The Torah - The Five Books Of Moses (Ebook)

The Bible is an eternal book, it must be made intelligible to every generation. The King
James Version, upon which almost all English translations of the Bible have hitherto been based, had an archaic flavor even for its readers in the year 1611, when it was first published. Moreover, it rendered the Hebrew to a considerable extent word for word rather
than idiomatically, a procedure which nearly always results in quaintness or awkwardness and not infrequently in obscurity. A translation which is stilted where the original is natural, heavy where the original is graceful, or obscure where the original is perfectly intelligible, is the very opposite of faithful.

These were the primary reasons why the Trustees and the Publication Committee of the Jewish Publication Society decided to have a new translation prepared. Dr. Harry M. Orlinsky, Professor of Bible at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, who had urged this undertaking upon the Society, was asked to serve as editor-in-chief. To serve with him as
fellow editors, the Society invited two eminent scholars: Dr. H. L. Ginsberg, Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Dr. Ephraim A. Speiser, head of the Department of Semitic and Oriental Languages at the University of Pennsylvania.