The Contemporary Torah

"This ground-breaking work, an adaptation of the acclaimed JPS translation of the Torah (1962), will appeal to readers who are interested in a historically based representation of social gender roles in the Bible, as well as to those who have become accustomed to gender-sensitive English in other aspects of their lives." "In preparing this work, the editors undertook a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the Torah's gender ascriptions, consulting both recent biblical scholarship as well as traditional Jewish sources. They selected language that judiciously portrays ancient gender roles in order to reflect a more nuanced understanding of the biblical world and its original audience. The result is a carefully rendered alternative to the traditional JPS translation, the most widely read English version of the Jewish Bible." "In most cases references to God are in gender-neutral language. The Tetragammaton, the unpronounceable four-letter name for the Divine, appears in this translation in unvocalized Hebrew to convey that the Name is something totally "other" - beyond translation, gender, speech, and understanding. In some instances, however, male imagery depicting God is preserved because it reflects biblical society's view of gender roles."--BOOK JACKET.