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Summary: great content/small print: caveat for the middle-aged :o)
Review: I was very much looking forward to the arrival of my new Tanakh, but ran into a major problem. The print on version ISBN: 0827603665 is *INCREDIBLY* small. So small in fact that my eyes are unable to read it without getting a headache--even wearing strong glasses. And I almost *never* get headaches, so I'll be forced to return it. . .
Rating: 
Summary: This translation deserves a sixth star.
Review: I'm on my third copy of the Tanakh since 1987, and have read it through several times. I'm a Christian, but when I read the Old Testament, this is the translation I normally use. It is modern, without being childlike, it speaks to me without talking down to me. Many translations are written for elementary school children, this one is writen for adults. The format on the page is easy on the eyes. I normally like to balance my reviews with both good and points about the book I'm reviewing. I can't seem to find anything bad to say about the Tanakh. The hardcover I bought 15 years ago is a little warn on the edges but still in good shape. My previous soft cover was given away to a family member and my most recent copy is already dog-eared from use. The translators did an excellent job and the publishers ship a quality product. On a scale of one to five, this Bible deserves a six.
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Summary: Good layman intro to Tanakh
Review: If you're a beginner, this is a good book to have as your first translation of the Jewish Scriptures. It's written in a fairly easy-to-read and fluid language. There are some footnotes to point out alternate readings and obvious comparisons but nothing to overwhelm. A very good feature of this edition is its use of paragraphing and white space - this is the best example I've seen of the Bible's text being broken up into logical, readable units to enhance understanding. The poetry sections are made up to look like poems in the layout. All of this greatly enhances one's first approach to the Bible. If you're a religious Jew, this is not an ideal translation. Whilst saying that it's in the spirit of the Saadiah Gaon, it tends to steer away from a traditional Jewish approach. There is no substitutions of passages which may suggest God's corporeality unlike the translations which follow the trend of Onkelos. Things are often translated literally as opposed to the oral tradition, eg. Elohim rendered as "God" and not "judges" in passages like Ex 21:6 (judges being given as an alternate reading). The footnotes that try to fix the "mistakes" in the text will be found annoying. Overall, not in the spirit of the Sages. If you're a Christian, this will introduce you to a Jewish perspective on the Bible (although from the last paragraph it is debatable as to how accurate that perspective is). The originality of the translation (vs say the King James) may also be interesting. If looking for verses which Christians consider as referring to Jesus, do not expect them to be rendered in the same way as in a Christian Bible! Overall, edition may be either good or bad depending on what you want from it.
Rating:
Summary: A helpful translation
Review: In terms of poetic beauty this translation is not the greatest. But it is accurate and reliable. And I very often use it to help me understand the whole scope of a Parsha in a way my Hebrew reading cannot.
I believe every Jewish English reading home should have one.
Rating: 
Summary: A bad translation
Review: JPS has taken every opportunity to rewrite messianic passages despite the command in Devarim not to augment or diminish G-d's written Torah! Most places where the translators varied significantly from other well known translations it is noted in the footnotes, but where this translation differs from that of the Septuagint in passages commonly applied to Yeshua they fail to give notice of the variance. May HaShem have mercy!
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Summary: Wonderful translation! The Best Hebrew Scriptures around!
Review: Just a cursory read makes it obvious that this JPS trnaslation is really something significant. The intro tells you a little how it all came to pass and you can see the level of scholarship involved. I was really surprised at some of the differences between translations, especially evident in the Psalms. All in all, a very thought-provoking, and true to the Hebrew translation and the Masoretic text.
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Summary: Nicely binded and printed
Review: Nice and readable print. Formatting is good too. Only drawback is the English translation. It does say in the intro that it uses contemporary English. The word salvation is changed to deliverer, etc.
