First Testament

The First Testament is a major single-scholar translation of the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, rendered from the Hebrew and Aramaic and taking the Hebrew Bible as its base text. Presented as a fresh translation rather than a revision of an existing English version, it follows a form-sensitive philosophy, with sustained attention to lexical consistency, so that the distinct idiom and repeated vocabulary of the Hebrew text remain visible to the English reader. Among its distinctive features is the avoidance of many conventional theological English terms, a choice intended to let Hebrew diction sound less domesticated. In this it stands within a long tradition of English translations undertaken by individual scholars, which alongside committee-produced versions have shaped the history of the Bible in English, and it is likely to be of particular use to readers who wish to observe the shape and texture of the underlying Hebrew wording.