Someone sent me this link a couple days ago. It’s about the Oxford Hebrew Bible project, of which Ron Hendel of UC-Berkeley is the chief editor. The article makes some silly statements that make it sound like this project is going to see things in the biblical Hebrew text no one else has, or that it will produce *the* Hebrew Bible for the first time. Somebody better tell the other two Hebrew Bible edition projects currently running to just shut down, I guess.
The Oxford Project aims to produce an eclectic text. The others below are diplomatic editions.
The other two ongoing projects are:
Biblical Hebraica Quinta – The 5th edition of Biblia Hebraica, which will supersede the Hebrew Bible used practically everywhere today, the 1977 Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia). If you’ve ever taken Hebrew at a seminary or grad school, you know what that is. The textual base is the Leningrad Codex.
The Hebrew University Bible Project – This project’s goal is “to create the first edition of the Hebrew Bible that reproduces the text of the Aleppo Codex and includes a thorough critical apparatus.”
Can you briefly comment on the differences between the Aleppo codex and the Leningrad codex?
Are there pros/cons to using one text over the other as a basis? Where is the debate at with respect to choosing one over the other (for the laymen)?
Aleppo lacks most of the Torah (lost in a fire, though some people wonder about that). Any comparison is therefore based on the rest of the Tanakh. There aren’t huge differences. As Joel Stucki (on the B-Hebrew list) noted:
“You won’t find wild earth shaking differences between the two. They
both come from the Ben Asher tradition although the Aleppo Codex is
considered more authoritative of the two. Most of the differences are
with paragraphing, verse and chapter divisions, and the Masoretic
notes and pointing. These are all minor however. The differences are
the kind that allow scholars to spend hours on mailing lists arguing
over fine points of grammar not the kind that causes poeple to rethink
theological conclusions.
Unless you follow a deeply traditional religous model, these
differences pale in importance compaired to the differences between
the Ben Asher texts and the Dead Sea Scrolls. But even these are
remarkably similar.”
I like the Oxford Hebrew Bible Project samples with the commentaries. I have Ronald S. Hendel’s “The Text of Genesis 1-11: Textual Studies and Critical Edition.”
I need to pick up Hendel’s book. It’s been on my wish list for a long time.
I wish they would come join with me on my project! 🙂 I’m now working with the Hebrew texts as part of The Parable Project. Since reading The Bible with Sources Revealed and Who Wrote the Bible, I’ve been looking forward to delving more into the Hebrew texts.
You chided the Oxford Hebrew Bible Project for seeing something new,
so I hope you’ll have an open mind with my project. I can show you parables throughout the Bible that have not been seen before now. There are examples on my website.
New Testament texts were written using a literary form found in the Hebrew scriptures. It’s so important to understand this because quite frankly, trying to make sense of biblical texts without taking into account the literary form in which it was written, is a waste of time.
Understanding the parable blueprint and the parables themselves is going to require an open heart and probably a little bit of time and effort, but I assure you, it’s work done with integrity. Once you “get it” you’ll really be amazed!!
The Oxford project isn’t going to uncover variants no one has ever seen (my point).
Would love for The Parable Project to be added to the list.
http://parableblueprint.com/parableproject/index.html
It involves parsing the texts into newly revealed parables, rather than chapters.
Thank you…
These are scholarly text-critical projects whose aims are quite different.