The Living Torah and The Living Nach are popular, clear and modern English translations[1] of the Tanakh based on traditional Jewish sources, along with extensive notes, maps, illustrations, diagrams, charts, bibliography, and index.
It was and remains a highly popular translation,[4] and was reissued in a Hebrew-English version with haftarot for synagogue use.
Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, a prominent legal decider for the Orthodox community, is reported to have said that the translation is so good that if one is unable to read the Targum Onkelos, which is written in Aramaic, one can fulfill Shnayim mikra ve-echad targum, the obligatory weekly reading of the Torah twice in Hebrew and once with translation, with The Living Torah's translation.
[6] The work is also noted for its detailed index, thorough cross-references, extensive footnotes with maps and diagrams, and research on realia, flora, fauna, and geography (drawing on sources as varied as Josephus, Dio Cassius, Philostratus and Herodotus).
These follow Rabbi Kaplan's format and approach, and were prepared posthumously: the former two by Yaakov Elman (Yeshiva University); the third by Moshe Schapiro, M.H.