Download or read book The Isaac Leeser Bible written by Tov Rose and published by Tov Rose. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures: Carefully Translated According to the Massoretic Text, On the Basis of the English Version, After the Best Jewish Authorities; and supplied with short explanatory notes. By Isaac Leeser. Philadelphia, 1853. Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) was a leading figure among American Jews during the 1840’s and 50’s. He was born in Germany, and came to America at the age of seventeen. He was a devout Jew, and became the cantor of his congregation, and shortly thereafter the regular preacher. He was the first to preach sermons in English from the lecturn. He devoted himself to educational projects, became prominent as a writer and publisher of Jewish books, and, perhaps most important of all, founded and edited a monthly Jewish magazine, called The Occident and American Jewish Advocate. His Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures (published by himself in 1853) was a revision of the King James Version, in which he aimed to substitute Jewish for Christian interpretations, and generally to improve the accuracy of the version. The scholarly sources he relied upon in this work are named in the Preface, which we reproduce in full below. The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Leeser emphasizes his importance in the history of nineteenth-century American Judaism: When Leeser commenced his public career the scattered Jewish individuals and the members of congregations in the United States did not number more than from 12,000 to 15,000. His purpose to mold these into a community was to be achieved in part by the pulpit and in part by the press. Besides engaging in the activities sketched above, Leeser participated in all Jewish movements. He was the earnest promoter of all the national enterprises—the first congregational union, the first Hebrew day-schools, the first Hebrew college, the first Jewish publication society—and of numberless local undertakings. The ―Occident‖ acquired a national and even an international reputation; the Maimonides’ College, of which he was president, paved the way for future Jewish colleges in the United States; and his translation of the Bible became an authorized version for the Jews of America. In the religious controversies of his time Leeser took an active part on the Conservative side, and lived and died in the unshakable belief that the existence of opposing parties was but transient and short-lived. Harry Orlinski makes the following remarks on Leeser’s work in his book Notes on the New Translation of the Torah (1969), p. 14. Page2 Rabbi Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) of Philadelphia was responsible for the first Jewish translation of the Bible made for American Jewry. Leeser’s considerable learning in matters biblical and rabbinic derived in major measure from the fine research then flowering in Germany, and his translation of the Bible became in a short time the standard Bible for English-speaking Jews in America. First there appeared, in 1845 in Philadelphia, his version of the Pentateuch, Torat ha-Elohim (―The Torah of God‖), in Hebrew and English (five volumes). This was followed eight years later by The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures ... Carefully Translated According to the Masoretic Text on the Basis of the English Version, the Hebrew text facing the English translation. Leeser’s Bible, as it came to be known, had considerable merit, and it is useful even to this day. Its main fault lay in the style; too much of the Teutonic protruded in the translation. On the other hand, the grammatical niceties of biblical Hebrew frequently came through successfully, and the scholarship in general was on a consistently adequate level. Leeser’s Bible would have retained much more of its deserved popularity well into the twentieth century—for it is generally superior even to such early twentieth-century authorized translations as the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV)—had it not been for the appearance in 1917 of the translation sponsored by the Jewish Publication Society of America. Orlinksy’s statement that Leeser’s revision of the KJV is ―generally superior even to such early twentieth-century authorized translations as the American Standard Version of 1901‖ is extravagant, but the version does deserve respect. Because Leeser adheres to the same Masoretic text that was used by the King James translators, the changes he introduces are relatively minor ones. Many of them represent nothing more than an attempt to conform the English styntax to the Hebrew word order, without any change in the meaning. The more substantial changes represent opinions about the meanings of words and phrases that were commonplace among Old Testament scholars during the nineteenth century — especially when these agree with Rashi and other Jewish expositors. The marginal notes mention only the Jewish commentators, but because they are brief and deal almost exclusively with philological questions, there is not much that can be called flagrantly Jewish in them. The revision is ―Jewish‖ in that it eliminates a few renderings that Jews have associated with Christianity (such as ―virgin‖ in Isaiah 7:14), and also by virtue of its religious adherence to the traditional Hebrew text. No Christian or secular scholar would so completely ignore the Septuagint and Vulgate versions as evidence for the correct text and interpretation, or cite the later Jewish Targums as often as Leeser does. Leeser’s translation is for the most part highly literal, but it does reflect traditional Jewish interpretations in some places where the rendering is not strictly literal. In Exodus 21: 6 we find the word לעלם (lit. ―forever‖) translated ―till the jubilee.