In terms of standard English Bibles I prefer the Revised Standard Version (RSV) over the NRSV. The problem is that it is hard to get these days since the NRSV has taken over with most publishers. You can still get the RSV Oxford Annotated edition with the Apocrypha, still in print, and I would suggest it as a basic resource for the “entire” Bible with notes (plus wonderful Oxford maps)–but be careful here not to confuse it with the newer one that is the NRSV.

The Revised Standard Version represents many advances over the King James and American Standard Version tradition. The problem with it is that in many places it incorporates conjectural readings, emendations, and alternative textual traditions like the Septuagint. These are indicated in the footnotes, but one just has to be aware one is not always dealing with just the standard Masoretic text.

The English Standard Version (ESV) attempts to keep all the virtues of the RSV in terms of scholarship and academic integrity, while removing this objection and relying wholly and solely on the Masoretic traditional Hebrew text. It has swept the evangelical Christian market and also attracted the attention of many scholars, on its way to replacing the popular New International Version (NIV) that had once held that market. It comes in many editions but the standard textual edition is reasonable in price and you can get it with the apocrypha on Amazon.

I would recommend either one or both of these as a basic translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament for general reading and reference.

The problem with both the RSV and the ESV is that they still are not as literal and careful with the Hebrew as I would want but on the whole the ESV makes a fair attempt.

In terms of English Bibles though I still favor heavily the 1901 American Standard Version (not to be confused with the New American Standard Version that also can be good), both for its accuracy and literalness as well as its unprecedented use of the Divine Name Jehovah, which few standard translations have ever done. It is basically “out of print” but you can find editions if you want a hard copy. It is easily available in electronic formats, both free on the web and for various devices. I have the ASV on my iPad and computer and often use it as an English parallel to the Hebrew. I find it to be quite accurate, and an advance over the KJV.

In terms of Jewish translations of the Tanakh the choices are much more limited. There are four main ones I would note:

1. The 1985 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. This one is the most widely available and would be somewhat equivalent to the RSV in terms of its academic approach to the text. However, it does, for the most part, stay with the original Masoretic Hebrew rather than bringing in alternative readings. Its drawback is that it can be very loose with the text and put meanings into the English that are clearly more interpretations, thus closing off to the average reader the more literal or original meaning.

2. The older 1917 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh is now, alas, out of print but it was heavily modeled on the ASV but without, of course, using the Divine Name, but choosing “LORD” for YHVH as most English translations have done. I have one of my own that I bought years ago, back in the 1970s. If you check the used bookstores you can find a copy. You can also get an e-book version for $.99 on Amazon that will download to the Kindle app on any device! There are also numerous web sites that have this 1917 JPS Tanakh on-line. I do recommend it and if I had a parallel version of the Hebrew Bible with this 1917 translation I would consider it the best of all worlds in terms of the Hebrew Bible.

3. The Koren “Jerusalem Bible,” produced in Israel with the traditional Hebrew text and a fairly literal English translation by Harold Fish on facing pages. You can get it at many bookstores but most easily via Amazon. Two disadvantages are the print is small and the binding is not of the highest quality. I have used and worn out about three of these over the years  but have now switched to a Hebrew Bible with no English.

4. The 1996 Stone Edition of the Tanakh. Even though this one is quite popular I find the translation far far from accurate and literal and just as the Christian translations of the Bible have a strong theological slant in many places this translation of the Tanakh has a decidedly Jewish slant that gets in the way of the literal/accurate meaning of the text itself.

So the upshot of this post, depending on your own preferences would be to get:

1. A copy of either the Oxford RSV and ESV with the Apocrypha just so you have a standard full English Bible. Which you chose might depend on whether you want the notes, maps, etc. of the Oxford or just the straight text of the ESV.

2. A copy of the 1917 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh if you can find one through a used book dealer. Otherwise, if you use electronic devices, it is easy to obtain, or, alternatively get a copy of the ASV, which is very similar and has the added bonus of using the Divine Name.

Dr. Richard E. Rubenstein
University Professor
George Mason University
Arlington, Virginia

“Professor Tabor’s consistent attempt to capture in English translation the sound and sense of Genesis in its original form has the salutary effect of causing the reader to stop and think again about the meaning of the text.  Readers who can encounter the text only in English now have an opportunity to look behind layers of theologically motivated translations to something as close as we will probably ever come to the original text.”

