Quotes for All
Pantaenus was one of these and is said to have gone to India. It is reported that among persons there who knew of Christ, he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had anticipated his own arrival. For Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached to them, and left with them the writing of Matthew … Read more
If we don’t understand how metaphor works we will misunderstand most of what we read in the Bible. No matter how carefully we parse our Hebrew and Greek sentences, no matter how precisely we use our dictionaries and trace our etymologies, no matter how exactly we define the words on the page, if we do … Read more
When I say a spoken Hebrew sentence, half of it is like the King James Bible and half of it is a hip-hop lyric. It has a roller-coaster effect. Etgar Keret
I think that, in Hebrew, it’s like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story. Etgar Keret
What happens when you speak colloquial Hebrew is you switch between registers all the time. So in a typical sentence, three words are biblical, one word is Russian, and one word is Yiddish. This kind of connection between very high language and very low language is very natural, people use it all the time. Etgar … Read more
When my works are being translated, I always get this question from my translators: Up or down? Which means, should it sound biblical and highbrow, or should we take it all down to sound colloquial? In Hebrew, it’s both all the time. People in Israel would write in a high register, they wouldn’t write colloquial … Read more
Hebrew is this unique thing that you cannot translate to any other language. It has to do with its history. Etgar Keret
Hebrew was frozen, like frozen peas, fresh out of the Bible. Etgar Keret
It was the craving to be a one and only people which impelled the ancient Hebrews to invent a one and only God whose one and only people they were to be. Eric Hoffer
It is difficult to look at any newborn baby and accept that he or she will necessarily encounter pain, challenges, disappointments, and hardships in life. Yet even the Savior needed to go forth, suffering pains and afflictions . . . of every kind (Alma 7:11), the only difference being that Jesus, though tempted, did not … Read more