‖ Page3 Then shall his master bring him unto the judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him till the jubilee. * * Lit. ―for ever;‖ but servitude is hereafter (Levit. xxv. 10) limited to the jubilee, which is accordingly the eternity of bondage, beyond which it could not exist. In the context of the abolitionist movement of the time, this was perhaps to emphasize the fact that the Law of Moses required periodic manumission of Israelite slaves. But the text before us is obviously not designed to make that point. Another notable example of interpretive translation is in Ezekiel 20:25-6, which in the Hebrew reads as follows. וגם־אני נתתי להם חקים לא טובים ומשפטים לא יחיו בהם׃ ואטמא אותם במתנותם בהעביר כל־פטר רחם למען אשמם למען אשר ידעו אשר אני יהוה A literal translation of these words is, ―Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances wherein they should not live; and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Jehovah.‖ (ASV.) Needless to say, he is not referring to the Law given through Moses here, but to the vicious laws and customs of the heathen, which he ―gave‖ to Israel only in the sense that he ordained them as an instrument of degrading punishment, for those Israelites who rejected his own Law. 1 There is a good deal of irony here. But it seems Leeser was worried about a possible misunderstanding, because he paraphrases: ―I let them follow statutes‖ and ―I let them be defiled.‖ And I also let them follow* statutes that were not good, and ordinances whereby they could not live; And I let them be defiled though their gifts, in that they caused to pass (through the fire) all that openeth the womb, in order that I might destroy them, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord. * Rashi, after Jonathan; meaning, as they had wilfully rebelled, God permitted them to follow their evil inclinations, till the measure of their sin was completed, and their destruction followed, as told in our history. Zunz and Philippson take it in the light, that to the sinners the law is a means of punishment, as its transgression brings painful consequences; wherefore the translation of Dr. P. is follows:—―And I also gave them laws which were injurious (to them), and ordinances through which they did not live; and I made them unclean through their gifts, when they set apart all that opened the womb,‖ etc., taking בהעביר ―as setting aside,‖ not ―as causing to pass (through the fire),‖ as given by Rashi. But both constructions, though apparently so different, have at last the same bearing, since to the pious the law of God brings happiness and life, not evil and death. Leeser aimed to help the reader understand the verse correctly with this paraphrastic translation and its subjoined note, but the note seems to indicate that he did not understand it correctly himself. The most serious errors from our point of view are those which represent anti-Christian tendencies. An example is in the ninth chapter of Isaiah: Page4 1 The people that walketh in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death—a light shineth brightly over them. 2 Thou hast multiplied the nation, made great their joy; they rejoice before thee as with the joy in harvest, as men are glad when they divide the spoil. 3 For the yoke of their burden, and the staff on their shoulder, the rod of their oppressor, hast thou broken, as on the day of Midian. 4 For all the weapons of the fighter in the battle's tumult, and the garment rolled in blood, shall be burnt, become food for fire. 5 For a child is born unto us, a son hath been given unto us, and the government is placed on his shoulders; and his name is called, Wonderful, counsellor of the mighty God, of the everlasting Father, the prince of peace. * 6 For (promoting) the increase of the government, and for peace without end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to support it through justice and righteousness, from henceforth and unto eternity; the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. * Heinemann; Rashi renders, "and the Wonderful, counsellor, mighty God, the everlasting Father, hath called his name The prince of peace." Aben Ezra, however, after whom Philippson, applies all the words as epithets of the prince, (Hezekiah,) and translates, "and people call him, Wonder, counsellor, mighty one of God, perpetual father, prince of peace." The only difficulty in the verse is the word אל which may as well be rendered with Aben Ezra "powerful," as God, as this word is found in the same sense in Exod. xv. 11, 15. Only the importance attached to this verse by controversialists has induced us to speak so much of it, as it evidently alludes to a child born already, נתן "hath been," not ינתן "shall be given." ______________________________________________________ 1. See Calvin’s commentary on Ezekiel, ad loc. Bibliography and Internet Resources Mayer Sulzberger, ―Isaac Leeser,‖ in Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (New York: 1904), pp. 662-663. Lance J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. Lance J. Sussman, ―Another Look at Isaac Leeser and the First Jewish Translation of the Bible in the United States,‖ Modern Judaism 5/2 (1985), pp. 159-190. Reminiscences by Isaac M. Wise, translated from the German and edited with an introduction by David Philipson. Cincinnati: Leo Wise and Co., 1901. A very colorful personal narrative, describing the culture of American Judaism at the time of Leeser.