The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible

In this dazzling reconsideration of the language of the Old and New Testaments, acclaimed scholar and translator of classical literature Sarah Ruden argues that the Bible's modern translations often lack the clarity and vitality of the originals. Singling out the most famous passages, such as the Genesis creation story, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Beatitudes, Ruden reexamines and retranslates from the Hebrew and Greek, illuminating what has been misunderstood and obscured in standard English translations. By showing how the original texts more clearly reveal our cherished values, Ruden gives us an unprecedented understanding of what this extraordinary document was for its earliest readers and what it can still be for us today.

Author: Sarah Ruden
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 12/04/2018
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780525563655
ISBN10: 0525563652
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Biblical Commentary | General
- Religion | Biblical Criticism & Interpretation | General
- Religion | Biblical Reference | Language Study

About the Author
SARAH RUDEN was educated at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard, from which she graduated with a Ph.D. in Classical philology. She has translated six books of Classical literature and contributed her Aeschylus's Oresteia to a collection of tragedy in English. Her translation of Augustine's Confessions was her first book-length work of sacred literature. She is also the author of a book of poetry, Other Places. Ruden is a visiting scholar at Brown University and lives in Hamden, Connecticut.