoned by "God" can be found.
Religious types will no doubt vote against my little review. They also most likely pick and choose which of "God's" commandments they will follow or even acknowledge like most Christians and Jews do. There's no other way to look at the Bible and believe it to be the divine word of "God," unless you are willing to believe that "God" is sadistically evil.
Christians and Jews, if they are honest, must reconcile themselves with something else: Do you believe in WITCHES? Are you willing to KILL witches as your god commanded in Exodus 22:18? If so, how will you identify them? It would be pretty ridiculous to believe the Bible is the divine word of "God" and not believe in witches. Of course, this little slice of superstitious hogwash is enough for any free thinker to conclude that the Bible is full of hooey and extremely detrimental to mankind to boot. It should also be noted that the only pertenant "context" anywhere near "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is "Thou shalt not kill."
Check out the extensive rules prescribed by "God" in Deuteronomy about how to conduct animal sacrifices. Sure, it's understandable that primitive people in their particular time and place would do something so wasteful and barbaric, but who in their right mind could believe in a true and timeless god who would prescribe such behavior?
It is scandelously outrageous that anyone in our modern age could subscribe to these myths, these LIES. Our world will never improve until mankind exposes these writings for the lies that they are and moves on. Nothing good can come from something based on lies, certainly not true morality. I consider myself far more moral and good than anyone who could read the passages I've cited above and continue believing. Shame on President Bush for actually citing "Mt. Sinai" in his recent overly religious inauguration speech. The man obviously cannot comprehend the value of keeping church and state seperate as prescribed by the founding fathers (let alone the Constitution). Obviously, he holds the 10 commandements high while ignoring the less savoury ones from "God's" Mt. Sinai speech to Moses, all the while believing that "God" divinely inspired it all. This is stupid and unacceptable. It will tear our nation apart if we're not careful, dividing us between the rational and the blindly religious.
At least I can take comfort in knowing that, eventually, science and rational thought will prevail.
Rating:
Summary: Simply The Best Ever
Review: Everett Fox's translation of the Torah is plain and simple the finest translation from Hebrew I have ever seen. None of the other notable English translations, from the JPS Tanakh to the excellent Bloch translation of Song of Songs even comes close to the power and faithfulness of Fox's Five Books of Moses. He comes as close as is linguistically possible to capturing the rhythm, nuance, and grace of the Hebrew original as is possible in another langage. Furthermore, when he knows that pure translation will be insufficient to capture a play on words-- how many native English readers even know the Bible is full of plays on words?-- he provides transliterations of the relevant Hebrew phrases as well, so the device becomes apparent.
Some have complained that in forcing the English language to follow the patterns of a different grammatical system-- to say nothing of worldview-- he has twisted even poetic English beyond recognition. But not only is this text highly readable poetry, it reinforces with every word the nearly-always neglected fact that the Tanakh (the "Old Testament") was not written in English, or Latin, or Greek, and represents a vastly different set of literary (and religious) endeavors than the Christian scriptures. It forcefully gives the reader a much-needed reminder that this is not the book you think it is.
Most translations, in smoothing the text out into English prose and poetry, either sacrifice accuracy (e.g. the King James), or sacrifice the poetry (e.g. the JPS, which contains some of the least poetic poetry I can think of), resulting in an anemic set of verses bearing little resemblence to the wild, vibrant song of the Hebrew original. Fox's unique word-flow unpacks the dense Hebrew into a torrent of breathtaking imagery (e.g. "At the beginning of God's creating/of the heavens and the earth,/when the earth was wild and waste,/darkness over the face of Ocean,/rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters--"). He retains the proper transliterations of the Hebrew names, for an authentic-sounding "Yitzchak" instead of "Isaac," "Yaakov" instead of "Jacob," "Moshe and Aharon" instead of "Moses and Aaron." Perhaps most importantly, he refuses to translate the tetragrammaton, and so instead of "the LORD said this" or "the LORD said that," his text references YHWH (the w instead of the v I expect results from his basing his work on Rosenzweig, who of course used the w because it is pronounced v in German).
My one niggling complaint is his decision regarding the translation of emphatic doubling, so that repetitions like "mot yumat" are translated "he shall die, yes die." It certainly reflects a doubled verb form, and it is certainly different than the traditional, "shall surely die," but I am not wild about the sound of it. But that's a small thing amidst a sea of greatness.
The footnotes and commentary are also very useful, although more so, I think, if you are not a fluent Hebrew speaker familiar with the original text. Nonetheless, I am both, and I still found several highly valuable pieces of information that I did not know, and many more additional comments that presented the text in ways that I had not quite thought of before. One word of warning: if you are looking for a Torah with the traditional Jewish type of commentary (like Hertz or Hirsch or the Artscroll), this is not it. The commentary is not religious, but literary, linguistic, historical, and cultural. You should still get this translation, just be aware of what it is and is not.
Nobody who reads the Bible and speaks English should be without a copy of this. That goes double for anyone who speaks English but not Hebrew.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive Translation
Review: How many people have actually read the bible? While many describe this text as the most important work of western civilization, too many people find it both impenetrable and poorly written. That is not the fault of the actual text; indeed the Hebrew poetry of the bible is among some of the best ever written. The problem lies instead in the translation. Myriad efforts at popular translations have been made, from putting the bible into common English to straight line-by-line English. While these methods render the text more easily read, they also cost it the poetic language and much of its drama.Everett Fox has solved these problems with a translation that is nothing short of masterful. The language is lucid, the prose poetic, and the story intact. Moreover, Fox is an honest translator, detailing his decisions and pointing out where multiple meaning exist. I have read literally dozens of translations of the bible. In my opinion, this is far and away the best. Fox's contribution to the text will surely be remember and appreciated both now and for decades to come.
