The Interpretation of the Bible (PDF)

This unique volume, nearly 2000 pages in length and handsomely printed on Bible paper, is perhaps the most comprehensive scholarly work of our time on the translation and interpretation of the Bible. At its core are papers presented to an international symposium in Ljubljana in September 1996 to mark the publication of the new Slovenian version of the Bible, a landmark in Slovene identity and cultural life. In addition, its distinguished editor, Joze Krasovec, has commissioned a wide range of contributions devoted to translations of the Bible in many languages, including the Slavonic languages, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish and the Scandinavian languages. The 82 chapters in this work, mostly in English, are divided into three parts. Part I, on ancient translations and hermeneutics of the Bible, contains contributions by M.-E. Boismard, S.P. Brock, K.J. Cathcart, R.P. Gordon, L.J. Grech, M. Hengel, O. Keel, J. Lust, E. Tov and others, with a notable comprehensive bibliographic survey of oriental Bible translations from the first millennium by M. van Esbroeck. Part II, on Slavonic and other translations of the Bible, includes the first detailed study of the history of the Slavonic Bible, by Francis J. Thomson (over 300 pp.). Part III, with essays by such scholars as J.H. Charlesworth, D.J.A. Clines, J. Gnilka, M. G÷rg, N. Lohfink and A.C. Thiselton, concerns the interpretation of the Bible in translation, philosophy, theology, art and music. In an appendix, a complete list of printed Bibles in languages throughout the world is presented for the first time.