Dr. Eugene V. Gallagher
Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies
Connecticut College
New London, Connecticut

“Finally, a truly transparent translation!  I have taught biblical texts for almost 25 years and have longed for a translation that didn’t pull any punches when it came to the difficult passages, or that didn’t try to “spin” the meaning of the text in the interests of later theology and doctrine (whether Jewish or Christian).  Tabor’s translation of Genesis renders the Hebrew not just with unparalleled accuracy and fidelity to the text, it also offers readers a sense of the unfamiliar elegance and strange power of the original.  Beautifully conceived and executed, Tabor’s translation is the result of a lifetime of critical learning and scholarly acumen.  It is also a courageous undertaking.  I have no doubt that it will quickly become the standard.”

Dr. A. J. Droge
Professor of Humanities
University of Toronto

“Finally we have a translation of Genesis that is transparent.  Tabor not only reveals the nuances of the Hebrew language in his English translation and detailed footnotes, but he uses the oldest manuscript traditions to do so.  This is a marked departure from traditional scholarly practice, which has relied on a modern eclectic text, one that has been created by a scholarly committee out of hordes of manuscripts spanning the centuries.  But James Tabor’s translation is based on our oldest two manuscripts, and so it represents a version of Genesis that would have been known and used by the ancient people.  This type of serious manuscript translation will revolutionize scholarship.”

Dr. April DeConick
Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Chair for Biblical Studies
Rice University
Houston, Texas

“The Transparent English Bible is a unique, innovative translation which successfully offers to readers an impression of the rough-hewn nature of the original Hebrew text with its Semitic syntax and idiomatic expressions.  Though it is not intended to replace more conventional versions, it should pique the interest of many who have an interest in getting closer to the original.  The incorporation of new readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and various explanatory notes add to the usefulness of the edition.”

Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, Professor Emeritus, History Department, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

“I am delighted to hear that the Transparent English Bible translation of Genesis may soon be published. I know of no other translation quite like it, and envision recommending it both to the prospective ministers I teach in an ecumenical divinity school and to the educated, curious readers I meet in community groups and congregations where I often lead studies.   Varied though their particular motives and investments may be, many such readers are intrigued by the complexities of Biblical interpretation, and eager for tools that allow less dependence on “received” views, including standard translations.   The TEB rendering of Genesis both de-familiarizes the text and makes its diction, figures, and syntax accessible in ways that afford real insight.  Its superscripts, notes, and other conventions create transparency in method, not just translation. The translation captures the lively play of Hebrew, and invites an answering clarity and energy of interpretation from readers.  I hope Genesis is published quickly, with more to follow soon.”

Dr. B. Diane Lipsett
Assistant Professor,
New Testament and Christian Origins
Wake Forest University School of Divinity
Winston-Salem, NC

“I have worked in linguistics for 25 years now and have been a lay reader of the Bible. Reading the new translation of Genesis is at once familiar but also like reading something I’ve not read before. There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground. There’s the feeling that I’ve discovered something that’s been hidden for ages.”

Dr. James Langford
Professor of Linguistics
Director of Programming and Web Technology
Abilene Christian University
Abilene, Texas

“James Tabor’s Transparent English Bible is such a good idea, it is a wonder someone has not done it before. This is a translation that will have immense appeal to those who have studied Hebrew and Greek and perhaps more so to those who have not. To both groups it provides the first ever opportunity to come as close as possible to hearing the original tongue in English. “Transparent” is a perfect descriptor of what I have read.  The TEB seems to have it all—poetic beauty, accuracy, and notes to show the main textual variants. It is everything a student of the Bible could want in an accurate, literal translation. In short, it is amazing.  It will provide all kinds of new opportunities for bringing the Bible to life in a fresh way while ensuring that the original author’s intent is not being distorted. I eagerly look forward to using this invaluable new translation in my work as a parish pastor and college instructor.”

The Rev. Jeffrey J. Bütz, M.Div., S.T.M.
Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Instructor of Religious Studies, Pennsylvania State University

“The Spanish wit Cervantes said, ‘Reading a translation is like looking at a tapestry on the wrong side.’ Dr. Tabor has attempted to set the tapestry on the right side and look through it as if it were transparent. It is a novel approach that will be welcomed by those of us who see a need for freshness in reading the venerable text. The TEB will provide that freshness, piquing readers to ask questions of the text: ‘Why did the writer put it that way? Am I missing something?’  What better way to learn?  Presenting the ancient biblical text dynamically, I believe, is TEB’s greatest contribution. It sets aside the encrusted religious traditions of centuries and breaks the stained glass of orthodoxy by giving the reader the opportunity to see the Text with greater clarity, and without theological spin. It meets a need unmet by other English translations.”

