Scholarly Bible Editions, Part 2
As may be seen from this simple example, the issues concerning textual criticism need to be learned gradually and with care, and there are often no clear answers to questions raised by differences between the MT and one of the versions. Those interested in pursuing these issues further are encouraged to look at Ernst Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), which also contains photographs of many of the versions, J. Weingreen, Introduction to the Critical Study of the Text of the Hebrew Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), P. Kyle McCarter, Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) and for more advanced students, Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992). Most versions of BHS come with a quick reference guide, which translates the standard Latin definitions into English. More extensive information may be found in Reinard Wonneberger, Understanding BHS (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1984) and in William R. Scott, A Simplified Guide to BHS (Berkeley: BIBAL Press, 1987).
What follows is an explanation of the most common BHS abbreviations:
- add — added
c — with
dl — delete
Edd — early printed Bible editions
frt — possibly
ins — insert
l — read
mlt — many
Mss — medieval Bible manuscripts
om — omit(s)
pc — a few
prb— probably
prp — it has been proposed
sg — singular
tr — transpose
vel — or
BHS refers to many versions; the most common of these are:
— the Greek translation, called the
Septuagint
— a reading from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran
— the Samaritan Pentateuch
— the Peshitta, the ancient Syriac (an Aramaic dialect) translation of
the Bible
— the Targum(im), various Jewish Aramaic Bible translations
— The Vulgate, Jerome's Latin Bible translation
The 
, found in BHS on the outside margins of the page. This is also known by its Latin name, the Masora parva. These are notes written in a combination of Aramaic and abbreviations, which helped copyists and readers preserve the text exactly by noting unusual forms. For example, we note that 
in v. 1 has a circle above it; this connects it to the marginal note to
the left of that verse, the first of which reads 
,
representing the numeral 7. ( is the seventh letter
of the Hebrew alphabet.) This means that the word (with both the definite article and the
conjunction) is found seven times in the Hebrew Bible. The system
behind these notes is quite complex, and will not be examined here;
those interested should consult Israel Yeivin, Introduction to
the Tiberian Masorah, translated and edited by E. J. Revell
(Chico: Scholars Press, 1980). A modified form of the 
found in BHS immediately below the
biblical text. This is sometimes known as the Masora magna. The main
function of the was to elucidate
some notes in the by noting
particular biblical references. For example, the notes that the word
in Gen 22:1 is one of seven occurrences of the word in that form, and the might indicate where the other six occurrences were.
However, since these notes were compiled before chapter and verse
numbers were inserted into the Hebrew Bible, the traditional would do this by quoting part of the
verse of each occurrence. This is no longer necessary, so BHS has
created a new type of
expanding upon the notes in the
in a volume by G. E. Weil, Massorah
Gedolah. For example, the
for 22:1 noted that is found seven times; that 
is followed by a superscript 1, which is
a footnote marker, referring to the 1 which follows Cp 22
(chapter 22) on the first line below the end of the Hebrew text. That
note reads 1Mm 145, which means that the seven occurrences
may be found by looking up Weil's Massorah Gedolah,
number 145. These notes are sometimes useful for finding particular
forms or patterns which are noted in the Masorah, but there are usually
easier ways to find the same information.
In addition to BHS, which is complete, two other scholarly editions are in progress:
- The Hebrew University Bible Project, where Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are complete. This edition contains many more variants than BHS.
- The Five Scrolls have just been printed in Biblia Hebraica Quinta. This new project, which may eventually replace BHS, has a short commentary in addition to text-critical notes.
