Daniel McClellan – Psalms 1 and 2

It appears as though Daniel McClellan is offering translations and notes on some of the Psalms.  He has started with Psalms 1 and 2 and I hope he continues this.  Check out the translations and notes here – Psalm 1 and Psalm 2.

As an aside, it is always interesting to see how different translators handle the word torah as well as the tetragrammaton.  Daniel has opted for the transliteration of each, i.e. torah is rendered as “torah” and the divine name is rendered as “Yhwh.”

I think matters like this are usually a tough call, especially when a translation is intended for a wider audience, which I don’t particularly think Daniel is doing on his blog.  It’s not like he’s trying to develop the new NRSV or anything like that.

These are the kinds of things that are pleasing to me as a scholar.  I would prefer to see torah as “torah” and the divine name as Yhwh rather than as Lord (all caps or otherwise).

On the other hand, I think these are the kinds of things that might lead to a translation not being well received by the general public.  They have simply gotten accustomed to hearing “on his law he meditates ….”