Book Review: Jan de Waard. A Handbook on Isaiah. Textual Criticism and the Translator, no. 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1997. Pp. vi + 227. US $29.50. ISBN 1-57506-023-X.

Abstract

"Generally speaking, the aim of the present publication is to give translators a better insight into the viewpoint of the textual critic and to help them to find a good base for their translation. Practically speaking, it is a help to the users of the fourth volume of the terse Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (New York, United Bible Societies: 1979), and of the final detailed and learned report of D. Barthélemy, Critique textuelle de l'Ancien Testament, OBO 50/2 (Fribourg: Éditions Universitaires, 1986; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986) (CTAT). 2. The author treats most of the textual problems dealt with in CTAT. Occasionally a passage is omitted when the problem is judged to be unimportant to the tradition of exegesis or of little relevance for modern translators. 3. The treatment of each case is subdivided into three sections with the following headers: Textual Decisions, Evaluation of Problems, Proposals of Translation. The first section presents the problem and summarizes in a clearly readable language most of the data offered by Barthélemy. Thus in 7,11 the reader is told that the problem concerns the vocalisation and meaning of hl)#$, which can be interpreted either as an imperative "ask" or as a noun "Sheol" + locative he. In the same section a survey is given of the ancient versions and of the decisions of the committee, with their justifications. In the second section de Waard gives his evaluation of the problems, situating them in their immediate and larger contexts. The third section suggests some proposals for translation, in dialogue with the conclusions noted in the Preliminary and Interim Report and with modern translations."(pg 1)