Product Description

While the original Biblical text was written from an Ancient Hebraic perspective, all modern translations of the Bible are written from our modern western perspective. This traditional approach to translation does allow for ease in reading but it erases the original Hebraic style and meaning of the text. In addition, translations take many liberties by removing, changing or adding words from the text in order to "fix" the text for the English reader. The Mechanical Translation is a new and unique style of translation that will reveal the Hebrew behind the English by translating the text very literally and faithfully to the original Hebrew text. A great tool for those interested in studying the Bible who have no Hebrew background as well as for those who are learning to read the Bible in its original Hebrew language. Features: . An introduction to the Hebrew language and grammar. . The Hebrew text from the Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia. . A literal word for word translation of the Hebrew text. . A revised translation for understandability in English. . A dictionary of words defined from an Hebraic perspective. . A concordance of all words found in the book of Genesis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98118 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 452 pages

Customer Reviews

Nothing new here
"The Mechanical Translation is a new and unique style of translation that will reveal the Hebrew behind the English by translating the text very literally and faithfully to the original Hebrew text." So claims the author/publisher's blurb. However, what he describes has been around for centuries: interlinear translation.

Some parts of the Septuagint (ca. 3rd-2nd centuries B.C.) show signs of having originated this way. A Jew named Aquila produced a painfully literal Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in the 2nd century A.D. Codex Sangallensis, a 9th century Greek manuscript of the NT, has Latin interlinear glosses. Several interlinear editions of the NT have been published in the last two centuries, as well as at least two interlinear OT's (the NIV one by Kohlenberger and Green's own idiosyncratic one). Jay P. Green has as his marginal version virtually the same text as his interlinear text. If memory serves, he actually published a NT with just his interlinear text and called it the King James II version.

On his website, the author makes the following claim about this book: "The Mechanical Translation will provide a consistent translation where each Hebrew word, prefix and suffix are translated exactly the same way every time." Has he been inspired by the "concordant" translation of Robert Young, first published in 1863 under the title "Young's Literal Translation"? Though Young had no computers available, he did set out to produce as mechanically uniform a translation as he could. Others have published works of a similar nature in the 20th century.

Thus, Jeff Benner's method is hardly new. And when I consider the level of scholarship displayed in his "Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible," I shudder to think of the sorts of things he may have included in his allegedly "literal" translation of Genesis.

An eye-opener!
To benefit from this book you really have to know some Hebrew. If you are familiar with English translations of Genesis and you think you know some Hebrew (that's my situation) then this book will introduce you to the huge gulf between ancient Hebrew and modern English. I find this subject very interesting.
The book is good for study and for keeping handy for when you read a passage in a (translated) Bible. This book by Benner will show you what the translator HAS ADDED and that wasn't in the original Hebrew.