Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Wednesday 22 September 2004 22:26, C. Stirling Bartholomew wrote:
> On 9/22/04 9:15 PM, "Mark Wessner" <wessner AT telus.net> wrote:
> > I have a copy of Tov's Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible published in
> > 1992.  Is the revised 2001 edition significantly better, in terms of its
> > analysis of the development of the consonantal text (i.e., pages 29 and
> > following of the 1992 edition)?
>
> Mark,
>
> I don't have either edition on hand but have used the both. I wasn't
> overwhelmed by the changes in the 2nd edition. Don't think you need to
> purchase the new edition but would be open to correction if someone else
> wants to contradict.

I didn't use the older edition, but the intro to the second edition explains 
just what the major changes were, and the biggest one is his change of 
viewpoint on precisely this topic.  In the newer edition, he bows down to 
form and source criticism in a big way, something he apparently didn't do in 
the first one.  I'm reviewing the second edition for the online TC journal, 
and I found this change of viewpoint to be a big stumbling block.  I frankly 
wish he hadn't done it, but it's a little late for that.  To answer Mark's 
question, no, I don't think it's significantly better.  I think it's 
significantly worse.  

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No good.  Hit on head."   -Gronk