Divorce already?!

should Israelis read the Tanakh (bible) in translation?

Dror Abend-David

pp. 483-498

in: Jean Boase-Beier, Lina Fisher, Hiroko Furukawa (eds), The Palgrave handbook of literary translation, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Since the beginning of Zionism, argues Abend-David, Modern Hebrew speakers have felt a sense of ownership of (if not copyright in) the Hebrew Bible. A strong argument to the contrary is presented by Ghil"ad Zuckermann and Gitit Holzman who claim that Modern Hebrew speakers only think that they understand the language of the Hebrew Bible, and that they should read it in Modern Hebrew adaptation. What does a translation of the Bible from Hebrew to Hebrew look like? Does it, as Zuckermann and Holzman claim, make an important contribution to the popular understanding of the Bible? Or is the significance of such a "translation" in the political statement that it makes? Does it, as some might feel, undermine the justification of Zionism?