Practicing Translating the Hebrew Bible

I promised that I would be posting about the contributions and challenges faced by Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans for Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, but that was me over-promising. Lately, I've been busy with work, as well as needing to take a break from using the computer, which has been super helpful, I quite enjoyed it. Plus, it takes time to type a post. Nevertheless, I'll do my best to type and post them during the remainder of this month.

Anyways, on my break, I decided whimsically to feebly attempt to translate the entire Hebrew Bible. I did this simply for my own pleasure and learning, understanding that almost certainly I will never finish such a massive project, but if I do, that would be an accomplishment itself. Nor do I believe that I will translate the Hebrew Bible well: it requires a good handling of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic narrative and poetry, as well as a good handling of English narrative and poetry, none which I have. The only person who I know that has single-handedly translated the Hebrew Bible well and received critical acclaim is Robert Alter, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. Alter's The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary is split into three volumes, reflecting the Jewish canon (The Law, The Prophets, and The Writings), and focuses on the literary qualities of the Hebrew Bible while attempting to be literal and concrete as possible, making it unique and much-needed among the world of English translations that tends to only focus on being readable and theological concerns. I only read a part of it and it was delightful to read.

Anyways, going back to my translation, I decided to write instead of typing because (1) I want to gain a richer understanding of the Hebrew Bible, (2) to experience the work of a scribe, getting a peek into their forgotten world, (3) to make scribal-like notes that is difficult to do on Word that will help me with making revisions, and (4) I needed a break from using the computer, as stated before.

I should preface that I do not have a degree in Hebrew or Old Testament Studies, nor am I formally trained in Hebrew and translating. I have only received informal learning through Gary D. Practico and Miles V. Van Pelt's Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar: Second Edition. In addition, I rely on the expertise of biblical scholars who actual have a degree and knows the language like the back of their hands. Basically, what I'm saying is that my work is probably heavily flawed and can benefit from more learning and training, and that my knowledge is heavily indebted to these biblical scholars who work intensely to uncover the unique and intricate world of the Israelites.

I've posted scans of my translation of Genesis 1-3:21 below, which you can read. They may be difficult to read, especially the first two pages, so I suggest zooming in to read them. I'll be referring to it to describe my translation process.

I used three books to help me translate: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB), and Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar: Second Edition. The BHS essentially is the critical edition of the a Hebrew Bible manuscript with notes on variations found in other Hebrew Bible manuscripts and translations. The BDB essentially list all the words found in the Hebrew Bible, their variations, and occurrences in the Hebrew Bible. I use Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar mainly as a reference to translating the myriads of verbal forms in Hebrew (seriously, there are a lot and too many for my liking).

I started on Genesis as it's the obvious place to start. I follow Alter in terms of translation philosophy: literary yet literal as possible. One example of this is translating the word תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu wavohu), which is usually translated as "formless and void," as "wild and waste," to try to capture the rhyming. Tohu wavohu is only seen two times: here and in Jeremiah 4:23, where Jeremiah prophesies the land of Israel being de-created, and they're usually used to describe an empty track of desert. In addition, the ancients didn't have the concept of nothingness (ie. ex nihilo), but of chaos, which is unordered creation, usually in the form of the sea or desert. With all of this in mind, I translate tohu wavohu as, "wild and waste."

I have added my own scribal-like notes, which were influenced by the Jewish scribal note system called the Masorah, to help me with identifying translation problems of all sorts, which then I can consider making changes or not. I mainly identify these problems by drawing a small circle on top of the words (or between the words if the problem is a phrase) and writing the Hebrew word(s) on top of the circle(s). The nature of these problems varies greatly. One example is the first word of Genesis: בְּרֵאשִׁית (bereshit). The problem is (1) its root word (each Hebrew word has a root, which then can be modified to change its usage such as verb or adjective) ראש (rʾsh), which has a range of meanings such as "head," "former," "best," etc. and (2) it uses the preposition be-, which also has a wide range of meaning such as, "in," "when," "at," "on," and "against." These two things allows a number of possible translation for bereshit. But when one reads other ancient Near Eastern creation myths such as Enuma Elish and Atrahasis, they begin with the word "When." Such precedents allow for a translation of bereshit to read as, "When before," or the shorter "When." Such translations depict a imprecise, hazy beginning of God's work of creation. Contrast that to the more traditional, "In the beginning," which is extremely precise. In the end, I decided to follow the traditions of the ancient Near East, translating bereshit as "When." The additional advantage to this translation is that it matches with bereshit in that it uses one word, unlike "In the beginning," which is three words.

Another example of a translation problem, one that is extremely minor and perhaps shouldn't be given too much time, is the word תְהוֹם (tehom). This word refers to the primordial seas that appear in many ancient Near Eastern creation myths (sometimes in a form of a sea monster) that needs to be conquered or subdued before the act of creation begins. Tehom usually is translated as either "the deep" or "the abyss." The issue is that these words may not convey the mythical character of tehom. One can translate tehom as "primordial sea," but that is unwieldy as tehom is a single, short word. "Chaos" may work, although chaos for us is more of a state of being rather than a physical matter, which the author tries to convey here. In the end, I decided that "abyss" is good enough.

