Book Review: The JPS Tanakh: The Gender-Sensitive Edition

The JPS Tanakh: Gender-Sensitive Edition. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society / Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2023). 1718 + xxxiii pp. Reviewed by David J. Zucker.

Close to twenty years ago, the Jewish Publication Society published The Contemporary Torah: A Gender-Sensitive Adaptation of the JPS Translation (CJPS, 2006). JPS did this for it recognized that our understanding of language has changed over the years. The need to have an English text of the Torah speak in contemporary language to a contemporary audience was a necessary goal. “For example, NJPS [the 1985 translation of TANAKH: THE HOLY SCRIPTURES] renders ’avot in the same phrases, and in similar contexts using different terms with different social-gender senses – NJPS reads ‘parents’ in Exodus 20:5 . . . yet ‘visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children’ in Numbers 14:18” (CJPS, vii). Likewise, in terms of the Deity, The Contemporary Torah adapted this language: He said became [God] said. His people became God’s people. His covenant became the Covenant. His laws that He enjoined upon you became the laws that were enjoined upon you. His voice became the divine voice. The fear of Him became the fear of God. Doing what displeased the LORD and vexing Him became doing what displeased and vexed YHVH (CJPS xxviii).

In a similar fashion The JPS Tanakh: Gender-Sensitive Edition (2023), abbreviated to RJPS or Revised JPS edition, seeks to open up the text to contemporary readers. Rabbi David E. S. Stein, PhD, the Project Manager and Revising Translator, wrote the Preface to this work. There he explains that in particular this work aims “to provide an accurate picture of how gender is handled in the Bible – the original text’s presuppositions, ascriptions, and prescriptions” (RJPS, ix). For example, NJPS translates Exodus 21:12 as He who fatally strikes a man shall be put to death. In contemporary English, it is taken for granted that the words he and man are meant generically, as no doubt they were so understood in biblical times. NJPS then continues, If he did not do it by design, but it came about by an act of God [v’asher lo tzadah v’ha-Elohim inah l’yado], I will assign you a place to which he can flee (Ex. 21:13). This newest translation, RJPS, translates verse 12 this way: One who fatally strikes another shall be put to death. RJPS, recognizing the generic aspects of verse 13, translates it as If it was not by design – it came about by an act of God – I will assign a place to which that person can flee. It then also has a footnote explanation that adds these words: assign “a place to which that person can flee. The case of a female culprit may have been more complex.”

This new “rendition is meant neither to endorse nor condemn the ancient ways that it describes, but rather to be a witness to them,” the Preface explains. Rather this work “offers readers a faithful and unvarnished view into a somewhat strange world that is not only fascinating but also occasionally unsettling—and perhaps even disturbing. Some of the norms of ancient Israel were not those of many contemporary readers, to say the least. In particular, their society was more committed to gender asymmetry and hierarchy than is our own; women’s and men’s lives were supposed to be strongly distinct” (RJPS xiv). “NJPS generally had translated God’s ineffable four-lettered name, the tetragrammaton, ‘as “the LORD” (using small capital letters). To avoid the male connotations of that rendering’ the RJPS translators, after due deliberation and careful consideration, as well as reflecting ‘the rich tradition of German Jewish Bible translation’ (RJPS xvi), decided upon the words ‘the ETERNAL’ to replace NJPS’s ‘the LORD.’“

A section in the Preface is titled The Treatment of Reference to Israel’s God. There it explains that the “God-language in this edition presupposes that most readers will identify its main protagonist with the non-gendered God that is the norm in much present-day religious Judaism. It also respects the fact that the Hebrew text does not allow us to determine exactly what ancient communities themselves believed about the gender of God’s persona” (RJPS xv). The translators were guided by three issues: Accessibility, Clarity, and Authenticity. On that same page this volume features a table which highlights some examples comparing RJPS with the 1985 NJPS edition. The text puts forward five examples: The ETERNAL God planted a garden in Eden (RJPS) replaces NJPS’s The LORD planted a garden in Eden (Gen. 2:8). Thus says God (RJPS) replaces NJPS’s Thus says the LORD (Ex. 4:2). O my Sovereign GOD replaces NJPS’s O Lord GOD (Deut. 3:24). You shall love the ETERNAL your God replaces NJPS’s You shall love the LORD your God (Deut. 6:5). The Sovereign GOD of Hosts replaces NJPS’s The King LORD of Hosts (Isa. 6:4) (RJPS xvii). A much longer and complete description is offered to the interested reader. It suggests for further explanations and details “about the methodology” of this work, “see the Notes on Gender in Translation, available online at purl.org/jps/gender” (RJPS xiii), some twenty-seven pages of fascinating information.

The quality/sturdiness of the pages in this particular edition of the JPS TANAKH, in my view, could be improved when compared to the 1985 version. That decision may have been made for economic reasons; the price being listed as just under forty dollars US (Canadian $53.50, UK £36.00). Revised JPS, which is the first Jewish gender-sensitive translation of the complete Hebrew Bible, both honors and revises the 1985 NJPS. Partnering on this project with Sefaria, it ably reflects advances in scholarship, and offers changes in English while maintaining its fidelity to the original Hebrew.