What are your impressions of this womens work on the old and new testament?
Actually (Nt) not yet available BUT UPDATES AND ONLINE INFO IS THERE.
A. Frances Werner
by itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat 7 Replies latest watchtower bible
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peacefulpete
I am not familiar with the books but the reviews are rather scathing. http://www.amazon.com/TRUTH-TRANSLATION-Accuracy-Surprising-Testament/product-reviews/0978976312/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R1UL8F1R04Q4YX
Note the only 5 star is from a JW who isn't even reviewing the book but plugging the NWT! The main contention seems to be one that has beeen discussed here before regarding the 'dictionary based translating' that passes as actual translator linguistic skills. The author seems to imagine that one English word equally applies, regardless of context, to a Hebrew word. Clearly that is not the case and at best leaves a person without a feeling for the intended meaning and at worst produces a garbled meaningless text. She seems to be yet another expose' style self promoter that has nothing to contribute to real scholarship.
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Leolaia
And how odd wrt the title and cover design.
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Seeing as how her education and previous work is all in the field of ecology, I'm assuming that she's read some books and suddenly fancies herself to be a scholar on this subject of biblical translation. According to the "About the Author" her only skill is being able to analyze enormous databases. Big deal.
In her defense, she's probably more skilled on the subject than any of Botchtower's writers.
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itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat
HAHAHEEHAW THATS A FUNNYONE Billy the Ex-Bethelite. THANKS FOR IMPRESSIONS EVERYONE.
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Leolaia
Okay I took a look at it via Amazon preview. It's embarassing. For instance, there is a whole chapter on how shama` means "hear" and not "obey" and that translations have departed from the Hebrew by rendering it "obey". The meaning of "obey" is well-attested not only for Hebrew but also for cognates in Ugaritic and Aramaic (cf. the Sefire Inscription of the 8th century BC which uses shm` to refer to respecting the terms of the treaty).
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peacefulpete
Did a little bit of more digging and now I get why the JWs are all over this book. Apparently this author praises the NWT for its literalness and "accuracy" and JWs are buying it left and right to use in their preaching.
Then it gets odd. It seems another book by a different author has virtually the identical title and also is used by JWs such as Greg Stafford regarding John1:1.
Anyway, I doubt it/they will have much influence outside the JW world. Hopefully the JWs buying it get a taste for reading commentaries and reference works from outside the WT.
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slimboyfat
This book is clearly a rip off of Jason BeDuhn's book Truth in Translation as the title, cover design, and subject matter all bear more than a slight resemblance. Remember BeDuhn was the scholar who concluded that the NWT is the most accurate New Testament version. It is as if Werner simply wanted to replicate that conclusion for the Old Testament portion of scripture, but her execution is extremely poor. I can't imagine BeDuhn is thrilled by the poor imitation of his work if he is aware of it.