John Walbridge

John Walbridge is a Near Eastern languages and cultures professor at Indiana University Bloomington.

Can English Capture the Language of Revelation?

English-speaking Muslims have yet to produce a definitive translation of the Qur’an. What guidance can a new literary translation of the Bible provide for today’s Qur’an translators?

“Robert Alter’s publication of a complete translation of the Hebrew Bible caused a literary sensation. Most English translations of the Bible1 have been the products of committees, so one-man translations, particularly of the whole text, are not common. Moreover, Alter is not a biblical scholar by profession but rather a professor of comparative literature and Hebrew at Berkeley. Alter had gotten into the field of Hebrew Bible studies through a well-regarded book on biblical narrative published in 1981. Persuaded by his editor to follow that with a book on Genesis, he concluded that existing translations were unsatisfactory and so did his own. The rest is the story of a small academic project that got out of hand, something familiar to a great many scholars.” —Robert Walbridge

Read the Article Instead: “Can English Capture the Language of Revelation?”