In textual criticism today, the study of different manuscript traditions has become fragmented. With such fragmentation of expertise come boundaries that make communication between the various subfields increasingly difficult. The Textual History of the Bible series brings together all available information regarding the textual history and character, translation techniques, manuscripts, and importance of textual witnesses for each biblical and deutero-canonical book.
The Textual History of the Bible comprises:
Volumes 1A, 1B and 1C: The Hebrew Bible (129 authors, 340 articles and c.2000 pages)
Volumes 2A, 2B, 2C: Deuterocanonical Scriptures (110 authors, 240 articles and c.1300 pages)
Volumes 3 A, 3B, 3C and 3D: A Companion to Textual Criticism
- 3A: The History of Research of Textual Criticism (2022)
- 3B: Modern Printed Editions of the Hebrew Bible, Its Versions, and Cognate Scriptures (2024/2025)
- 3C: Theory and Practice of Textual Criticism (2024/2025)
- 3D: Science, Technology and Textual Criticism (2022)
The Textual History of the Bible is also available
online.
General EditorArmin Lange is professor for Second Temple Judaism at the University of Vienna, the Director of Vienna University's Institute for Jewish Studies, a member of the International Team editing the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has published extensively on the Hebrew Bible, its textual criticism, Second Temple Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Volume Editors Frank Feder is senior academic researcher and project coordinator of the academy project
Complete Digital Edition and Translation of the Coptic-Sahidic Old Testament at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. His research focuses on the Coptic translations of the Bible as versions of the Septuagint. He published extensively on the Coptic bible and is the author of
Biblia Sahidica Ieremias, Lamentationes (Threni), Epistula Ieremiae et Baruch (DeGruyter, 2002).
Russell Fuller joined the faculty of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego in 1992. He is a professor of biblical studies with a specialty in the area of Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is a member of the International Team editing the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Matthias Henze is the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at Rice University and the director of Rice's program in Jewish Studies. The focus of his published work is on the Jewish literature composed around the turn of the Common Era.
Marilyn Lundberg is Associate Director of the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California, and Associate Director for Ingest/Cataloguing of the
InscriptiFact Project. She is an Affiliate Associate Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. She has published in the fields of Northwest Semitics, and in digital technology and image distribution.
Mika S. Pajunen is Academy of Finland’s Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki (2020-2025) with his project: “Textual Plurality in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Moving beyond ‘Non-Aligned,’” and a member of three international re-edition projects of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DJD I, III, and V). He has published extensively on Second Temple Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University, Jerusalem is J.L. Magnes Professor of Bible emeritus at that University. He has published many monographs on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible and Qumran, and was the editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls publication project. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences.
Richard D. Weis (d. 2020) is Dean and Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky, and is co-chair of the Editorial Committee for
Biblia Hebraica Quinta. He has published numerous articles on textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible and the two ancient text forms of the book of Jeremiah. He is preparing the volumes on
Jeremiah for Biblia Hebraica Quinta and the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition
The Textual History of the Bible project includes (apart from the THB volumes / THB online proper) the following publications:
• Textus – A Journal on Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (from 1960): Textus | Brill • THB supplements – a series of monographs that go into aspects of the Textual History of the Bible in more detail: Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible (brill.com) • THB Handbooks – a format in between THB and the THB Supplements; a series of medium-size reference works that treat areas of the Textual History of the Bible systematically and comprehensively. Four are currently in the pipeline, they are in different stages of preparation: on Manuscripts, on Language and Linguistics, on Canonical History and on Quotations.