Robert Alter - Hanukah and Parshat HaShavua VaYechi Gen 49:10 - Gen 50:26 - Allusions - Literary Light

A "Dark Phrase?" : The Scepter Shall Not Pass from Judah - Does the dying Jacob really prophesy the Coming of Christ and Christian Supremacy over Jews? [MS: Alter corrects an ancient mistranslation of the Hebrew verse.]

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Gen 50:26 - Does Alter find a "new light" never noted before at the end of Genesis? Around the time of Hanukkah, that falls before this parsha in the Jewish calendar, I suggest that Alter finds the light in a Biblical allusion : "The book that began with an image of God's breath moving across the vast expanses of the primordial deep to bring the world and all life into being ends with this image of a body in a box, a mummy in a coffin.... Out of the contraction of this moment of mortuary enclosure, a new expansion, and new births, will follow. ...the leader who is to forge the creation of the nation will be borne on the water in a little box--not the 'aron, "the coffin," of the end of Genesis but the tevah,"the ark, 'that keeps Noah and his seed alive." [MS: Alter explains how the last sentence in Genesis is not the dead end, but a hope-filled shift, Light in darkness.]

[MS: Q. What's a Jewish Bible translator to do, given the following problems:

1- In the parsha the ancient verse is mistranslated into English to support a prophecy of the coming of Christ and Christian supremacy. (Some Jewish commentators say it foretells "Jewish Messianic" times.) How should you correct the mistranslation?

2- You need to add a "Note" about the parsha - in addition to fixing the Hebrew mistranslation - but a very famous critic/writer says that it's illegitimate to put "Notes" in a Bible translation because it breaks up the flow. Great novels don't have "notes", nor did the 400 year old landmark translation, the King James Bible, from Shakespeare's time.

3- In a Note, can you point readers to beautiful "allusions or word choices" given the Bible is "sacred history?" (And thus has double, unquestionable authority as sacred revelation or as factual history, not a novel, myth or legend.)

4- Can you highlight a truly uplifting example of literary technique in the Bible - without undermining obedience to the Bible's authority as sacred history or being accused of tinkering with the Word of the Divine?

Satisfying or not, the "answers" are suggested below. See what Robert Alter and his critics say.]

8 Judah, you, shall your brothers acclaim—

your hand on your enemies’ nape—

your fathers’ sons shall bow to you.

9 A lion’s whelp is Judah, from the prey, O my son, you mount.

He crouched, he lay down like a lion,

like the king of beasts, and who dare arouse him?

[MS: Verses 11- 12 continue the blessing of Judah]

10. mace. The Hebrew mehoqeq refers to a ruler's long staff, a clear parallel to "scepter. There is no reason to construe it, as some have done, as a euphemism for the phallus, though the image of the mace between the legs surely suggests virile power in political leadership.

that tribute to him may come. This is a notorious crux. [MS: crux is an unresolved question.] The Masoretic Text seems to read "until he comes to Shiloh," a dark phrase that has inspired much messianic interpretation. The present translation follows an exegetical tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages, which breaks up the word "Shiloh" and vocalizes it differently as shai lo.

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[MS: Excerpts, formatting and emphasis added]

"Why should not Alter’s version, its program so richly contemplated and persuasively outlined, become the definitive one, replacing not only the King James but the plethora of its revised, uninspired, and “accessible” versions on the shelf? ....Several reasons why not, in the course of my reading through this massive tome ... emerged.

The sheer amount of accompanying commentary and philological footnotes is one of them. The fifty-four churchmen and scholars empowered at a conference at Hampton Court in January of 1604 to provide an authoritative English Bible had a clear charge: to supply English readers with a self-explanatory text. When they encountered a crux, they took their best guess and worked on; many of the guesses can be improved upon now, but no suggestion of an unclear and imperfect original was allowed to trouble the Word of God. Alter’s more academic and literary commission allows him to luxuriate in the forked possibilities of the Hebrew text ...." [MS: End John Updike quote. See next for critique of Updike, by Adam Kirsch]

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[MS:Adam Kirsch is a distinguished translator (notable of Israel's national poet Yehudah Amichai), author, poet and literary critic for leading publications and a Guggenheim Fellow. Among his books are The People and the Books - 18 Classics of Jewish Literature and a journal of doing the Daf Yomi Come and Hear.]

"Robert Alter’s newly completed English translation of the Hebrew Bible shows what it means to take the idea of the Bible as literature seriously. For Alter, the most important thing for a translator to know about the Bible is that its authors were great literary artists. This doesn’t mean that they lacked a religious purpose, of course; but it does mean that they paid close attention to literary technique, without which their writing might never have become canonical in the first place. Getting the Bible right, for Alter, means offering the English reader a literary and aesthetic experience that comes as close as possible to the Hebrew reader’s ....

