A Modern Textual Outlook based on the Qumran Scrolls
In the last three centuries scholars have become accustomed to considering the three main textual witnesses of the Pentateuch (MT, LXX, Sam. Pent.) as the three main sources of the OT text, to which the other witnesses are subordinated. Also in the other biblical books two (MT, LXX) or three groups...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
College
1982
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
Year: 1982, Volume: 53, Pages: 11-27 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Old Testament
/ Text history
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament HD Early Judaism |
| Further subjects: | B
Dead Sea Scrolls
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| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | In the last three centuries scholars have become accustomed to considering the three main textual witnesses of the Pentateuch (MT, LXX, Sam. Pent.) as the three main sources of the OT text, to which the other witnesses are subordinated. Also in the other biblical books two (MT, LXX) or three groups were recognized. In the past, these two (three) witnesses have been described usually as recensions or, from Kahle onwards, as text types (Texttypen). In recent years, this pattern of a tripartite division of the textual witnesses has influenced the description of the Qumran scrolls from the first publications and onwards. The present paper questions the consensus which has developed in the last three centuries. The tripartite division of the textual evidence developed because of the limitations of textual knowledge in the seventeenth century, and it was not changed in this century, not even in the wake of the finds in the Judean Desert. The modern approach to textual criticism should abandon this tripartite division. Rather, the three main texts known in the pre-Qumran era should be considered as three out of a larger number of texts (not recensions or text-types). An extensive note is added at the end dealing with the statistical analysis of the relation between textual witnesses. |
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| ISSN: | 0360-9049 |
| Contains: | In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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