Textual Criticism

Textual criticism traffics in critical analysis, not in claims of authority. Cappel [Critica Sacra, 1650] made a distinction between the content of Scripture, which in his view was divinely inspired, and its textual transmission, which was a wholly human phenomenon. The accumulated errors in the texts are the product of human hands. The necessary remedy is textual criticism, a rational procedure whereby one can repair these accumulated errors and restore the text closer to its pristine state.—Ron Hendel, "The Idea of a Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible: A Genealogy" in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 4 (2014), 400