A Harmonisation of the Four surviving versions of the Torah
The fruits of a twenty-year project are now available for you to purchase online – the HEBT Translation of the Torah (HEBT stands for, ‘Harmonised and Expanded Bible Translation’). It is a completely new translation, not based on any existing translations. The first volume of the HEBT – the five books of the Torah – have now been published. The other parts of the Hebrew Bible will be published in the years to come, hopefully over a much shorter time period!
The HEBT-Torah is a harmonisation of the four surviving versions of the Torah (the Masoretic text [which all Jewish Bibles, and most Christian bibles are made from], the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. When you read the Masoretic Bible in Hebrew, there are multiple clues that there might in fact be words and sentences missing, which are actually filled in by words only found in the other three versions. Now you can read a harmonisation of all these four versions together, in one single book! All words taken from the other 3 versions are indicated in the text in italics.
The second biggest selling point is that it is very easy to understand. The English is not stilted, but written in fully modern English, so that any modern reader can comprehend what they are reading, and what they read is meaningful.
I also need to impress upon you that this is an interpretive adaptation of the Hebrew into English, NOT a literal translation. As you will see below, such a translation enables you to dive into the real meaning and significance of what the Hebrew is trying to tell us. I can however assure you that, where the wording of the four versions agrees, my translation does stay close to the original Hebrew as much as possible, much more than a free translation such as the NET (New English Bible) does, within the normal boundaries of a Hebrew to English translation of anything.
The three editions available from Amazon
For the A4 size paperback edition, with extensive footnotes: Amazon US, Amazon UK
For the smaller, easy-to-read edition, without footnotes: Amazon US, Amazon UK
For the special hardback edition, without footnotes, for use on the Sabbath: Amazon US, Amazon UK
HEBT Reference Companion (with expanded introduction, and HEBT to Jewish and Christian verse-number conversion tables): Amazon US, Amazon UK
The Problem of overall Comprehension that the HEBT tries to resolve
Have you ever felt that the way in which the Torah is translated into English is really difficult to understand? Have you ever found yourself skipping over verses or whole chapters, simply because you found the way they were rendered was enigmatic, or just plain incomprehensible? I personally get the impression – when comparing how some Christian bibles have translated the Torah, to how they have then translated the rest of the Hebrew Bible – that the Torah specifically is deliberately incomprehensible, in order to ensure that Christians never get a taste for Torah. This is a sad state of affairs indeed, especially with the rise of far-right Christian Nationalism in the US, since the Torah in contrast emphasises social justice and responsible government, and God’s law stresses the humane treatment of the poor and foreigners.
Easy to understand translation
The HEBT translation is in fully modern English; all the strange idioms and turns of phrase that exist in the Hebrew, and which many translators have chosen to leave as they are (thus compounding the comprehension difficulties), have been translated into fully modern English in the HEBT, in language that is easy to understand. For example, the NRSV chooses to translate Lev 18:8 literally as:
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is the nakedness of your father.
The Hebrew idioms of the verse are in bold. In the HEBT, I have rendered this verse as:
You shall not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would bring shame to your father.
The expanded text (Midrash)
The HEBT contains midrashic expansions, in order to enable the modern reader to appreciate the cultural context of what they are reading. This will prove particularly useful for you, when you are reading verses that are especially difficult to interpret.
In the ancient Aramaic targums (translations) of the Torah, additional material is often inserted to help the reader understand the meaning and context of otherwise strange verses. And when Ezra read the Hebrew Torah to the Aramaic-speaking citizens of Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE, the Levites gave a free translation of the Hebrew, in order to give the underlying sense (Neh 8:9), so that the ordinary people could fully understand and appreciate what was being read to them. Therefore, if such a practice (inserting additional midrash) was good enough for the ancient Aramaic translators of the Hebrew Bible, and for the Levites in the time of Ezra, I didn’t see why I could not do the same, to help modern people fully understand the underlying message of the text.
