Textual Research on the Bible - Academic Bible

32 Pages·2010·5.33 MB·English

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CodexVaticanus,datingbacktothefourthcentury,isregardedasoneofthemostimportant
biblicalmanuscripts.Withtheexceptionofafewlacunae,itcomprisestheentireOldandNewTestaments.
AtrightaretheendoftheGospelofLukeandthebeginningoftheGospelofJohn.
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TEXTUAL RESEARCH ON THE BIBLE
AnIntroductiontotheScholarlyEditionsoftheGermanBibleSociety
What Is Old Testament Textual Research? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
I. TheBibliaHebraicabyRudolfKittel(BHK)...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
II. TheBibliaHebraicaStuttgartensia(BHS)............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12
III. TheFutureoftheBibliaHebraica:TheBibliaHebraicaQuinta(BHQ)Project............................................................................................................... 12
What Is New Testament Textual Research? ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16
I. TheNestle-AlandNovumTestamentumGraeceandItsHistory................................................................................................................................................................ 19
II. TheGreekNewTestamentandItsHistory.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
III. TheSignificanceoftheTwoEditionsToday...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
IV. TheOutlook:NewTestamentTextualResearchContinues.................................................................................................................................................................................. 29
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What Is Old Testament Textual Research?
All reliable translations of the Old Testament (OT, DeadSea.Theseancientmanuscriptsincludethere-
frequently called the Hebrew Bible - HB) into any mains of some 200 transcriptions of individual
language used today must be based on the ancient books of the Bible from the period between 150
manuscripts that have survived to the present day. B.C. and A.D. 70. Apart from one single transcrip-
The important task of determining the Hebrew (most tion of the Book of Isaiah preserved in its entirety,
oftheOT)andAramaic(portionsofDaniel,Ezra,and the biblical texts from Qumran are mere fragments,
a few other verses) text most faithful to the original on which in most cases a very limited number of le-
writings is a complex one because there is no docu- gible words, often only a few characters, can be
mentthatdatestoitsbiblicalauthor(theautograph), made out.
but only carefully crafted, but not perfect, copies
from later periods. Much of the prophetic writings, TheoldestcompletecopyoftheentireHebrewBible
for instance, date from the 9th to the 6th centuries as we know it today is the Codex Leningradensis
B.C.,buttheveryoldestfragmentsofcopiesinHebrew from the year 1008. Another ancient copy, the
andAramiacthatexistcomefromthe2ndcenturyB.C. AleppoCodex,datingfromalmostahundredyears
earlier (A.D. 930), is unfortunately no longer com-
It was in the 3rd century B.C. that the Hebrew Bible plete. The Codex Leningradensis and the Aleppo
was first translated into Greek; this so-called Sep- Codex aretwoprimeexamples of theso-calledMa-
tuagint is the oldest and most important indirect wit- soretic text (MT; see below pp. 6-7).
ness from that era for the wording of the Hebrew/
Aramaictext.Further ancient translations werelater Old Testament textual research sets out to identify
added, above all the translation into the common accidentalerrorsin,aswellasdeliberatechangesto,
(“Vulgata”) Latin, the Syrian “Peshitta” and the Ara- thetextoftheHebrewBiblethatweremadeoverthe
maic “Targum”. courseoftime.Itseekswhereverpossibletocorrectthese
changesbyfirstidentifyingvariationsintransmission
TheoldestdirectwitnessesforthetextoftheHebrew through a comparison of the existing manuscripts
Bible are the manuscripts found in 1947 and there- against each other and against the ancient transla-
after in the Judean Desert that had been hidden in tions,andthenreconstructingtheoriginalversionby
caves near Qumran on the western edge of the means of rigorous scholarly criteria. (See the next
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section for the procedure used in New Testament
textualresearch.)Onthebasisofmanuscriptevidence
alone the best attainable wording of the Hebrew
Bibleisasitwasaround200B.C.Becauseofthein-
completenatureofthetextwitnessesavailabletous
today,thisoldestattainabletextformcannot,however,
be reconstructed to the same extent in all cases. In
ordertopresentauniformtextinaprintededitionof
theHebrewBible,theconstructionofatextformcor-
rectedaccordingtoscholarlycriteria(asinthecase
of the New Testament) must thus be dispensed with.