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Summary: The Original Hebrew Springs to Life
Review: I am not a Hebrew Scholar; I do not even qualify as a Hebrew Student. Yet this Biblical translation infuses new life into the first five books of the Old Testament. The meter, the poetry, the nuisances lost in other English translations have been magically restored by Everett Fox. Mix in the insightful commentary that appears opposite the text and you have what is rapidly becoming the translation I reach for when I read or study passages from the Five Books of Moses.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much commentary
Review: I wanted a Torah, translated from the earliest manuscripts and translated by a non-affiliated, objective translator. I think that's what I got, but there is way too much explanation, commentary and presentation of alternatives. All that makes it difficult to read. For instance, you turn the page to follow along and it's not the text, it's some explanation page.
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Summary: A new beginning...
Review: Schocken Press has undertaken an ambitious project, to retranslate the Bible into modern language capturing the sound and quality of idiom of the original languages as much as possible. The first volume of this project is available in The Five Books of Moses, Shocken Bible: Volume I, translated and with commentary by Everett Fox. 'Based upon principles developed by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, this new English translation restores the poetics of the Hebrew original--the echoes, allusions, alliterations, and word-plays that rhetorically underscore its meaning and are intrinsic to a text meant to be read aloud and heard.' The underlying premise of most translations of the Bible have been to clarify the meaning of the text. While this is certainly not overlooked here, it can be the case that in the pursuit of textual clarity, the ability to make it audibly intelligible gets lost -- a lot of passages from the New Revised Standard Version, for instance, are so precise in construction that they defy oral expression. Fox says in his Translator's Preface: 'I have presented the text in English dress but with a Hebraic voice.' Careful attention has been given to rhythm and sound. Too many English translations overlook the auditory quality of the words, and while striving to capture the idea of the text, they miss the crucial 'hearing cues' that an oral rendering would give the listener. To this end, the text is printed as if it were in blank verse (save where a poetic style was already present and could be carried forward). Proper nouns (the names of persons and places) retain their Hebraic forms; odd, though, that the title of the book is The Five Books of Moses rather than The Five Books of Moshe. Also, a principle of the 'leading-word' is employed here. A good example follows: The New English Bible translated Genesis 32.21-22 as: for he thought, 'I will appease him with the present I have sent on ahead, and afterwards, when I come into his presence, he will perhaps receive me kindly.' So Jacob's present went on ahead of him... Here, one would get the idea that the 'present' is the key word. But, in Hebrew, it isn't. Fox's translation reads thusly: For he said to himself:
I will wipe (the anger from) his face
with the gift that goes ahead of my face
afterward, when I see his face,
perhaps he will lift up my face!
The gift crossed over ahead of his face... A very different sense of meaning, cadence, and purpose comes out from this translation. Fox is heavily indebted to the work of Buber and Rosenzweig (who worked on a German translation similar in character to this English translation) in the early part of this century. Fox dismisses the idea that this is simply an English variant of their German masterpiece, but does acknowledge great inspiration and methodological similarities. 'Buber and Rosenzweig translated the Bible out of the deep conviction that language has the power to bridge worlds and to redeem human beings. They both, separately and together, fought to restore the power of ancient words and to speak modern ones with wholeness and genuineness.' Fox begins each of the five books with an essay discussing historical context, textual contents, themes and structures, and other important items. Fox continues a running commentary of the text on pages opposite the Biblical text, and has extensive notes. This is a work of care and precision, and very useful for Biblical research. Worthwhile for scholars, Bible enthusiasts, and occasional readers, this book is an interesting addition to any collection, and a vital piece for research and exegesis of the Torah.
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Summary: Too much commentary
Review: Since I do not read Hebrew or Greek I have to read the scriptures in English and like all readers of translations my views of them are affected by the goals and purposes they took in preparing their translations. I have read many over the years and there are many that are quite good and have different points to recommend them. And their critics are always able to point out their limitations and even some questionable points. This translation is quite interesting in its approach to capture the pulse, feel, and literary style of the Hebrew in English. I cannot say how effectively it was done, because I can't read Hebrew. Many others have praised it. I can say that it reads in a very vivid and dramatic way. It has a lively and powerful feel to its language. There are times it does not read as idiomatic English, but you would expect that if it were trying to capture Hebrew, right? There are also many helps for the reader including introductory essays, helpful footnotes, and a great suggested reading list for further study. The hard cover edition I have is very handsomely printed in easy to read type, fine paper, with some black and white illuminations to start the books. I think this is wonderful addition to the shelves of English translations out there and deserves to be read by anyone interested in getting at a more aural approach to these scriptures. This translation really does sound better being read out lout than it reads for the eye. As I understand things, that is what the translator was after, and he succeeded.
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Summary: My Favorite Translation of My Favorite Books
Review: The Torah is my life. Until I finish my Hebrew studies, to read it myself, Mr. Fox's translation is the best I can do... A very good friend of mine, who specializes in Hebrew translation, gave a strong recommendation for this work. Beautiful to read, especially when read aloud!
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Summary: Original Textual Accuracy
Review: Though I am only a second-year student of ancient Hebrew, I can say confidently that the Fox translation is not only accurate to the Hebrew grammar and syntax, but it also consistent with the original literary devices used by Moses.
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