For immediate release.

NOTED BIBLE SCHOLAR DR. JOEL M. HOFFMAN TO SPEAK IN COLUMBUS, GA

Jackson, MS, January 23, 2012 — Noted Bible scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman returns to the South on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28 for two lectures at Temple Israel in Columbus, GA.

His first lecture (7:30pm on Friday) explains the inaccuracies in English Bible translations and how readers can see past the mistakes to find what Hoffman calls “the undiscovered beauty of the Bible.” The lecture is based on his popular And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning. His second, more focused lecture (1:00pm on Saturday) explores the role of exile in shaping the Jewish people.

The events are scheduled to take place at Temple Israel, 1617 Wildwood Ave., Columbus, GA and are open the public. Autographed books will be for sale afterward.

Though Hoffman travels widely throughout Europe and North America, his last appearance in the South was in January, 2011, when he addressed the Birmingham, Alabama Rotary Club.

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman is a noted expert in translation, Hebrew, and the Bible. He holds a doctorate in linguistics and has served on the faculties of Brandeis University and of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. He is the chief translator for the 10-volume series My People’s Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and My People’s Passover Haggadah, both from Jewish Lights Publishing. He is the author of the critically acclaimed In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language, from NYU Press and, most recently, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning from St. Martin’s Press. He lives in Westchester, NY.

Hoffman’s visit is organized in partnership with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Founded in 2000 and based in Jackson, MS the Institute supports education, rabbinic services, cultural programming, history, and community engagement. The ISJL builds community by partnering with diverse Jewish congregations, churches, universities, and civic organizations across 13 southern states. Through this unique approach, the ISJL provides a visionary model of regional cooperation through which communities large and small assume a shared responsibility of Jewish life throughout the South.

For more information about the events, contact ISJL Director of Programming Ann Kimball: (601) 362-6357 or akimball@isjl.org.

For more information about And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning, contact St. Martin’s Press Publicist Joseph Rinaldi: 646/307-5565 or Joseph.Rinaldi@stmartins.com.

Dr. Hoffman can be reached at (718) 834-1080 or joel@lashon.net.

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New York, October 26 — From the Ten Commandments to the Gospels, the Bible doesn’t mean what you think it does, because the translations are wrong.

That will be the message from noted Bible scholar and linguist Dr. Joel M. Hoffman when he visits Houston, TX from Thursday, November 4 to Sunday, November 7 to talk about his recent research on the Bible.

Hoffman’s visit coincides with the widely anticipated on-line release of Zondervan‘s updated New International Version (NIV), one of the best-selling Bible translations in the U.S., according to the CBA.

Most widely known for unearthing significant mistranslations of the Bible, Hoffman will speak about his latest book, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning (www.AndGodSaid.com). He will discuss fundamental translation mistakes in the Ten Commandments, Psalm 23, Isaiah, and more.

His major public appearance will start at 12:30pm on Thursday, November 4 at the Houston JCC‘s Merfish Center, located at 9000 S. Rice Ave. in Houston. Contact the JCC for details: (713) 729-3200.

Hoffman will also speak privately to local clergy and address audiences at Houston houses of worship.

Unlike most others who study the Bible, Hoffman’s training is in linguistics and translation. “English speakers who read Ovid or Aristotle or Pushkin in translation have a better sense of the original texts than do readers of any existing English translation of the Bible,” claims Hoffman, who has taught graduate-level translation courses in both religious and secular university settings.

Most Bible translations are produced by theologians, not translators, and their training doesn’t generally include modern translation techniques.

Houston is Hoffman’s first stop on a JBC-sponsored four-city tour that continues with San Diego, Milwaukee, and Boulder.

ABOUT DR. HOFFMAN

Joel M. Hoffman, Ph.D., has held faculty appointments at Brandeis University and at Hebrew Union College, and lectured at universities on four continents. He is the author of And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning (2010, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) and In The Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (2004, NYU Press), and the chief translator for the 10-volume series My People’s Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award). He also moderates the popular Bible-translation blog “God Didn’t Say That.”

