Saturday, December 20, 2025

Qapla', Jeremiah!

Michael Shepherd has a backtranslation of the Greek Jeremiah into Hebrew. In TC, Matthew B. Quintana presents a "review article".

A review article is more than a review. Think less Roger Ebert; think more Theodor Nöldeke on Schulthess, or Maria Conterno on Hoyland. They're really articles of their own. Also as Nöldeke can attest, they're not necessarily hitpieces; nobody blamed Schulthess that his sources misled him on Umayya the poet.

Unfortunately in Shepherd's case, Quintana argues the man overstepped. And Quintana seems to be right: we are not ready for a backtranslation of Jeremiah In The Original Klingon, from its nonoriginal Greek.

A collection of articles relating Greek-Jeremiah to Ezekiel and 2 Isaiah would have got the same job done. Backtranslation, frankly, is for the popular market, as was done for 1 Maccabees.

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