Rather, it is expedient to print a copy of the “Maso-
reticText”andthentolistwherenecessarytheextant
textual variants in what is called the critical appara-
tusatthefootofeachpage.Alsointhislocationany
scholarly suggestions for improvement of the Maso-
retic text can be noted.
The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), the out-
come of the findings from more than 100 years of
OldTestamenttextualresearch,followsthisprinciple.
The BHS is in universal use today and is esteemed CodexLeningradensis.Theillustrationshows
amongscholarsfromallChristianandJewishback- oneoftheelaboratelyexecuteddecorativepagesat
grounds as a highly reliable edition of the text of theendofthemanuscript.QuotationsfromMasoretic
theHebrewBible.Itprovidesthebasisbothfortrain- rulesandbiblicaltextsarewritteningeometrical
ing clergy in the original language of the Old Testa- patterns.Atthecenterisanotebythescribe:
ment and is the basis of all reputable modern Bible “I,SamuelbenJakob,wroteoutthiscodexand
translations. providedpunctuationandMasorah...”
nalauthorsasitispossibletoattain.Itisastoryofdis-
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covery.
Background: “Masorah” and “Masoretic text”
ApeculiarityofthewayinwhichtheHebrewlanguagewas(and,likeArabic,stillis)normallywrittenisthatitiswritten
withoutmostvowels.Formorethanathousandyears,theconsonantswerewritten,butthevowelsrequiredforpronunciation
hadtobesuppliedbythereader.ThisistrueoftheQumranmanuscripts.This“consonantal”textoftheHebrewBiblehas
beenregardedasfixed(nottobechanged)sincethefirstcenturyA.D.andtheJewishpeoplehaveeversinceattachedgreat
importancetoitsprecisetransmission.Theproblemremainsthattheconsonantaltextfrequentlyallowsfordifferentpossible
pronunciationsandthuspotentiallyalsodifferentmeanings.Knowledgeofthecorrectpronunciationandmeaningtherefore
hadtobepasseddownfromgenerationtogenerationtogetherwiththewrittentext.AroundA.D.600,Jewishscholars,the
so-calledMasoretes(literally“conveyorsoftradition”)finallydevelopedasystemofvowelandstressmarksthatalso
preciselyfixedorestablishedthepronunciationandthusthemeaningoftheHebrewBibletext.TheMasoretesatthesame
timeundertooktextualresearchofthehighestquality.Inadditiontoestablishingafixedpronunciationandmeaning,they
alsoendeavoredtosecurethebiblicaltextagainstmistakesincopyingand,whereverpossible,tocorrectexistingerrors.To
thisend,inthemarginoftheirmanuscriptstheyaddeddetailednotesonwriting(orthographic)variants,statisticalinformation
onthefrequencyofparticularwords,andevendirectionsastowheretheyconsideredareadingdifferentfromthetransmitted
consonantaltexttobenecessary.ThiscompendiumofmarginalnotesisreferredtoastheMasorahParva(“smallMasorah”).
Alongwiththislessercollectionofnotes,theMasoretesalsocompiledlistsofentirepassagesfromthebiblicaltextdistinguished,
forexample,byacharacteristicorthographicvariant,aparticularsequenceofwordsorotherpeculiarity.Theselists,collectively
referredtoastheMasorahMagna(“largeMasorah”),areincludedatthetopandthefootofthepagesoftheMasoreticmanu-
scripts.ThehighlymeticulousworkoftheMasoretesgaverisetothetermforthecarefullycopiedbiblicaltextthattheymade,
the“MasoreticText.”Becauseoftheircarefulworkdonebetweenthe6thand8thcenturies,fromthattimeonwardsthere
hasbeenalargelyuniformlytransmittedversionoftheHebrewBiblewithonlyminortextualvariations.