He can be reached at Joel@Lashon.Net.

RELATED LINKS

http://www.AndGodSaid.com
http://www.Lashon.net
http://www.GodDidntSayThat.com
http://www.JewishBookCouncil.org
http://www.jcchouston.org

Read the First Chapter of And God Said

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New York, June 17 — The Ten Commandments don’t forbid coveting or killing, claims Dr. Joel M. Hoffman, a noted Bible scholar and linguist who has applied modern translation techniques to the Bible.

Hoffman reports that the commandment commonly quoted as “thou shalt not covet” is more accurately translated as “do not take,” and that the commandment applies only to actions, not to states of mind.

“We now know that the Ten Commandments take no position on how you feel, only on what you do,” he says.

Hoffman claims that flawed translation techniques led to the familiar but inaccurate rendering of the Hebrew in this case. His evidence comes from how the Hebrew verb in the commandment is used elsewhere in the Bible.

“Perhaps more than any other part of the Bible, the Ten Commandments have shaped Western culture,” Hoffman suggests. “The good news is that most of the commandments have been translated accurately. The bad news is that two have not.”

According to Hoffman, the other mistranslated commandment is the one that concerns killing. (It’s the sixth commandment for most Protestants and Jews, the fifth for Catholics.)

One familiar rendering, “do not kill,” is too broad, he says, because the original Hebrew did not prohibit all kinds of killing. So recent high-profile political claims that the Bible categorically forbids killing are in error, says Hoffman.

But the other common variation, “do not murder,” is too narrow, because the commandment included not just murder but also the equivalent of manslaughter and other illegal homicide.

The Ten Commandments are not the only parts of the Bible to be misrepresented in translation, Hoffman argues.

The well-known opening of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” is misleading, Hoffman says, because shepherds in the Bible were “brave, strong, valiant,” and “regal,” while the modern shepherd is “a marginalized loner who spends more time with sheep than with people.” Hoffman explains that using the word “shepherd” to translate Psalm 23 “suggests all of the wrong images and none of the right ones.”

Other translation gaffs include the prophesy of the virgin birth in the book of Isaiah — Hoffman translates the word there as “woman,” not “virgin” — and the exhortation from Deuteronomy (quoted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke) to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul,” which is considered theologically central by Christians and Jews alike.

The words “heart” and “soul” there are mistranslations, Hoffman says. The first Hebrew word refers to all of the intangible aspects of life, including emotions and intellect, while the second connotes the physical flesh, blood, and breath.

Unlike most others who study the Bible, Hoffman’s training is in linguistics and translation. “English speakers who read Ovid or Aristotle or Pushkin in translation have a better sense of the original texts than do readers of any existing English translation of the Bible,” claims Hoffman, who has taught graduate-level translation courses in both religious and secular university settings.

Most Bible translations are produced by theologians, not translators, and their training doesn’t generally include modern translation techniques.

Hoffman published his findings in his latest book, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning (www.AndGodSaid.com). The book, released in February by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, is already in its second printing.

About Dr. Hoffman

Joel M. Hoffman, Ph.D., has held faculty appointments at Brandeis University and at Hebrew Union College, and lectured at universities on four continents. He is the author of And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning (2010, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) and In The Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (2004, NYU Press), and the chief translator for the 10-volume series My People’s Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award). He also moderates the popular Bible-translation blog “God Didn’t Say That.”

He can be reached at Joel@Lashon.Net.

“Joel Hoffman’s book, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning, is just invaluable for in-depth study of the Bible…. Using linguistics (in a remarkably clear and non-intimidating way), Hoffman describes the different kinds of information conveyed by a Biblical text, and then works out the methodology by which one can best understand the text…. Just an outstanding book. Really, a necessary book….
You all have to read it.”

Read the whole review.