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

It's official!

Just announced, on Jack Sasson's Agade e-list:

Proverbs: An Eclectic Edition with Introduction and Textual Commentary
Michael V. Fox
Hardcover $69.95 ISBN 9781628370201
500 pages The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition 1
https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=062401C&PG=1&Type=BL&PCS=SBL

It's nice to see it in print after spending so many hours poring over it in PDF and print outs. I just hope nobody finds any especially egregious errors!

Grammar does matter

Is the presence of the volitive yiqtol in Samuel a coincidence, or should we suspect a scribal tradition in which the volitive functions of the yiqtol (< yaqtula) were well known? Could the scribes of Samuel have been familiar with the Hebrew volitive yaqtula while the scribes of other books expressed volition strictly through the jussive, imperative, and cohortative? Since a concentration of “volitive followed by yiqtol” is found in Samuel, I advocate for a literary style peculiar to a specific scribal tradition rather than suggesting emendations for all the passages traditionally interpreted as textual errors. The scribes of Samuel, who were certainly familiar with the Canaanite volitive yaqtula, give us a glimpse into their understanding of the modal system of Hebrew.—The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose, page 141

<idle musing>
See, grammar really can make a difference! Now, we'll see if BHQ takes note of it whenever they finally get around to Samuel. As an aside, is there significance in the fact that the home page of the project itself is blank? I hope not!

And, by extension, will HBCE take note of it?
</idle musing>

Take your pick; they're both wrong

The ketiv and the qere are “equal” insofar as 19:7c is incomprehensible by either variant.—HBCE Proverbs, page 272

<idle musing>
I laughed out loud when I read this...OK, after so many hours of proofing a text, anything can be funny... : )
</idle musing>

Inconsistent

It is one of the peculiarities of biblical text criticism that we will emend the ancient level of the text while holding the medieval level sacrosanct.—HBCE Proverbs, page 21

<idle musing>
I dunno; it struck me as funny...
</idle musing>

Final proofs!

I received the final proofs last night for HBCE Proverbs! I have 4 days to turn them around and get them back...

That means it should be published in the next month or so.

Order one!

I wonder how long this has been up? I just saw it last night for the first time.

Proverbs: An Eclectic Edition with Introduction and Textual Commentary
Michael V. Fox

ISBN 1628370203
Status Forthcoming
Price: $69.95
Binding Hardback
Publication Date November, 2014
Pages 200 (It's a lot more than that! More like 400...)

Here's a screen shot of the description. They don't have a cover design on the page yet...

How about that price? And hardcover, no less. That's just a bit more than 1/2 the price of the BHQ Proverbs fascicle (which is paper)...

At least he's honest

The ketiv and the qere are “equal” insofar as 19:7c is incomprehensible by either variant.—M. Fox, Proverbs HBCE, forthcoming

I dunno; it struck me as funny : )

It isn't really closed

Both creative expansions and recombination of phrases can be found throughout wisdom literature and can be the work of a scribe, a translator, or a copyist in subsequent transmission.—M. Fox in Proverbs, HBCE (forthcoming), sub 16:17

It's not really that simple

It is important to remember that for purposes of assessing the translator’s techniques and ideas, it is not what the Hebrew text means but what the translator thinks it means that counts. For that matter, this is true of the text critic too: what the text means cannot be distinguished from what he or she thinks it means. For practical purposes, there is no escape from gauging the translator’s interpretation by one’s own—often uncertain, sometimes shifting—understanding.— The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition, Introduction

<idle musing>
I'm frequently reminded that it's the perspective that counts, not what is really (if there is such a thing!) there. We all come with preconceptions that color how we see things. The LXX, Syriac, and Jerome (Vulgate) were no different, so it shouldn't be a surprise when what we see in the text is different from what they saw...
</idle musing>

You've already chosen

I've been busy the last few weeks—and not just with the cabins. As most of you know, we get our house and utilities paid by working as cabin caretakers/maintenance. But we still have to eat (and the garden doesn't supply everything we eat! At least not yet...) and pay other bills. In order to do that, I do copyediting and proofreading for various publishers. One of the publishers I work for is the Society of Biblical Literature. I've done several books for them, but this summer I started working on a project that I am really enjoying and hope to for a long time to come: The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition. Right now I'm working on Proverbs. I was reading through the introduction when I ran across this little gem:

It should be stressed that those who prefer a Masoretic reading or an entire Masoretic edition are in effect participating in this construction of meaning, albeit passively, by aligning themselves with one text state, a medieval one.

That's right, not to decide is actually to decide. And you've probably chosen a version that is further from the original than an eclectic text. Think about that for a while before deeming the HBCE a useless exercise.

Just an
</idle musing>