Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <Kirk AT GrovesCenter.org>]

On 05/13/2013 06:55 PM, Jerry Shepherd wrote:

CABGSdBQrg4D3VWWmr-f7EFEA8rAamFu0LE3LX9itQAQ0b197-g AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">

Something you might find of interest about the Leningrad Codex and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is that, apparently, when BHS first came out, some of the editing work was based on inferior photographs of the codex.  I was one of a handful of students in the mid to late 80s assisting the late Al Groves on the Westminster Hebrew Computer Project, providing a computerized morphological database for the Hebrew text.  As part of our work, we also checked the BHS text against a facsimile of the codex we had at that time.  What first alerted our attention to the problem was a note in the apparatus for Hos 9:15.  For one of the words, שָׂרֵיהֶ֖ם , BHS had no qamets under the sin, and the apparatus note read, “sic L, mlt Mss Edd ‘שָׂ.”  But our facsimile clearly showed that there was indeed a qames under the שׂ.  We then came to find out that the BHS editors were working from faulty photocopies.  We came to find quite a few additional instances where the editor had a “sic L” note, when in fact our photocopies showed no such error.  I remember we started an errata list, but I don’t know whatever happened with it, or whether our findings were ever incorporated in subsequent BHS printings (my most recent copy was issed in 1984).  I’m sure BHQ has incorporated the corrections.  Perhaps Kirk Lowery can provide additional information on this.

Both BHS and the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) -- (which we at the Groves Center maintain -- have been converging to the same end point: accurate transcription of the manuscript. When I joined Al Groves at Westminster in 1998, one of the first things we did was make a conscious effort to conform the text to the Eerdmans photo facsimile. At one time Al sent the German Bible Society a list of 600 suggested corrections. With each printing of BHS, our texts have grown closer. As for BHQ, we have worked our way through the text apparatus of the published fascicles. But until we have access to a digital version of the text of BHQ, we won't know just how close we are.

It just so happens that one of the projects for our summer intern this year is to produce a document about our differences with BHS, which we will put on our website. I will announce it here, as well. The WLC is available at http://tanach.us/Tanach.xml#Home.

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Blessings,
Kirk
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Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
President & Senior Research Fellow
The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research