Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <davidlwashburn AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 7:21 AM, Transcriber <transcriber AT tanakh.us> wrote:

Most list members do not value the Documentary Hypothesis (DH) feature.
Indeed, one member characterized the entire site as being a DH site and
not worth examining.  DH materials are also subjective content in a site
dedicated to objective representation of the Tanach. DH materials take
up a lot of space and introduce quite a bit of complexity; thus, DH is a
tempting feature for consolidation.   However, my personal understanding
is that the DH is a part of modern bible study and should be retained.

Hi Chris,
I would suggest that whether or not to keep the DH materials depends on the purpose of the project. Are you making a primary source here, i.e. a fully searchable text of the codex for folks to use in their own research, or is it a sort of "study Bible" with additional materials that go beyond a faithful representation of the codex in searchable form? You said yourself that opinions differ as to what belongs where in the DH scenario, so if you're going for a primary research tool, I believe it would be useful to a wider range of people without the DH material, since a lot of people don't accept it or take a slightly different approach to it. My recommendation, totally free and worth every cent, would be to take those out and focus on making a good primary source for people to examine and draw their own conclusions.


-- 
Dave Washburn

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