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In this book, Steven Fraade explores the practice and conception of multilingualism and translation in ancient Judaism. Interrogating the deep and dialectical relationship between them, he situates representative scriptural and other texts within their broader synchronic - Greco-Roman context, as well as diachronic context - the history of Judaism and beyond. Neither systematic nor comprehensive, his selection of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek primary sources, here fluently translated into clear English, best illustrate the fundamental issues and the performative aspects relating to translation and multilingualism. Fraade scrutinizes and analyzes the texts to reveal the inner dynamics and the pedagogical-social implications that are implicit when multilingualism and translation are paired. His book demonstrates the need for a more thorough and integrated treatment of these topics, and their relevance to the study of ancient Judaism, than has been heretofore recognized.
List of contents
1. Introduction: multilingualism in the neighborhood; 2. Before Babel; 3. Seventy languages (and translations) for seventy nations; 4. Ezra the scribe and the origins of Targum; 5. Out of the fire and into the wall; 6. 'Reading leads to translation' whether public or private; 7. Be careful what you wish for; 8. Afterword.
About the author
Steven D. Fraade is the Mark Taper Professor Emeritus of the History of Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies at Yale University. His scholarship has been recognized through many academic honors, including fellowships and funding from The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, among others. He is the author of four books including From Tradition to Commentary: Torah and Its Interpretation in the Midrash Sifre to Deuteronomy (1991), which won the National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.