As those names suggest, for most of history translating the Bible has been a religious act, undertaken by clergymen for the purpose of advancing their faith. That is why, once a large English-speaking Jewish population emerged in the 20th century, it became necessary for Jewish translators to produce their own versions of the Bible. .... Without such Bibles of their own, Jews would have been left reading translations made by and for Christians, whose interpretations of the text turn it into the “Old Testament”—a book that points to and is superseded by the New Testament of Jesus.

Alter’s Bible is an emphatically Jewish translation. There is a natural connection between the two qualities Alter’s translation strives for, philological accuracy and literary power.

....

Take, for instance, Genesis 49:10, a verse in Jacob’s benediction of his sons. When he reaches his fourth son, Judah, Jacob says, in the King James Version [MS: circa 1604]:

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Starting with the Church Fathers, Christian readers traditionally interpreted the word Shiloh as a reference to Jesus. On this reading, Jacob is saying that the authority of Judah, and of Judaism, will last only until the messianic Shiloh arrives, whereupon the people will follow this new king instead.

However, this reading doesn’t make much sense in Hebrew—elsewhere in the Bible, Shiloh is the name of a place, not a person—and modern translations interpret the verse differently. Thus the Revised Standard Version, an updating of the King James Bible produced in the 20th century, renders Genesis 49:10 as follows:

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,/nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,/until he comes to whom it belongs;/and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

Here “Shiloh” disappears, in keeping with a better reading of the Hebrew text. But the verse is still legible as a Christian prophecy of supersession: the ruler’s staff will depart from Judah and be given to the one “to whom it belongs.”

....

When the 1985 Jewish Publication Society translation comes to this verse, it naturally opts for a different interpretation. In that version—which is available free on the invaluable sefaria.org—there is no implied second “he” in the verse; rather, both clauses refer to the same person, Judah himself: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah,/Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet;/So that tribute shall come to him/And the homage of peoples be his.” This is a blessing that affirms the eternity of Judah’s kingship, rather than looking forward to its replacement.



How does Alter deal with Genesis 49:10? Like the JPS version, his translation rejects the Christological reading of the verse. As his note explains, he “follows an exegetical tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages which breaks up the word ‘Shiloh’ and vocalizes it differently,” rendering the passage this way: “The scepter shall not pass from Judah,/nor the mace from between his legs,/that tribute to him may come/and to him the submission of peoples.” The sense here is basically the same as in the JPS version.... [MS: end of Adam Kirsch quote]

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Compare multiple translations provided by Sefaria, such as these:

לֹֽא־יָס֥וּר שֵׁ֙בֶט֙ מִֽיהוּדָ֔ה וּמְחֹקֵ֖ק מִבֵּ֣ין רַגְלָ֑יו עַ֚ד כִּֽי־יָבֹ֣א שִׁילֹ֔ה וְל֖וֹ יִקְּהַ֥ת עַמִּֽים׃

The scepter shall not depart from Judah [from David on, (an allusion to) the Exilarchs of Bavel, who rule with the scepter by royal edict], nor a lawgiver from between his feet [(an allusion to) the disciples, the Nassiate of Eretz Yisrael] until Shiloh comes, [the king, Messiah, sovereignty being his (shelo)], and to him will be an assembly of nations.

METSUDAH CHUMASH, METSUDAH PUBLICATIONS 2009

The rod will not depart from Yehudah, nor a law-enforcer from between his feet, until Shiloh Comes, and to him shall be an assembly of nations.

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The belief in a messiah — a person who will redeem the Jewish people, rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, resurrect the dead, and usher in an era of perfect peace — has been evident in Jewish thought for at least two millennia....Contemporary Views ..."Messianism is still a prominent theme in modern Judaism, though many contemporary Jews have rejected belief in an individual messiah. Zionism has many messianic undertones in its focus on national redemption, a linkage made explicit in the best-known prayer for the State of Israel, which describes Israel’s establishment as marking “the dawn of our deliverance.” Among Chabad Hasidism, some claim that their late leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is in fact the messiah. ... [The] Reform movement 1999 update to its platform spoke of being partners with God in bringing about a “messianic age.”

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[MS: The mistranslated verse is not a prophecy of the coming of "Shilo" or Christ. It is sadly an artifact of Christian suppression continued in the King James Bible and many Christian Bibles.

Reading the commentary about messianism on this verse would be a fascinating journey, and a long one: from the ancient text about Jacob, Judah and the King David line, through the Roman Empire, the life and times of Jesus, Talmudic messianism, the Rambam, false messiahs, Christian persecutions, the Nazi genocide and modern messianic hopes, including Zionism.

Of course, Alter does what he can in a simple short Note; he hints at the troubled, tragic abuses of messianism in the Note: "until he comes to "Shiloh," a dark phrase that has inspired much messianic interpretation."

Readers are alerted - there is much more in the text than meets the eye. Go and learn, if you wish. Sefaria makes it easier than ever before in Jewish history, with astounding numbers, 500,000 clicks/month and growing.

Alter corrects the text but also in a simple Note he suggest that readers pick a path of study among many Jewish ones. Historically much violence and destruction have come against Jews from those who have chosen to misread their Bible and fabricate caricatures of Jews. Some of that is tragically in this very verse, Alter does not let it go by "unNoted" but without adding to the fire. He adds light.

