Biblia Hebraica Quinta

Read the article: Biblia Hebraica Quinta and the Making of Critical Editions of the Hebrew Bible by Richard D. Weis

Also see News announcement.

The first fascicles of the new Biblia Hebraica Quinta from the German Bible Society are now available.

This edition will succeed the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) (1977). The aim is to provide an edition with a completely new critical apparatus to the Hebrew (Masoretic) text, accompanied by a commentary volume in which the most difficult cases are treated.

This edition is produced for serious students of the Hebrew Bible. It aims to provide them with a clear presentation of the surviving evidence of the text's transmission that is relevant for translation and exegesis.

The current volumes are edited by Adrian Schenker et al. The first installment contains these volumes:

Fascicle 5: Deuteronomy
Fascicle 13: The Twelve Minor Prophets (to be added soon at no additional charge)
Fascicle 17: Proverbs (to be added soon at no additional charge)
Fascicle 18: General Introduction and Megilloth (Ruth, Canticles, Qoheleth, Lamentations, Esther)
Fascicle 20: Ezra and Nehemiah

Features include:

• Diplomatic text of the Leningrad Codex, cited from new color photographs. As the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, it serves as the base text against which other witnesses are collated. This text is not morphologically tagged.
• Masorah magna and parva of the Leningrad Codex are included in parallel with the text.
• Layout of poetic texts corresponds as closely as possible to Masoretic accentuation.
• Indications of parallel texts are given.
• A single apparatus is included in parallel.
• Text critical cases are generated and noted in the apparatus when a pre-Tiberian witness arguably, but not necessarily, witnesses a Hebrew text that differs from the Tiberian text.
• Two other Tiberian codices are collated for each book.
• Qumran and Judean Desert fragments are collated.
• All available pre-Tiberian witnesses for each textual case are noted.
• A general introduction presents the edition, characterises the text and masorah of the base text, the particular use of resources, the relation of BHQ to BHS and previous editions etc.
• Each book is also accompanied by a commentary.

As they are published, additional fascicles will be made available at an upgrade price. The Biblia Hebraica Quinta is expected to be completed in 2015.

First Look: Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) in Accordance: