DonÕt we have more than enough translations of the Holy Bible? Unfortunately, most translations have three flaws: 1.Translators who did not grow up with Biblical Hebrew, the Holy Language, as a living language find it difficult to appreciate its nuances and poetry. This often results in translation errors, lost subtleties in meaning, and apparently conflicting ideas among different translations. 2.By using footnotes and margin comments, modern translators seek to overcome these difficulties, but this makes the reading labored since reading is constantly interrupted. 3.The Torah was meant to be chanted, with the tunes adding meaning and emphasis to the listenerÕs understanding. Chants are hard to translate into words. Aramaic Targum ÒtranslationsÓ of 2000+ years ago were successful in overcoming these limitations. This Targum Americana combines traditional translation and commentary with some sense of the beauty in English of the original Holy Tongue.

It has been the fate of many books on John to be left unfinished, for its interpretation naturally forms the crowning of a lifetime. I have myself been intending to write a book on the Fourth Gospel since the 'fifties, before I broke off (reluctantly) to be Bishop of Woolwich, though I am grateful now that I did not produce it prematurely at that time. It means however that I shall be compelled to refer to and often recapitulate material directly or indirectly related to the Johannine literature, which I have written over the years (some of it indeed while I was bishop). Many scholars in fact, if not most now, think that the author of the Gospel himself never lived to finish it and have seen the work as the product of numerous hands and redactors. As will become clear, I prefer to believe that the ancient testimony of the church is correct that John wrote it 'while still in the body' and that its roughnesses, self-corrections and failures of connection, real or imagined, are the result of its not having been smoothly or finally edited. If so I am in good company. At any rate who could wish for a better last testimony from his friends than that 'his witness is true' (John 21.24)? In other words, he got it right--historically and theologically. --from the Introduction At the time of his death in December 1983, John Robinson had completed the text of the book on which his 1984 Bampton lectures were to be based, so that it is possible to see the full details of his extremely controversial argument that the Gospel of John was the first Gospel to be written. Dr. Robinson himself once described the dawning of his conviction that this was the case as a 'Damascus Road experience', and his presentation of the evidence is made with all the customary vigor with which he would argue for something in which he deeply believed. The objections which need to be overcome to stand on its head what has long been one of the fundamental assumptions of New Testament scholarship are substantial, but here once again Dr. Robinson shows that so much of what is taken as established fact in that area is no more than preference and presumption. Certainly he will provoke rethinking on a whole series of topics, from the chronology of Jesus' ministry to the nature of his teaching. As The Listener said of the equally controversial Redating the New Testament: The greatest pleasure Dr. Robinson gives is purely intellectual. His book is a prodigious virtuoso exercise in inductive reasoning and an object lesson in the nature of historical argument and historical knowledge. This sequel equals, if not excels, its predecessor in those respects and is a fitting tribute to a brilliant New Testament scholar. The manuscript was prepared for publication by Dr. Chip Coakley, Dr Robinson's pupil, now Lecturer in Religious Studies in the University of Lancaster.

The fact that there are so many translations and commentaries of the Bible tells us that each is somehow lacking something. Most translators did not grow up with Biblical Hebrew as a living language, the Torah was meant to be chanted, and reading continuity is interrupted by footnotes and margin notes. This work overcomes these problems for English speakers in the way the 2,000 year old Targum did for that day's Aramaic speakers.

Ibn Ezra addresses the importance of the knowledge of grammar, stating that one cannot fully understand the text of the Torah without it. He also discusses the study of the Bible and the Talmud, arguing that one cannot properly comprehend the Talmud if one does not know the sciences, for there are many passages in the Pentateuch and the Talmud that are either incomprehensible or given to misinterpretation by one who has no prior knowledge of the sciences.

Learn to Write the Hebrew Script presents a new and innovative approach to learning the Hebrew script. Drawing on the common ancestry of European and Hebrew alphabets and the natural inclinations of the writing hand, Orr-Stav shows how the Hebrew script may be understood and acquired almost intuitively through a three-step transformation of ordinary Roman-script cursive. Thoroughly researched but written with a light touch and the empathy of someone who’s been there, Learn to Write the Hebrew Script uncovers several surprises and dispels much of the mystique of what is often an intimidating subject, making the script of the Old Testament much more accessible to millions of non-Hebrew speakers worldwide. "What sets this book apart is its novel approach to the subject, which offers the Western reader a far more accessible and less intimidating approach to the subject."—J.P. Kang, Princeton Theological Seminary "A completely novel approach to this knotty problem. For anyone who wants or needs to learn Hebrew, this book is a must, a valuable adjunct to any teaching aid."—Josephine Bacon, American Translators Association Chronicle "This quirky, unexpected, and utterly charming book offers a three-step method for learning to write Hebrew script, and the author has a gift for presenting the technical and abstract clearly and disarmingly."—The Jerusalem Report