The Bible is words--it is, at the end of the day, nothing more than that. How those words have been read and understood has formed the basis of everything from private faith to public policy for two thousand years. Yet for the most part, casual readers--and even many professional interpreters, clerical and scholarly--are unaware of how culture has impacted the commonly accepted meanings of so many words and terms. To read the Bible well is to understand that the text is not the same as its interpretation and translation. To care about the Bible is to recognize where the past two millennia of cultural change have shaped our understanding of the biblical text, and to sift through it, to see what the Bible once was so that we can better understand what the Bible now is--and how we, its readers, came to be who we are.
Joel S. Baden is professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale Divinity School. He is the author of, among other books, The Composition of the Pentateuch (Yale, 2012), The Historical David (HarperOne, 2013), and The Book of Exodus: A Biography (Princeton, 2019).
Introduction I: Words Connected to God The "Lord" Holy/Sacred Glory Angel Satan Cherub Ark Remember Passover Most High Intermezzo And II: Words Connected to People Soul Spirit Slave/Servant Vanity Unclean/Impure Fear Kill Leprosy Levite Hebrew Son of Hell Heart Stranger Intermezzo Behold III: Words that Connect God and People Love Atone Law Lovingkindness Righteousness Ban, proscription, devotion, destruction Grace Sacrifice Redeem Covenant Sabbath Intermezzo And it came to pass Postscript Bible
Joel Baden's Lost in Translation is not critical of translations or translators but acknowledges that certain things are inevitably lost in the interchange between a translator's choices and a reader's receptivity. His brief essays on Hebrew words are marvelous examples of expert counsel for modern readers, whichever translation they prefer. --J. Andrew Dearman, Fuller Theological Seminary Lost in Translation is an accessible and fascinating introduction to some of the most significant--and also most misunderstood--words in the Bible. With humor, wit, and scholarly insight, Baden breathes life into the dusty, dry cadence of the translated Bible and illuminates an ancient context that seems at once so different from and so similar to our own. This book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to recapture the meanings of important Hebrew words as the ancient biblical authors would have understood them. --Brennan Breed, Columbia Theological Seminary
