Bible translations into Hebrew primarily refers to translations of the New Testament of the Christian Bible into the Hebrew language, from the original Koine Greek or an intermediate translation. There is less need to translate the Jewish Tanakh (or Christian Old Testament) from the Original Biblical Hebrew, because it is closely intelligible to Modern Hebrew speakers. There are more translations of the small number of Tanakh passages preserved in the more distantly related biblical Aramaic language. There are also Hebrew translations of Biblical apocrypha.
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible (i.e. the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Old Testament) is almost entirely in Classical (or Biblical) Hebrew. However, there are some significant sections in Biblical Aramaic: about a third of the Book of Daniel and several quoted royal letters and edicts in the Book of Ezra. These are written in the same square-script as the Hebrew parts, and many readers of the Bible in Hebrew are sufficiently familiar with Aramaic as not to require translation for them. Nevertheless, numerous Hebrew translations and paraphrases for these Aramaic parts have been written from the Middle Ages to the present day. The medieval commentary of Gersonides on these books, for instance, contains a Hebrew paraphrase of their Aramaic sections which translates them nearly in their entirety. Many modern editions of the Masoretic Text also contain Hebrew translations of these sections as appendices. Such translations may be found for instance in some versions of the Koren edition, in the Dotan IDF edition, and in the text published by The Bible Society in Israel. Hebrew translation of biblical Aramaic is also standard fare in numerous multivolume Hebrew commentaries meant for popular audiences, such as those of ,See Works by Samuel Leib Gordon on the Hebrew Wikisource website. Elia Samuele Artom, Moshe Zvi Segal, Da`at Mikra and Olam ha-Tanakh.
Some modern Israeli editions of the Bible have running footnotes rendering more archaic Biblical Hebrew words and phrases into Modern Hebrew. A Christian translation of the Hebrew Bible into Modern Hebrew was completed in 2006 and called "the Testimony" or . Published in four volumes, all volumes are translated into simple, modern Hebrew vocabulary by Shoshan Danielson and edited by Baruch Maoz. The "Ram Bible" (Tanakh Ram; ) began to be published in 2008. Of a planned four volume set, currently the first two, Torah and Early Prophets, are available. These editions include the original text in a parallel column.
Apocrypha The books of the apocrypha were not preserved in the Jewish tradition (as reflected in the Hebrew Masoretic Text). Though the majority of them were originally composed in Hebrew, they have reached us mostly in Greek form, as found in the Septuagint and preserved by the Christian church. A few are extant only in (secondary) translations from the Greek into other languages, such as Latin, Christian Aramaic, or Ge'ez. In modern times there has been renewed Jewish interest in these books, which has resulted in a few translations into Hebrew. In the 19th century most of the apocrypha was translated by Seckel Isaac Fraenkel in Ketuvim Aharonim ("Late Writings" 1830),Scanned versions of the original edition may be found at the HebrewBooks.org website here and at the Google Books website here (Leipzig, 1830). Scanned version of a later edition may be found at the HebrewBooks.org website here (Warsaw, 1863). and a few books were translated by other authors.Scanned versions of other nineteenth century Hebrew translations of Ben Sira may be found here (Vienna, 1814) and here (Warsaw, 1842); other short apocryphal books were translated by Salomon Plessner in this volume (1865, also entitled Ketuvim Aharonim). The Hebrew-language website Daʿat, which collects texts related to Jewish education, has published an online version of these public domain Hebrew translations in digital form; the texts have been formatted and slightly modernized.An index to the online texts is found here .
Two major annotated Hebrew translations of the apocrypha were published in the 20th century. Both editions include commentaries by the editors, both are vowelized, and both of them incorporate parts of the original Hebrew for Ben Sira that were found in the Cairo Geniza and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Avraham Kahana, ed. and trans., Ha-Sefarim ha-Hitsonim. Tel-Aviv: Hotsaat Meqorot, 1937 (2 vols.), most recently reissued in 2006.Scanned versions of the original edition may be found here: (apocryphal books related to the Torah), and here: (apocryphal books related to Nevi'im and Ketuvim). These scans were originally published at the site HebrewBooks.org. Eliyah Shemuel Hartom (aka. Elia Samuele Artom), ed. and trans., Ha-Sefarim ha-Hitsonim. Tel-Aviv: Yavneh, 1965–69.
Another annotated Hebrew edition of Ben Sira was published by Moshe Zvi Segal in 1953 and subsequently revised; it also takes into account Hebrew copies found in the Cairo Geniza, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and at Masada. It is current available from the Bialik Institute.
In the early 21st century, the Yad Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem inaugurated a major project of a scholarly publication called Bein Miqra la-Mishnah ("Between the Bible and the Mishnah"), whose scope includes new Hebrew translations and in-depth commentaries on apocryphal books. So far Maccabees 1 & 2 and Jubilees, along with many non-Apocrypha volumes, have appeared; Maccabees 3 & 4 are in preparation.Information on the project may be found here (Hebrew).
New Testament
Polemical rabbinical translations
Quotes of the New Testament in Hebrew occur in polemical or apologetic Hebrew texts from the 6th century CE. Three medieval polemical rabbinical translations of Matthew predate the Hutter Bible [Which?]. A fourth rabbinical translation, that of Ezekiel Rahabi, Friedrich Albert Christian and Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort, 1741–1756,Commissioner, purpose, translators, copyist and age of the Hebrew New Testament of Cochin and the Quran of the Library of Congress, Mascha van Dort, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20148.58242, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353131337_Commissioner_purpose_translators_copyist_and_age_of_the_Hebrew_New_Testament_of_Cochin_and_the_Quran_of_the_Library_of_Congress may have been the same text as the "Travancore Hebrew New Testament of Rabbi Ezekiel" bought by Claudius Buchanan in Cochin, and later given to Joseph Frey. An ecumenical approach is seen in Elias Soloweyczyk's Matthew, 1869.
