Synopses & Reviews
Faithful Renderings reads translation history through the lens of Jewish-Christian difference and, conversely, views Jewish-Christian difference as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political analysis, Seidman asks how the charged Jewish-Christian relationship—and more particularly the dependence of Christianity on the texts and translations of a rival religion—has haunted the theory and practice of translation in the West.
Bringing together central issues in translation studies with episodes in Jewish-Christian history, Naomi Seidman considers a range of texts, from the Bible to Elie Wiesels Night, delving into such controversies as the accuracy of various Bible translations, the medieval use of converts from Judaism to Christianity as translators, the censorship of anti-Christian references in Jewish texts, and the translation of Holocaust testimony. Faithful Renderings ultimately reveals that translation is not a marginal phenomenon but rather a crucial issue for understanding the relations between Jews and Christians and indeed the development of each religious community.
About the Author
Naomi Seidman is theKoret Professor of Jewish Culture and director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTIONThe Translator as Double Agent
CHAPTER ONEImmaculate Translation
Sexual Fidelity, Textual Transmission, and the Virgin Birth
CHAPTER TWO"The Beauty of Greece in the Tents of Shem"
Aquila between the Camps CHAPTER THREEFalse Friends
Conversion and Translation from Jerome to Luther CHAPTER FOURA Translator Culture
CHAPTER FIVE
The Holocaust in Every Tongue
CHAPTER SIX
Translation and Assimilation
Singer in America
EPILOGUE
Endecktes Judenthum?
A Translator's Note
Notes
Index