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AleppoCodex,fromTiberias,c.930.Onlyaroundtwo-thirdsoftheoriginalcontent
arestillextant.ThebiblicaltextwiththeMasoreticvowelsandaccentsiswritten
inthreecolumns.BetweenthecolumnsandinthemarginistheMasorahParva,
andatthetopandbottomofthepageistheMasorahMagna.Atthefarright,
thecustomarycourseofthetextisinterruptedsothataparticularpassage
(inthiscaseJosh12:9-24)couldbesetoutinaccordancewiththetransmittedrules.
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RudolfKittel(*1853inEningenu.A.;†1929inLeipzig), PaulKahle(*1875inHohenstein;†1964inBonn),Professor
ProfessorofOldTestamentStudiesinLeipzig,initiatedthe ofOrientalStudiesinBonnandOxford,recognizedtheeminent
plansforacriticaleditionoftheHebrewBiblein1901. significanceoftheCodexLeningradensisfortextualresearch
ThefirsteditionofhisBibliaHebraicaappearedin1906. andpersuadedRudolfKitteltousethisCodexasthetextual
basisofthe3rdEditionoftheBibliaHebraica.
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I. The Biblia Hebraica by Rudolf Kittel (BHK)
The beginnings: The First Edition of the Biblia Hebraica by Rudolf Kittel (1906)
Around1901,theOldTestamentscholarRudolfKittel(1853–1929)fromLeipzigdevelopedaplanforacritical
edition of the Hebrew Bible. Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (BHK) was published in 1906 in two volumes by Verlags-
buchhandlung J. C. Hinrichs in Leipzig. As its basis, Kittel chose the Hebrew so-called “Textus receptus”, edited
by Jakob ben Chayim. This was a version of the Masoretic Text that Daniel Bomberg had published in Venice in
1524/1525.Throughthecenturiessinceitsfirstpublication,ithadbecomeuniversallyrecognizedasthedefinitive
textoftheHebrewBible.KittelprintedthisHebrewtextwithitsvowelandstressmarks,butwithoutthesurrounding
Masoreticcommentariesandnotes(theMasorahMagnaandMasorahParva).Atthefootofthepagesheincluded
a concise critical apparatus with textual variants from other known Masoretic manuscripts and from the ancient
translations (primarily the Greek Septuagint).
A milestone: The Third Edition of the Biblia Hebraica by Rudolf Kittel (1937)
In1921,WürttembergischeBibelanstalt (WBA) acquiredtherights toKittel’s Biblia Hebraica from thepublisher
J.C.Hinrichs.Inadditiontoareprintoftheexistingedition,arevisionofthisworkwasundertakenfrom1925onwards.
The“CodexLeningradensis”fromA.D.1008hadbeendiscoveredbyPaulKahleinLeningrad,Russia,andbecauseit
wastheoldestmanuscriptoftheMasoreticTextpreservedinitsentirety,itsubsequentlyservedasthetextualbasisfor
thisedition.Thecriticalapparatuswasdividedintotwoportions;“slightvariantsandlessimportantitemsofinformation”
and“therealtextualchangesandothermoresignificantmatter.”Inthiswaythereaderwasprovidedwithanevaluation
ofthesignificanceofthatinformation.Aboveall,however,themarginsofthisthirdeditionincludedtheMasorahParva
fromtheCodexLeningradensis,althoughwithoutfurthertreatmentorexplanation.Thecompleterevisionwaspublished
byWBAin1937asthethirdeditionofKittel’sBibliaHebraica(BHK3).Thispublicationlaidthefoundationforthehigh
internationalesteemenjoyedbyBibliaHebraicaandpreparedthegroundforthelaterBHS.
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ThecavesofQumran,
onthenorthwestern
edgeoftheDeadSea.
In1947remainsof
manuscriptswerefound
herethathadsurvived
intheextremelyarid
conditionsforaround
twothousandyears.
CodexLeningradensis,theoldestcompletemanuscriptoftheHebrewBible,fromtheyear1008.Thephotograph
showsFolio423withtheendoftheBookofRuthandthebeginningoftheSongofSolomon.
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