[Milton-L] Bible translations

[Jeffrey Shoulson]

I'm teaching Bible as Lit this semester and, as always, I require  
students to work with at least two different translations.  This year  
I have asked them all to purchase the Penguin edition of the King  
James though, as Jameela points out, the notes are far from  
adequate.  The second translation is the choice of each student  
though I warn them away from the so-called amplified or paraphrase  
translations.  I have students using the NIV, the NAB, the REB, the  
New Jerusalem, and the NRSV this semester.  I agree with John Mulryan  
that the NJB's notes are very good.  I hate to lose the rhythms and  
diction of the KJV, though, especially since I think, for all its  
inaccuracies, it comes closest to capturing the rhythms and diction  
of Biblical Hebrew.  As Tom Luxon and Julia Walker point out, there  
are some very useful web resources out there that allow students to  
have as many as four different translations (not just in English) in  
parallel columns.
I think it's high time for a scholarly edition of the Geneva Bible  
(complete with its original marginal commentaries), too, since it is  
so powerfully influential on late 16th and 17th century English  
Protestantism.  And while were at it, we could also use a Tyndale  
modern edition, given how much of it finds its way into the KJV.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey S. Shoulson, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of English and Judaic Studies
University of Miami
PO Box 248145
Coral Gables, FL 33124-4632

(o) 305-284-5596
(f) 305-284-5635

jshoulson at miami.edu
www.as.miami.edu/english/faculty.htm#shoulson


On Sep 12, 2007, at 9:48 AM, Julia Walker wrote:

> there's a great website with lots of early translations in a drop- 
> down menu below the mod trans.  you just have to tell the kids to  
> ignore the dubious "enlightenment" on the rest of the site.
>
> www.studylight.org
>
>
> julia
>
> On Sep 11, 2007, at 11:44 PM, Mike Selby wrote:
>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Mike Selby
>> To: milton-l at lists.richmond.edu
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 12:12 AM
>>
>> Is there a bible that is great for the undergraduate studying  
>> Milton? I remember someone mentioned Oxford published one which  
>> was basically secular.  Thank-you.
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