I have also made a few changes to the Hebrew text due to textual variances within other manuscripts and translations and per BHS's recommendation in order to provide more clarity or to provide a more viable reading. These changes can be identified by the half-bracket-like marks surrounding the word(s). I try to be very judicious and conservative with this as it is important to preserve the strange, unique worldview of the various authors that make up the Hebrew Bible. An example of this can be found in Genesis 1:26. In the Hebrew text, it reads, "... and over the beast and over the earth..." The Syriac (a western dialect of Aramaic) translation reads, "... and over the beast and over the animals of the earth [I translated it as "land"]..." which may parallel somewhat with verse 25. It also follows the pattern of listing out the types of animals humans are to have reign over, compare to the Hebrew text that mentions the earth, which is an odd subject of the list. English translations such as NET, ESV, CEB, NASB, and LEB follow the Hebrew text while NRSV, NABRE, and NIV follow the Syriac translation. Honestly, either reading works with little to no issues. In the end, I follow the Syriac translation, even though it is a minority reading, as I simply prefer the uniformed list.

These examples are to show you that translation is a difficult task to undertake. It isn't simply finding a word from English that will match with biblical Hebrew. Translation is the task of making a culture, time period, and worldviews more intelligible to the current culture that the translator lives in. One cannot map an English word onto certain Hebrew words because these words have cultural understandings to them, understandings that we do not naturally perceive. One also has to understand how other culture's narratives and poetry work. A culture may have literary and poetry techniques that are unfamiliar, or used rarely in our culture. Hebrew narratives are saturated with the word "and," as a way to sequence the narrative; English translations have smoothed out this characteristic, a move that Alter abhors, which I agree. Hebrew poetry is terse, using two words that may be translated into six or seven words in English.

There are so much about the practice of translation that I barely covered. I hope that you gained a sense of amazement and appreciation of the work that translators do. I know I have. I also benefited much from translating the Hebrew Bible as I am forced to consider and examine every word and sentence of every verse, gaining better insight to the theological and literary power of the text.

I'll continuing to translate and revise it, and typing this, I feel more invigorated to translate as far as I can, hopefully the whole text. I know it will be far from perfect, perhaps even a bit atrocious, but the joy comes from engaging with the text "with all of my heart and with all of my being and with all of my might."

The Term "Asian American"

Most of us, like myself, will use the term "Asian American" nonchalantly, referring to ourselves and any American who has some form of origin in the Asian continent. However, I recently learned that this term has a history, and a purpose.

The term "Asian American" is actually a recent term, first used in 1968. Before then, there were no dignifying term to refer to the collective communities who had origins in Asia. The term "Orientals," a pejorative term, was used mainly by Europeans and White Americans as a way to (1) center Europeans as the center of the world (the word orient means, "east") and (2) simultaneously exoticized and create a sense of alien threat far off, all this to further their imperialistic exploitation.

Within the collective communities, they mainly refer to themselves based on their origins. For example, the Chinese community would refer to themselves as Chinese American, and the Filipino community would refer to themselves as Filipino Americans. There was no sense of having a connection with the continent, but rather, a connection with their country and culture of origin.

There was no sense of connection with one another, each community to its own. For example, other communities did not protest the renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1901, and during the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes into internment camps (basically, prison camps), Chinese and Korean Americans wore badges, stating their identities, to prevent being mistaken and incarcerated.

As stated above, the term "Asian American" first appeared in 1968, coined by activist and historian Yuji Ichioka. He was inspired by the Black Power movement, a movement that advocated for Black Americans to empower themselves as a way forming a more equitable society that is racists. Ichioka believed that the collective Asian community can benefit by following this movement, empowering themselves through shared experiences. Ichioka and Emma Gee, who were Berkeley students at that time, formed the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPE) as a way to unite Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino students on campus.

However, this term did not immediately took off, requiring years and years of rooting itself into the collective conscious. However, it toke hold in 1982, in the wake of the murder of Vincent Chin. Chin was a Chinese American who was mistaken as Japanese and murdered by two white auto-workers who were angry that the Japanese automobile industry were aggressively competing with the American auto industry, which laid off many workers. This murder galvanized the Asian collective communities. There was a realization that racism against Asians crosses cultural borders that each collective community thought to be firm, if you were thought to be Japanese because of your looks, you were targeted. Racism supposedly intended for a specific group tends to attack other groups. There was a realization that the Asian collective communities were in this together, an attack on one is an attack on all. Gone were the days of wearing badges, they were going to stand up for one another. The Asian collective communities began to form into the Asian American community.

Therefore, the term "Asian American" became a political term. A term that signified self-determination, they reject the term "Orientals" and chose "Asian Americans" for themselves. A term that rejected White notions and portrayals of the whole Asian community. A term that sets a political agenda: equality and acceptance of the whole Asian community. A term that fights racism and imperialism. A term that demands justice not just for oneself and their group, but justice for each other, justice for all. Overall, there is strength and solidarity in numbers.

