Robert Alter: Does the Bible have a "literary style" and Does it Matter? An introduction...

(copyrighted material)

[MS: This links to MS Collection of Sefaria Sheets focused on Robert Alter's insights into the Bible's literary style and its meanings.]

[MS] In MS words, here is bit of introduction to Alter's major theme: the Bible's literary style and how the Bible tells stories with meanings and a unique Jewish point of view (revised November 2022)]



[MS] The Bible's literary style is unique. And so is it's point of view. With its unique Hebrew Bible style, the Bible tells stories and delivers wisdom distilled from the Hebrew/Jewish point of view arising from near-unbelievable Jewish life of about 3,000 years.



[MS] The Bible today is often misunderstood and badly translated (or even derided as the irrelevant "Old Testament" superseded by the New), because it doesn't read like a masterwork modern novel, or like Homer's epics or a Greek play. It doesn't have that modern literary style. Moreover, its own themes and its headline concerns, though tested over millennia, are not "visible" to untrained modern readers, so the translation goes in other directions that seem to make more sense - in modern terms.



[MS] Alter has written about this situation for over 40 years, since the 1980s, starting with the famous The Art of Biblical Narrative, then The Art of Biblical Poetry, and in 2011, in the very useful overview The Art of Bible Translation. Finally there is Alter's singlehanded, landmark notes and translation of all of the Hebrew Bible, Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, A Translation with Commentary, W.W. Norton & Company 2018. These and other sources of Alter's works are addressed in the MS Robert Alter Sefaria Sheet Collection.



[MS] Far from being a hodgepodge of thousand years of many texts just stitched together, the Bible is one coherent whole, timeless, literary storytelling text - like no other. It must be read and appreciated in its own terms. Hebrew is now, again, a spoken language (from back in ancient times, as well as in Israel now, as a Hebrew mother tongue.) The Bible's Hebrew text has been dissected by scholars for hundreds of years. Looking at all of that, Alter explains what went wrong, the mangling of the Bible's text, translation or its storytelling meanings.



[MS] Call it a book or a sefer or a collage, it is one whole work. [This is explained in detail in Alter's Introduction to Genesis, in Alters The Hebrew Bible or in excerpts in the MS Sefaria Sheet.] Read with Alter's insights, you find that the Bible is not a "modern" literary work like a novel, but a great work in its own literary style and its own point of view.



[MS} Alter is acutely attuned to Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Midrash and other commentary created over the eons of Jews reading the Bible. He also knows well, and accords greatness, to the landmark 1611 King James Bible. But, despite its influence over modern literature - like in novels by Hemingway or poetry of Joyce - the KJB does not "hear" the Hebrew in the Hebrew Bible and cannot see, nor validate, the Bible's Hebrew (literary style) and how the Bible advocates for its ancient/contemporary Jewish messages, its point of view.



[MS] What kind of messages are delivered in the Bible's Literary Style?

In its unique literary style, the Bible delivers a unique worldview. How could it not - it's thousands of years old in the making. Its been read orally, then written down and then studied for its wisdom unto today. To say it is "epic" is an understatement. The Bible's Hebrew literary style is not just an aesthetic thing of beauty and for lovely amusement. The style is what it is in order to deliver the Bible's point of view. It has these messages about about our lives, among others: defining stories about the Jewish nation and its values; God and individuals or nations; kings and tyrants; a history of humanity in moral terms and what should humanity be doing on Earth; how people endure Fate, and insights about falling in love, lust and marriage, or about loss and madness, hate and tragedy, in souls, families or communities.]



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