Pastor Kenneth Westby
Founder and Executive Director of the Association for Christian Development
Seattle, Washington
Bible teacher and pastor for 46 years

“Unless a student of Scripture is willing to complete the arduous task of learning an original language of the Bible, they cannot truly taste the marrow of it’s meaning or sense the mind it gives expression to in an English translation. It is like walking around a construction site only to surmise about what is being built by looking at the tools and material at hand.  With this translation of Genesis using a concept called Transparency, James Tabor has given us access to the blueprints. For the first time, students without training in Hebrew can begin to perceive the marvelous distinctions, resonant patterns and eloquent simplicity of the language. This is a must-have work that will surely add unique acuity to one’s endeavor to understand the Bible’s original texts.”

Lee Hutchison, Religious Studies Graduate

“I am just enthralled at how beautiful the wording is and excited to read it aloud to the children especially! Talk about a fascinating story! It reminds me of a play being read. I can imagine someone like Mark Twain doing a reading with such life and beauty and meaning that you feel like you are there. It makes me stand up and move around and use body language as I read because I can visualize the whole scene. Believe me, my grandchildren are going to love the Bible now! Like the word soil-man, how much more explanatory can a word get?”

Linda Scoggins
Lay Reader
Trout Lake, Washington

“Reading the words of this new translation has been beautiful and inspiring. Although it sounds different when read aloud in comparison to the more traditional bible translations, I feel it really does come as close as possible to capturing the beautiful poetic nuances of the original Hebrew.”

Catherine Cashmore
Lay Reader
Melbourne, Australia

Some years ago  Bible Review (16:04, August 2000) published a spirited debate on this question titled “The Most Orioginal Bible Text: How to Get there.”  Ronald Hendel of University of California-Berkeley and James Sanders, president of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center of Claremont Graduate School took up the question. At issue is whether new scholarly editions of the Hebrew Bible should be based on an eclectic text (a composite scholarly creation made up of all the various manuscript traditions), or the Masoretic (Traditional) text, with variants noted in footnotes. As many of you know, I have opted for the Masoretic text, and indeed, the Leningrad Codex, which is the oldest complete edition thereof, as my base text for the Hebrew Bible. I was most pleased to see that Prof. Sanders has mounted a most convincing and eloquent defense of the very method that I had chosen. This is not to say that Prof. Hendel’s arguments are without merit. After all, what he suggests is almost universally accepted by scholars as the basis of our critical New Testament texts. Both methods have strengths as well as liabilities, but I was pleased to see that Prof. Sanders presented such a strong case for his view, one that tends to be a minority opinion these days. Although the magazine Bible Revie The article contains many illustrations, some wonderful photos and graphics, and is an absolutely first-rate presentation of this whole debate.

Where the Original Bible Project differs from most translations is that I will incorporate variants to the Leningrad Codex only in the footnotes, not in the English translation itself, so that the reader will always know just which text he or she is reading at any given point. Most modern English translations (the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh is an exception here) mix all the readings of the various manuscripts into a single English text—which in effect “creates” a modern text that actually does not exist. That is why some have called the Original Bible Project a manuscript edition of the Bible. It allows the reader to “see through” the English text at every level, back to the original manuscripts.

Here are a few examples of some of these details from Exodus:

In Exodus 8:12 [v. 8 in the Hebrew] we read “Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh.” Seems like simple matter and all the major translations put it that way. However, the Hebrew verb is actually singular—what it actually says is that “Moses went out—and Aaron—from with Pharaoh.” Now I realize this is a bit awkward in English, and the meaning probably is not different, but our goal in the TEB, even in places where it might seem insignificant, it to give you precisely what the original says. What difference does it make, one might ask, whether one says “out from Pharaoh” or “out from with Pharaoh”? Maybe none at all, but both are found in various places and they are not the same expression, so in the TEB you get a faithful reflection of the Hebrew text—and you are informed that the verb is singular, not plural. Actually I think there is some subtle meaning to this fine distinction. Using the singular verb seems to give Moses priority. They both “went out,” but Moses first—and Aaron. This way of speaking occurs frequently in Hebrew and we had already indicated this several places in Genesis.