The term "Asian American" gained powerful traction, but as the year goes on, this term not only has been normalized to some extent, but is now questioned, and even at times, objected, of its relevancy, today.

One issue is the question of who is actually included as Asian Americans. For some people, they see "Asian Americans" referring only to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipinos. Other groups such as Hmong, Burmese, Laotian, Cambodian, Mongolian, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, Pakistani, etc. may feel left out, like they don't belong. It must be recognized that Asia is an enormous and diverse place, what looks and what is considered "Asian" will need to be expanded. It must be recognized that the Asian American community is a massively, diverse group. When there are calls for and celebration of diversity in the entertainment industry, people tend to think of actors and actresses such as Steven Yuen or Constance Wu, both with East Asian roots, while other actors and actresses such as Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling aren't thought of as Asian.

Another issue is that the lumping of many groups into the singular Asian American label creates an untrue image of the Asian community being a monolith, that they all share the same culture and issues. It's obvious that each group has their own unique culture, experiences, and issues that they deal with. This monolithic misrepresentation also mask the disparities between certain Asian communities. For example, according to Pew Research 2017, the average median household income for Asian Americans is $73,600, compare to $53,600 within all other American households. But within the Asian American community, groups such as Bangladeshi ($49,800), Hmong ($48,000), Nepalese ($43,500), and Burmese ($36,000) all have average median household incomes that are well below the average American median household income. Contrast them to other groups such as Indian ($100,000), Filipinos ($80,000), and Japanese and Sri Lankan (both $74,000).

Again, such issues have made many question whether the term "Asian American" is still useful now. I acknowledge that these issues are grave and must be addressed by viewing each community as distinct, but nevertheless, I will argue that "Asian American" still is useful, if we used it as it was originally envisioned by Ichioka. Asian American is still a useful term when we realize that we are better when we stand up for each other in times of trouble, when we recognize that we have a social responsibility for each other's well-being, when we push against racism and bigotry that has plagued the Asian community, both outside and within, to form a better society.

We have the shared experience of being seen as aliens coming from a different world. I think we can turn that twisted vision into something better: we are all immigrants (or came from immigrant families) coming to this unfamiliar place, looking and hoping for a better life, and we can help each other achieve that life, going past our differences and embracing them. I think that's what it means to be Asian American, at least for me.

Lopez, G., Patten, E., Ruiz, N. G. 2017. Key facts about Asian Americans, a diverse and growing population. Pew Research Center.

International Workers' Day 2020

Can I be honest? I am honestly tired of hearing the term "essential workers," because, let's be real, do we, as a society, really treat these workers well, and will we treat them well post-pandemic? I'm a bit pessimistic about it.

My anger is really directed towards corporations. WalMart and Amazon can put up a sentimental commercial, gushing about how they value their workers, and yet have the audacity to still treat them terribly. These multi-billion dollar corporations are unwilling to provide their workers a fair, livable wage, and safe work conditions.

The history of work hasn't been pretty, to say the least. From serfdom to slavery, from indentured servitude to child labor, on and on different forms of labor abuse crops up and makes life terrible for those who are trying to survive and make a living for their family while an ungodly few hoards all of the wealth in greedy gluttony.

Do they not know that the Master of the Universe is watching their every action? That he hears the cries of the oppressed? How his anger will blaze forth against the oppressors?

Perhaps the prophet Amos should have prophesied at Davos, denouncing with great passion, about how "they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals - they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way... they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed."

Let my anger subside. As followers of Jesus, we need to begin to think about what is a Kingdom hope of labor. Just as how the Kingdom demands us to be concern with the environment, it demands us to be concerned with labor. And it goes beyond labor. It's about treating each other well. It's about being content with enough. It's about caring for our most vulnerable. It's about valuing those regardless of status.

The Kingdom is said to have an upside-down reality within its halls. The poor are said to be seated next to the King, while the rich are seated further away. The poor are said to be seated upon exalted thrones, while the rich are seated upon a low throne. The least will become the greatest. The greatest will become the least.

I know with every conceivable crises, there are always complexities involved, more variants of grays than I would like. Different sides to the story. Different worldviews. I know that I am not blameless or the messiah. I have committed actions that have contributed to the evils that I bemoaned. But the Father of all humans pleads with us to treat our siblings well, to use our moral imagination of what his planetary temple will be.

The Teacher asks us to consider who are our neighbors. The fast-food workers are my neighbors. The delivery persons are my neighbors. The sanitary workers are my neighbors. The teachers and child-care workers are my neighbors. The grocery workers are my neighbors. The factory workers are my neighbors. The farm workers are my neighbors. I haven't loved them well. May I love them well.

For these few days, I want to share with you about brothers and sisters who demanded mercy, not greed. Prayers to the Lord for dignity. Hebraic understanding of economics and community. Teachings of the Church. Songs of godly labor. And actions that we can take to love neighbor, worker, and God.

The prophet Isaiah envisioned the World to Come: "They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity, for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD - and their descendants as well."