A Book for All Creeds

Of making translations there is no end, at least where the Bible is concerned. This week appeared the first two volumes--Genesis and The Epistles of James, Peter and Jude--of a new version in English that is something of an ecumenical milestone. It is Doubleday's Anchor Bible, the first translation in history to combine the labors of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish scholars. Edited by William Foxwell Albright of Johns Hopkins, a Methodist, and Presbyterian David Noel Freedman of San Francisco Theological Seminary, the Anchor Bible is intended for the scholar as well as for the general reader; each Anchor volume will include an elaborate introduction and commentary.

By assigning individual scholars to one or two books apiece, the editors hope to avoid some of the pitfalls that plague other modern versions. Bibles done by committee, such as the still unfinished New English Bible, often muffle their textual accuracy in tin-eared, corporate prose; one-man translations--Monsignor Ronald Knox's Roman Catholic version, for example--are often pleasing to read, but their eccentricities and errors make scholars wince. The credentials of the Anchor translators, who include seven Catholics, 15 Protestants and five Jews, are beyond dispute. Sweden's Bo Reicke, 50, who did The Epistles, was one of the first New Testament scholars to use the Dead Sea Scrolls in his research. The translator of Genesis, Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, 62, of the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the world's ranking Assyriologists and an editor of the recent Jewish Publication Society translation of the Torah.

Sacred Texts. For many people, any modern translation seems like an impiety. Orthodox Jews regard as sacred the Masoretic text of the Old Testament, which was established by rabbinical scholars between the 6th and 9th centuries after Christ. Many conservative Protestants feel the same way about the majestic prose of the King James Version--which also took many years to win acceptance among tradition-minded 17th century Christians.

In defense of the Anchor Bible, Editor Albright points out: "We have learned more about the Bible in the past 150 years than in all the previous centuries since its composition." The King James translators, for example, had only 16th century copies of New Testament manuscripts to work from; scholars today can consult papyrus fragments that date from within 60 years of Jesus' crucifixion.

The Anchor scholars have had to abandon some of the King James Version's most striking images, which often stemmed from misreadings of a corrupt text. Gone from Speiser's Genesis, for example, is Joseph's coat of many colors. "It's a wonderful technicolored effect," says Speiser. "But we had to put it in mothballs. In those days everybody wore a coat of many colors. Besides, the Hebrew clearly states that he wore an ornamented tunic."

Ready for Astronauts. Editor Albright denies that it is intended to serve as a common Bible for Christians and Jews. Nonetheless, it does prove that there are no longer any denominational boundaries in Scriptural scholarship, and that at least a few of today's translators would not have been out of place on King James's team. Biblical experts of all faiths have particularly high praise for the crisp, idiomatic rendering of Genesis (see box) by Orientalist Speiser, a Polish-born Jew who knew not a word of English until he was 18. The publishers plan to issue the Anchor Bible in 38 volumes (price: between $5 and $7 each) at the rate of six a year, until 1970. Says Editor Freedman: "We want to have a set ready for our astronauts to take with them to the moon."

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