A textual criticism thought

if you follow the harder readings, you will end up with an unintelligible text; if you follow the shorter readings, you will end up with no text at all.—Edward Hobbs, “Introduction to Methods of Textual Criticism,” in The Critical Study of Sacred Texts, ed. Wendy Doniger, Berkeley Religious Studies Series 2 (Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union, 1979), 19.