Author of book on Bible visits Dothan

The Bible you read every day may not say exactly what it was originally intended to say.

Dr. Joel Hoffman, author of the new book “And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning,” visited Dothan’s Temple Emanu-El Monday night as part of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life’s Jewish Literary Series to discuss his book and explain the reasons behind such mistranslations and how people can better understand the text.

“The book is two parts. The first part is the theory of translation, how we know what the Bible means and how we say it in English, and the second part is examples of things in the Bible that don't mean what people think they mean,” Hoffman said. “Sometimes they’re a little inaccurate and sometimes they’re really just wrong.”

Hoffman grew up in New York and learned modern Hebrew when he was 9.

He holds a doctorate in linguistics, and he says that has helped him in his study of the Bible’s original languages.

“I figured it would be helpful to understand what language is before I specifically study one of them,” he said. “It turned out to pay off, because not a lot of people do that. The problem is a lot of people studying Hebrew or, in the New Testament, Greek only study the Bible. They don't study the broader language. While they know a lot about the Bible, they don't know a lot about the language, which explains translation mistakes.”

Hoffman said there were no sinister reasons for the altered wording in the Bible over the centuries.

“It has not at all been malicious,” he said. “Every now and again mistranslations are done for theological reasons, though. For instance, one of the commandments is either don't kill or don't murder, so there's a theological debate. People who think killing is always wrong want it to say, ‘Don't kill,’ so they lean in that direction, and people who think some killing is OK lean to ‘Don't murder,’ to say self-defense in your home isn't against the commandments.
Mostly the terrible mistranslation of the Bible is because, until the last century, we didn't have the scientific tools to translate language accurately. It’s really a 20th century science, just like archeology.”

Hoffman said his reasons for writing the book and delivering lectures on the topic are multi-faceted.

“On a broader scheme, I feel there’s a movement of Bible study in this country that's sort of its own world. I'd like to bring it out of the closet, as it were, and show that it can be part of living a modern life,” he said. “I'm a modern person, living on the suburbs of New York. I've got a Blackberry and love it, and I also study the bible. I don't see any conflict, and I think a lot of people would. I'm a scientist, I love science, and yet I teach and study the Bible. Certainly how it's portrayed in movies is the scientists on one hand and the bible scholars on the other, and each side thinks the other are freaks. I want people to realize you can live in both worlds.”

But an even more important message, he said, is the inherent beauty of the material he has studied most of his life.

“I want to make them aware of the richness of the Bible, new ways to see the richness of the Bible and the fun that can be had in doing this,” Hoffman said. “There's beautiful poetry in the Bible, and you don't see it in translation. There are powerful, moving stories. Even if you don't believe in God, the Bible is enormously wonderful literature and most people don't see it because of the bad translations.”