In the tradition of the Aramaic Targums, I have included midrash (explanatory or interpretive text) in my ‘Harmonised and Expanded Bible Translation’. However, to avoid accusations of ‘adding to Torah’, everything that does not occur in any version of Torah, is clearly indicated in greyed-out text.
As an example, the Hebrew of Lev 19:23 literally says,
And when you come into the land, and you have planted all trees [for] food, then you shall reckon its fruit as uncircumcised; three years it shall be uncircumcised to you – it shall not be eaten.
The expanded HEBT translation reads as follows (the words in italics indicate words taken from the other 3 versions, and the words in bold are the midrash):
When you enter the Land, and you plant all kinds of trees for food, you must first purge away their ritual unfitness; you shall therefore leave uncut the buds of their fruit, and consider their fruit forbidden. Three years they shall be left uncut and forbidden to you; they shall not be eaten.
Another good example is Ex 22:10 (Xtian bibles Ex 22:11), regarding the case of an animal going missing while on loan to someone, where the Hebrew literally says:
Oath [of] YHVH shall be between [the] two of them, whether [or] not he has sent his hand in [the] property of his neighbour, and its owner shall take, and shall not pay.
With the additional midrash shown in bold, I have rendered this as:
an oath shall be sworn in Yahveh’s Name, to enable a judgment to be made between the two of them, and determine whether or not the latter had any hand in the loss of the other party’s property. If the person who had been given temporary charge of the animal is deemed innocent, then its owner shall accept the verdict, and the one who was in temporary charge of the animal shall not be required to make any restitution.
Reconstructed Text
The last addition which became necessary, in order to help readers fully appreciate the context and spiritual application of Torah – and which, admittedly, might be too controversial for some – is reconstructed text (again, indicated in greyed-out text in the published books). There are some verses whose Hebrew wording suggests that some text might be missing, and the reconstructions are based on an interpretation of the meaning of the Hebrew that is present. A good example is Dt 29:4-5 (Xtian bibles: 29:5-6). The Hebrew literally says:
and I caused you to go forty years in a wilderness; your garments have not been consumed from off you, and your shoe has not worn away from off your foot; bread you have not eaten, and wine and strong drink you have not drunk … so that you might know that I [am] Yahveh your God.
There seems to be some kind of disconnect, in that the relevance of the last clause to the one preceding it is not immediately obvious. This is how I have rendered the verses, with reconstructed words in bold italics:
I have led you these past forty years in the wilderness, yet your mantles have not worn out on your backs, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet; and it was not bread from the earth that you ate, nor was it wine or grape-brandy from the vine that you drank; rather, it was manna from the heavens that you ate, and water from the rocks that you drank, so that you might know that I am Yahveh your God.
I feel that the inclusion of these tentatively reconstructed words give us a better understanding of what God was trying to say, and help us to feel the full spiritual impact of God’s words. I even think that the original text of the Torah might have contained these or similar words, since the reconstructed words give the verses a literary wholeness and completeness that the Masoretic version on its own does not otherwise have.
Renumbering of the Verses
Due to the inclusion of material from the other versions of Torah, this has necessitated a complete renumbering of the text. English chapter divisions date from the 13th century, and the verse-numbering we have today only dates from the mid-16th century; the Geneva Bible was the first to use both chapter and verse divisions in 1560. The ancient Hebrew Bible did not have any chapter or verse numbers.
However, the Torah was divided in the written Torah scrolls into distinct blocks of text, which actually enable the Torah to be divided up into more natural chapters. In the 6th century BCE, the Torah was so written and designed to be read in a three-year reading cycle (i.e. not the one-year cycle it is read in rabbinic congregations). The way that the text-blocks and the assigned chapters to be read line up, give us more natural chapter divisions, which I have used in renumbering the chapters and verses.
A set of conversion tables, verse by verse, is given in the Companion reference Guide which I have listed above, after the links to the 3 editions of the HEBT translation.
I sincerely hope that your spiritual lives will be blest by this HEBT Translation.
Peace and blessings in the Name of Yahveh our God,
servant of Yahveh, and your brother always
Shmuel Parzal