Amichai Lau Lavie

Exodus 11: 5-11 Amichai Lau Lavie reading Exodus 11: 5-11 in the Onkelos translation. Onkelos was one of the first translators of the 5 Books of Moses, which he rendered in Aramaic.

Robert Alter – Genesis 39

Genesis 39I had the pleasure of spending the weekend at a retreat, studying with Professor Robert Alter and local genius Amichai Lau Lavie, about issues and concerns of translation — in theory and practice. So I thought I would take this opportunity to kick this project off in high style. So here is Robert Alter reading Genesis, Chapter 39 — the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. Alter, who recently published his own translation of the Bible, said to me “I still prefer the Hebrew.”

In the Beginning

There were a handful of audio recordings of the bible. It was produced either for the visually impaired or for the unchurched. Then, famous performers began to get into the act. Most recently, The Bible Experience brought updated production values and A-list actors to a new generation of listeners.

It got me thinking…. what would the Bible sound like read by… well… regular people. Like you and me. What would we read? What translations would we choose? What langauges would we read in?

And so, the Bootleg Bible was born.

Basically, this is a broad attempt at a kind of performative ethnography, the exact details and outlines of which will follow shortly.

So, in the words of the text itself: Stay tuned.

Um……

Is this thing on? Is there light? Dark? How did God begin that book, again?