ROBERT ALTER'S TRANSLATION of the Pentateuch is reviewed in the Times. Excerpt:

If this book is to be welcomed as a vital part of literary culture rather than religious culture, that says a great deal about the current rate of secularisation. But it is not less to be celebrated. Alter has achieved the significant feat of refreshing English by taking it back to one of its sources of strength; he is not unworthy to follow in the distinguished line of Wycliffe, Tyndale and the �King James� committee as one who has made the language live again as an instrument of revelation and power.