JPS Hebrew-English TANAKH, Student Edition [Imitation Leather]

If you really study Bible you do or will come to realize this, and will never be satisfied with just the vernacular. The English (our vernacular language) is just an attempt to convey the meaning of the Hebrew. So it makes sense to have both, side by side.

There are a number of Bibles that include both, Christian and Judaic products, most notably one of my favorites the Koren Jerusalem Bible.

But here is what you need for a useful tool after you have both Hebrew and English:
*The Hebrew Text should include as much of the Masoretic structure and features as possible (can't go into "Masoretic" here). DOn't expect it to include the Masoretic notation (Mp, Mm)[You'll need a BHS, Aleppo, Leningrad MS in Hebrew for this type of thing and Okla v'Okla]. But it MUST have the parshas (weekly readings for the Torah all Jews worldwide read together). Included in the Masoretic Text are some interesting features like enlarged letters, text written with spaces to appear like stacked brick (song of the Sea Shemot/Exodus 15) for example. There's too many beauties of the Hebrew to describe---but make sure yours get in as many of them as possible!!!!

*Typeface is very important. You are used to English and your mind can "recontruct" words in a bad English font. But Hebrew is a different matter. The Hebrew should be large and clear, especially the niqqudim (vowel-points and accent marks some of the others mention--btw, most Hebrew primary religious texts will show vowel-points). A small Hebrew type can be a disaster (I have to use a magnifying glass and reading glasses to read some of my books like Jastrow's Sefer Millim).

*Personal pref- I like a Bible that tries to bring across Hebrew names instead of Anglicizations (ex., Moshe rather than Moses; Yerushalayim> over <Jerusalem)and a minimum ofeth thine oldeth Englisheth languageth. The Bible did not come from merry old England and the Globe Theatre!!

*binding

So how does JPS H/E Tanakh stack up here? Typography excellent!!! Masoretic features-parshas, no Masoretic notes really, and all is shoved in a column for sake of page layout instead of MT format. JPS uses the anglicizations ;-( but is in modern language ;-)

The JPS H/E Tanakh comes in several bindings. I have the "leatherish" thick, flexible, industrial strength plastic and I think it will hold up. It has a ribbon marker insertd in the binding. In other words, this binding (and paper)is similar to the binding on Christian Bibles. (You could walk down the street with it and not be missionized!!!! ;-)

Get it. It is well worth $... The Koren Bible I mentioned differs in that it keeps much more MT format, but its typography is tooo small, but it does not anglicize proper nouns and even symbolizes Het and Tsade (whch I can't do here). So if you must choose one, choose the one you can see all the text with the naked eye--JPS H/E.

The student edition had a gutter problem (i.e., the text tended to run right into the binding of the text making it very difficult to read without cracking the binding itself. This is not much of a problem with the pocket edition, though the gutter margin could still be bigger.

Christian readers should note that, since this is a Jewish production, the order of the books as well as the versification (and in a few cases, even the chapters) are different from what you will find in the Christian Old Testament.

The one drawback of this edition (hence only four stars) is the english translation. It is too loose to be satisfactory. Some of the most egregious deviations from the text are noted in the footnotes, but not most. I would liken it to the NIV in terms of its faithfulness to the text; i.e., not very. Still, since the Hebrew is right there, you can easily check it for yourself.