Take a look at Exodus 13 in the TEB. Here you have a long set of instructions given by Moses to the Israelite people regarding the Passover. What is really interesting is to follow the switch between the singular and the plural 2nd person pronoun “you” in the first sixteen verses. In v. 3 it is “you (plural) went out from Egypt,” and in v. 4 it is “Today you (plural) are going out,” but in v. 5 it switches to “when YHVH makes you (singular) come toward the land.” The narrative then switches to the singular, so that the instructions are very personalized through the rest of this section.

In this regard, take a guess. Do you think the commands “you shall do this” and “you shall not do that” in the Ten Words (Commandments) are singular or plural? After all, Moses is addressing the whole nation. One might expect the plural. But in fact, all the pronouns in Exodus 20:1-17 are singular. It begins: “I am YHVH your (singular) ELOHIM who made you (singular) go out from the land of Egypt . . .” (v.2). The same with the positive admonitions (Remember the Sabbath, honor your parents), as well as the negative prohibitions that follow (You shall not murder, et al.). It is as if each and every single person is being addressed personally.

Exodus 17:3 is really interesting in this regard. The people are grumbling against Moses and they say, “You have made us go up from Egypt to make me die and my sons.” All the standard translations read “to make us die and our sons,” even though the Hebrew has a clear switch from the plural to the singular—thus personalizing the complaint. It might not make much difference in essential meaning, but again, why not put what the Hebrew has and let people make of it what they wish? In v. 6 of this same chapter is another interesting example. Moses is told “you shall strike in the rock,” rather than “you shall strike the rock.” Perhaps there is not much of a difference but if you read carefully the entire passage you might notice something of significance in this regard.

We are actually being very careful with words like “he spoke,” vs. “he said,” which I am sure no one cares much about, but the expressions are different in Hebrew. For example, in Exo 5:10 we read “And the ones oppressing of the people, and its overseers, went out and they said toward the people, saying…” where you might expect it to say “they spoke toward the people saying.” Actually, as we point out in a note, the Dead Sea Scrolls have “they spoke toward the people saying.”

With the TEB you get it all—even in small and seemingly insignificant matters such as these.

I though it might be important to make clear that neither I nor the Original Bible Project itself have any connection with that particular Bible. It was produced by Fred R. Coulter, a minister and author who became enamored with the work of the late Dr. Ernest L. Martin on the subject of the canonization of the Bible, and in particular the “original” order of books in both the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament. Dr. Martin’s position on these matters was expressed most fully in his book, The Original Bible Restored.You can find that book (both one-line and in print) and lots of related research at Dr. Martin’s Web site, now faithfully maintained by David Sielaff (see: http://askelm.com). Mr. Sielaff has offers his own in-depth positive assessment of this Bible in his January, 2009 newsletter, also available on-line: http://askelm.com/doctrine/d090101.htm

Dr. Martin, who was instrumental in the founding of the Original Bible Project back in 1993, had as his primary focus the production of a Bible that would put the books into their original order, as expounded in his book. As he and I discussed the project, he agreed with me that another key component, the one in which I was most involved, would be the production of a unique translation, one we came to call the Transparent English Bible, which would not only have the books of the Bible reordered, but adhere to a whole new set of translation principles, see http://originalbible.com/2005/04/30/original-bible-project-overview.htm for a full overview.

Putting a Bible, really any Bible, into the “manuscript order” as Dr. Martin called it, is a relatively simple task involving editing and production, not necessarily an extensive new translation. In fact, in the early stages of our discussion Dr. Martin had entertained doing just that. He had considered getting permission to take the Rotherham translation and simply reissue it with introductory materials and the books reordered, and perhaps some adjustments to the translation through notes. He could have surely done that without me, or the team of scholars who have been involved in the Original Bible Project. As things worked out the OBP took as its major charge, not just the production of a Bible with the books in their manuscript order, but an entirely new and unprecedented translation, based on the principles developed over the next decade.

However, for many who have been interested in the Original Bible Project through the years this matter of the order of the books was of primary interest, much more than waiting for a new translation. For others, especially the many new people who have been attracted over the past decade, the translation itself became the attraction due to its unique features. Because of this double interest, rooted in the founding of the OBP itself, I was pleased to encourage Bob Ellsworth, one of the original members of the Original Bible Project board of directors, to let our mailing list know of Coulter’s Bible and what it offers. Bob is president of CenturyOne Books, the primary distributor of this work.