Mah Shemo? Translating the Names of God in the Hebrew Bible

Translating the Name of God may be the "ultimate test" for translators of the Hebrew Bible (H.L. Goldschmidt); Franz Rosenzweig believed the unity of the Bible, if not its Jewish character, hinges upon the correct perception of God and rendering of the Name. This paper traces the approaches of ancient and modern translators (with special attention to German- and American-Jewish Bibles) looking at their choices and their stated and unstated rationales. Mendelssohn`s bold choice of Der Ewige (the Eternal One) became the `signature` of the German Jewish Bible into the twentieth century, even though S. R. Hirsch, M. Buber and F. Rosenzweig did their best to oppose it. Marcia Falk, in Book of Blessings, refers to God as "Source of Life." I argue that in each generation, translating the Tetragrammaton entails creativity and compromise, as translators weigh their options and innovate when needed.