Biblical Hebrew Forum

["James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>]

Albert,

There is no such animal; it would be huge. The closest we have--outside
of BHS--is the new BHQ, of which 4-5 fascicles are now available. The
expected completion date continues to move into the future, so don't
hold your breath waiting for it. It does include DSS variants, as well
as Syriac, LXX, and Vulgate among others. The drawback is that Syriac is
not in transliteration as it is in BHS, but in the Syriac script,
Nestorian, if I remember correctly (but I might be wrong). And, it is
priced out of the range of the average person. The retails run over
$100/fascicle, although most of the time you can purchase them for
$75.00 or so.

>From personal experience, I can sympathize with you. On more than one
occasion I have had BHS, LXX, and Vulgate texts open in front of me and
seen BHS ignore what I thought were important variants. 

James

________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 35 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Albert Haig
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 8:52 PM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Malachi 1:10 textual variant

Dear B-Hebrew list,

Regarding Malachi 1:10, there are no textual variants marked in Biblia
Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) in relation to the first word of the
verse,
MIY. However, when I looked up the verse in English in Quickverse, in
the
notes for this verse was the following (I have just cut and pasted
this):

Who (KJV): Instead of {mi,} "who," one MS. (30 K.) with the LXX reads
{ki,}
"surely," which is adopted by Houbigant and Abp. Newcome, who renders,
"Surely the doors shall be closed against you, neither shall ye kindle
the
fire of my altar in vain."

When I checked the LXX, it reads DIOTI, which certainly does seem to be
a
translation of KIY rather than MIY. So it seems that the LXX does in
fact
have a variant reading at this point. As regards Hebrew manuscripts, I
am
not sure what manuscript "30 K." refers to, I can't find any such
manuscript
listed in BHS or in the Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (vol. 2, pp.
1311-1323). I assume they are using a different nomenclature.

Now it seems to me that this textual variant (i.e. the reading KIY)
can't be
correct on grammatical grounds. This is because I assume that it
requires us
to understand the subject of the verb W:YISGOR to be God; however, just
a
few words later in the verse God is referred to in the first person (the
suffix on MIZB:XIY); I can't see how you can have God changing from the
third person to the first person in a couple of words, and I can't see
who
could be the subject for the verb W:YISGOR if not God, unless, of
course,
the text reads MIY, in which case that acts as subject. So I think the
reading MIY is correct.

But my main concern is as follows. I was under the impression (perhaps
illusion) that BHS listed all textual variants in the footnotes, except
of
course those found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). But here it seems to
have
missed a variant in the LXX and one Hebrew manuscript.  Have I been
misled?
Does BHS omit some textual variants (other than the DSS)? How frequently
does this happen? Often BHS does note variant readings found in the LXX,
so
what criteria do they use to decide what gets noted and what does not?

And if this is true, can anyone tell me if there is a critical text of
the
Hebrew Old Testament available in print that notes ALL the textual
variants
in the footnotes (excepting perhaps the DSS, although ideally it would
include these also)? I would be keen to purchase it if there is.

Thank you for your help! I am somewhat disgruntled at BHS at the moment.

Very best wishes,

Albert Haig.
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