Alter follows interpretations in Midrash in his Notes consistently - a point generally overlooked by misinformed critics. (There are MS Sefaria sheets collecting examples.)

Unlike Updike, Alter does not belittle other literature, like novels nor a competing religious text, like the KJB's New Testament. (Indeed Alter has high regard for the KJB.) When Alter respectfully disagrees with points in Midrash or the KJB, he explains why.

Humility and civility go a long way toward common goals of compassion and peace. May we see more commentary in this style in venues for Jewish learning, like Sefaria's open forum approach - and among the nations.]

"Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible is a stupendous achievement. Alter's always helpful commentary ... is one of his Bible's best features..." [MS: Hillel Halkin is among the most consequential Jewish public intellectuals of a generation. See MS Sefaria Sheet on Hillel Halkin in the MS Sefaria Sheet Collection Robert Alter. Halkin's essay explains his complex view of Alter's translations.]

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Gen 50:26: and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. The book that began with an image of God's breath moving across the vast expanses of the primordial deep to bring the world and all life into being ends with this image of a body in a box, a mummy in a coffin. (The Hebrews in Canaan appear not to have used coffins, and the term occurs only here.) Out of the contraction of this moment of mortuary enclosure, a new expansion, and new births, will follow. Exodus begins with a proliferation of births, a pointed repetition of the primeval blessing to be fruitful and multiply, and just as the survival of the Flood was represented as a second creation, the leader who is to forge the creation of the nation will be borne on the water in a little box--not the 'aron, "the coffin," of the end of Genesis but the tevah,"the ark, 'that keeps Noah and his seed alive.

[MS: Alter finds word play and an allusion that is uplifting. We go from Joseph's corpse, "a body in a box, a mummy in a coffin," a sad and depressing image of The End. It seems, in mood, like the end of the Jewish people with the Coming of Christ. But Alter finds in the text an allusion to the Tevah, the ark - indeed to the creation of a new life ,a baby, leader-to-be Moses, a revived nation that shall be fruitful and multiply - surviving beyond all logic, to this very day.

Alter's allusion to Exodus 2:3 is a masterful reading for the shadowy dark end of Genesis verses the eternal continuity of the Jews beginning again in Exodus and story of Moses. See Alter's Note on Exodus 2:3, "the child borne on the waters here will save his imperilled people."

Is Alter the first to find this allusion linking the depressing, "mummy in a coffin" ending for the last verse in Genesis, to the uplifting "baby in the Tevah/Ark" revival in Exodus? As far as I know, he is the first; perhaps research will confirm that.

If so, has Alter re-written the Bible, the Word of God, in a Note? No, he was looking for allusions within the Biblical text itself, because allusion and word choice are essential Biblical tools of storytelling. They unify the narratives into a compelling whole. Allusions are inherent in the text; they are there for the finding, if we know to look. Alter explains how to look.

And Alter argues for why look beyond the surface of the story: Literary techniques like word choice, sparse tight narratives and allusions highlight the mysterious messages the Bible tells about the infinitely complex working out of human affairs and the Divine Will.

Alter's books are generally about these two ideas: 1) how does the Bible have a literary style that is it own. It's often misunderstood by Christian supremacy or by non-Jewish "translators" who effectively re-write it, like the dominant King James Bible. And 2) Is the Bible "sacred history" and therefore untouchable? Alter's lifework addresses these points in many books and from all angles.

Here is an excerpt from his classic book The Art of Biblical Narrative, Chapter 2, p.25, about "Sacred History":

"The HEBREW Bible is generally perceived, with considerable justice, as sacred history, and both terms of that status have often

methods of literary analysis. If the text is sacred, if it was grasped by

the audiences for whom it was made as a revelation of God's will, perhaps of His literal words, how can one hope to explain it through categories developed for the understanding of such a fundamentally

secular, individual, and aesthetic enterprise as that of later Western

literature? And if the text is history, seriously purporting to render an account of the origins of things and of Israelite national experience

as they actually happened, is it not presumptuous to analyze these

narratives in the terms we customarily apply to prose fiction, a mode

of writing we understand to be the arbitrary invention of the writer...." (MS: emphasis and formatting added)

Alter is acutely aware of the complexity of Bible. Some critics and readers may not like his answers nor even his raising these questions in the first place. But how unfair it is to Alter not to give him some credit: Alter admits the risks. Indeed he is transparently aware of these concerns and meets them full on, in a modest, respectful tone. These questions are in the air, in the zeitgeist of the times. They should be studied. Alter lays out a path and takes the risks of being a leader.

In The Art of Biblical Translation 2019, Alter has Chapters explaining Word Choice and Sound Play and Word Play, among others in the Bible's unique literary style. Allusion is a technique used particularly in type-scenes, Alter's most studied Biblical literary-style element. See:Link: See MS Sefaria Collection of Sheets on Robert Alter Biblical Style ]