The Hutter Dodecaglott Bible The New Testament was first translated into Hebrew by Elias Hutter in his Polyglott edition of the New Testament in twelve languages: Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Latin, German, Bohemian, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Danish and Polish, at Nuremberg, in 1599, 1600, in two volumes.
Some individual books were translated before Hutter's complete New Testament, such as Alfonso de Zamora's Letter to the Hebrews (1526). Carmignac (1978) identifies at least 23 translators of the Gospel of Matthew into Hebrew.Jean Carmignac, "Hebrew Translations of the Lord's Prayer: A Historical Survey," in Biblical and Near Eastern studies: essays in honor of William Sanford LaSor (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), pp. 18."My list of translators (or editors) is as follows: Shem Tob ben Shafrut, Sebastian Munster, [Jean Mercier and Jean Cinqarbres for Bishop] Jean du Tillet, Marco Marini(?), Elias Hutter, Domenico Gerosolimitano, Georg Mayr, Giovanni-Battista Jona, William Robertson (Hebraist), Rudolph Bernhard, Johan Kemper, Simon Rosenbaum, Ezekiel Rahabi, Richard Caddick, Thomas Yeates (orientalist), The London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, William Greenfield, Robert Young (biblical scholar), Elias Soloweyczyk, Franz Delitzsch, Isaac Salkinson and J.-M. Paul Bauchet."
Christian translations As part of the Christian mission to Jews the Greek New Testament has been translated into Hebrew several times since the 19th century. These versions sometimes exist in bilingual editions.
These Christian versions generally use the Hebrew word ("Messianics") for Greek , ("Christians") in the text in preference to the Talmudic term , ("Nazarenes").
The majority of these versions use the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) when citing quotations from the Hebrew Bible, although this does not mean that Hebrew-speaking Christians necessarily pronounce aloud the name as "Yahweh", any more than Hebrew-speaking Jews, and may read as "Adonai" or "HaShem".
Gospels of Matthew 1537, Gospel of Matthew, Sebastian Münster, Basel – based on one of the Rabbinical translations of Matthew.Scanned version of Münster's Matthew can be found here 1551, 1550 Gospel of Matthew, J. Quinquarboreus (Jean Cinqarbres) and 1550 Jean Mercier (Hebraist), Paris – confused with Sebastian Münster's adaption of a Rabbinical text of Matthew, but prepared from another of the Rabbinical translations of Matthew, purchased in Italy by bishop Jean du Tillet. 1553, Psalms and first 2 chapters of Matthew, Anton Margaritha, Leipzig – a Jewish convert. 1869, Gospel of Matthew, Elias SoloweyczykIn: Qol qore: ha-talmud ve-ha-brit ha-hadasha 1875, Gospel of Matthew, William Henry Guillemard, CambridgeThe Greek Testament, Hebraistic edition [St Matthew] 1948–1950, Gospels of Matthew and Mark, J.-M. Paul Bauchet, Jerusalem. These are slightly revised versions of Delitzsch.
Gospels of Mark 1575, Gospel of Mark, Walther Herbst, Wittemberg 1813–1817, New Testament, Thomas Fry and William Bengo' Collyer, LondonScanned versions of this translation can be found here (1813 - this scan contains only the gospels of Matthew and Mark) , here (1817), here (1821) and here (1828) Robert Lisle Lindsey A Hebrew translation of the Gospel of Mark - 1969 p159 "The Hebrew Text The history of Hebrew translations of the New Testament is much longer than is commonly known. ... The London Jews' Society published a quite new translation by T. Fry and others in 1817 the original proofsheets of which " 1969, The Gospel of Mark, Robert Lisle LindseyLindsey, Robert Lisle: A Hebrew Translation of the Gospel of Mark. Jerusalem, 1969
Gospels of Luke 1574, Gospel of Luke, Fredericus Petrus, Lutheran pastor of the church of Brunswick. 1735, Gospel of Luke, Heinrich Frommann, HalleScanned versions of this translation can be found here and at Google Books Hebrew in the Church: The Foundations of Jewish-Christian Dialogue 1984 p77 Pinchas E. Lapide, Helmut Gollwitzer - 1984 "Under the aegis of the Institutum Judaicum which was founded in Leipzig in 1728, the Gospel of Luke (through 22:14) appeared in Hebrew in 1735 in a translation by the proselyte Dr. Heinrich Christian Immanuel Frommann.
Gospels of John 1957, Gospel of John, Moshe I. Ben Maeir, Denver
Hebrew Gospels 1576, The Anniversary Gospels in four languages, Johannes Claius (Johann Klaj), LeipzigScanned version of this book can be found here 1668, Latin-Hebrew Gospels, Jona, Giovanni Battista (1588–1668),Encyclopaedia Judaica: Ja-Kas Fred Skolnik, Michael Berenbaum - 2007 "apostate scholar. Jona was born Judah Jona at Safed in Galilee and for that reason was known also as Galileo. ..Giovanni Giuda Giona(originally Jehuda Jona ben-Isaac), RomeReprinted in: Traductions hébräiques des Evangiles rassemblées par Jean Carmignac. Vol. 2: Evangiles de Matthieu et de Marc traduits en hébreu en 1668 par Giovanni Battista Iona retouchés en 1805 par Thomas Yeates. Turnhout, 1982. Vol. 3: Evangiles de Luc et de Jean traduits en hébreu en 1668 par Giovanni Battista Iona retouchés en 1805 par Thomas Yeates. Turnhout, 1982.