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Summary: Inaccurate in Places
Review: The Book of Zechariah tells of a day when nations will come against Jerusalem for war, but only to be wiped out by the God of Israel, who, afterward, reveals Himself to the Jewish people. This is the way the old Jewish Publication Society version of the Bible translated part of Zechariah's prophecy: "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me, because they have thrust him through; and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born" (Zechariah 12:9-10). This translation is straightforward and accurate except for one important point: the Hebrew literally says that the Jewish people will mourn, because they realize they have "thrust through" or "pierced" the speaker in the verse who all agree is none other than God Himself. Obviously, Christians see this as a prophecy of Israel's national repentance of their sins and acceptance of the atonement provided by their pierced Messiah, Jesus. However, according to a pastor I talked with, the translators of the Tanakh, the new Jewish Publication Society version, have deliberately mistranslated this verse. The translators of the Tanakh, he said, have added in the words "concerning those" in-between "me [God]" and "whom they [the Jewish nation] have pierced" in the Hebrew sentence, "They will look upon me whom they have pierced." That way, the sentence is made to read in a way that doesn't say God was the one pierced by the Jewish nation. The translators have also changed what is certainly a singular pronoun in the Hebrew of this verse into a plural pronoun. To top it off, the translators don't tell us in the footnotes that they have made any of these changes. In the new JPS Tanakh, this passage is made to say that the Jewish people will wail and deeply mourn not for the One whom they had pierced, but for their dead enemies who had come to destroy them! What a ridiculous *mistranslation*! *Many* of the other messianic prophecies have also been changed to hide their obvious meanings. For example, they have altered Daniel 9:24-26, the prophecy of the 70 weeks of years, which, according to a calculation that takes the number of years literally, indicates that "the anointed one/leader" or "messiah" would be "cut off" in approximately 32 A.D., the year Jesus died. (Any way you look at it, this passage clearly says that "the anointed one/leader" or "messiah" had already come and died before the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D.!) The Tanakh translates the Hebrew so that it confuses things and says that "the anointed one/leader" would "disappear" instead of being "cut off" as the Hebrew literally reads. The only motivation for these translations is to keep Jewish people from converting to Messianic Judaism. To be fair, I will say that the translators of the Tanakh have translated almost all of the greatest and most blatantly obvious prophecy fulfilled by Jesus -- the whole fifty-third chapter of Isaiah -- accurately. But, the bottom line is that this version of the Hebrew Bible is "de-christianized" to the point of being inaccurate. If you are a Christian and have bought this book for some reason, I recommend that you sell it.
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Summary: A beautiful, stunning and accurate translation!
Review: The Tanakh is a thoroughly researched and readable volume. It was refreshing to read the bible stories I grew up with in an accurate translation for adults, rather than as a pre-digested group of children's stories. Moreover, it was wonderful to read a first generation translation from the original Hebrew, rather than a rewrite of an old English translation. Additionally, one of the many benefits is that JPS chose to include, not only its own translation, but footnotes that refer to the translations of others, allowing the reader to identify and understand the differences. Its prose is modern and clear. This is a translation that will last long into the 21st century.
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Summary: In the beginning...
Review: The Tanakh, an edition of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, put out by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), is not simply a new translation of the Christian Old Testament. Indeed, most Christian readers would be surprised at the differences inherent in the Tanakh. The word Tanakh consists of the first letters of the words denoting the three sections of the text: the Torah (the Law), consisting of the first five books; the Nevi'im (the Prophets), which includes major and minor prophets, as well as some of the history books; and the Kethuvim (the Writings), which consists of poetry, wisdom literature, stories and eschatological literature, and some further history books. The first thing that strikes the reader more familiar with a Bible a la King James Version, is the the ordering of the books. The intent behind the differing order demonstrates one of the key differences in focus of Judaism and Christianity. The ordering of the Old Testament, with the minor prophets, and their call to repentance and future deliverance of the people of Israel by God, is anticipatory of the Messianic age, and hence provide a 'run-up' to the New Testament. Obviously, Judaism does not have the same focus toward Jesus. Thus, the conclusion of the Tanakh leads to the return from exile, the restoration of the people of Israel to the land of promise, and the return of the worship of God to the appointed place, the Temple. The Tanakh was originally translated and published in three sections, corresponding to the three divisions of the text. Begun in 1955, The Torah was completed in 1962; then there was a wait until The Nevi'im was released in 1978, and The Kethuvim in 1982. This edition of the Tanakh is the compilation of these efforts by JPS, with revisions, especially of the 1962 Torah translation. This is a reader's edition, not a scholar's edition. It is not heavily annotated, but there are markings and notes where translation difficulties and issues arose, for the attentive to pursue. The translators relied upon Hebrew editions, Aramaic targums, the Septuagint (a Greek translation), and were informed by subsequent translations, both Christian and Jewish. However, this edition has a translation and scholarly integrity all its own. The translations are careful in accuracy and beautiful in poetry, prose, and literary merit. Minor differences include the shifting of some chapter and verse demarcations. Contrary to popular belief, the original text was not broken into chapters and verses. This division is neither ancient nor Jewish, but rather a medieval Christian copyist convention. Admittedly, it is almost inconceivable to have a Bible without chapters and verses, but the reader should be aware that these are not integral and infallible. There are instances where this edition combines and re-lines the divisions to make more sense; for instance, the verses of Genesis 7.24 and 8.1 have been joined to make a more fluid and consistent narrative. I was honoured to have a Jewish friend read from this JPS edition a passage from I Samuel during my ordination. Her reading was magnificent. I think that it is very important in Biblical studies to utilise this text (among others) whenever doing research into the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament to gain a greater understanding of a text that is shared between different communities.
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