Ellis R. Brotzman

Old Testament Textual Criticism is a subject at once complicated and simple. Simple, because it comes down, in a very real sense, to just one question: "How do you feel about the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible)?"

We have many copies of the Hebrew Bible in the original language. We have many translations -- Septuagint, Old Latin, Vulgate, Peshitta Syriac, and so forth. But, for the most part, the Hebrew manuscripts are late, and they all agree. Do they agree because the show more text has never changed, or do they differ because they are late and all come from a particular strand of the tradition? Both views have their supporters. And if the latter view is correct, then the Septuagint is the key to textual criticism, because it is the one substantial independent witness.

So every manual of Old Testament criticism wrestles with this decision. Or, in some cases, doesn't wrestle with it enough.

This book, in my view, is one that doesn't wrestle with it enough. Not only does it follow the Hebrew too blindly, it doesn't even give the question enough attention. The result is a terrible oversimplification.

There is no final answer on this question. But research continues, and this book feels as if it could have been written two hundred years ago. Maybe when the revised edition comes along.... show less

Essa introdução prática e acessível à crítica textual do Antigo Testamento auxilia o estudante a entender tanto os pressupostos básicos da disciplina como a lidar com as questões complexas da área. Os autores unem seu conhecimento comprovado em sala de aula com os estudos mais atualizados e relevantes. Esse livro, que se tornou um bem-sucedido clássico em língua inglesa (quase 25.000 cópias vendidas), foi ampliado e atualizado a fim de contemplar as muitas mudanças nas pesquisas show more dos últimos vinte anos. Inclui exemplos, ilustrações, bibliografia atualizada e um comentário crítico-textual do livro de Rute. show less

As advertised, a practical introduction to Old Testament textual criticism.

The authors assume a basic level of familiarity with Hebrew and Greek and seek to set forth a basic primer on the tools, resources, and work of textual criticism of the Old Testament. The reader is introduced to what textual criticism is, how it works, the terminology involved, modern editions of the text, the history of the transmission of the text, the types of variants and their likely origins, the Hebrew texts show more themselves, and ancient translations of Hebrew texts and how those ancient texts can attest to their original Hebrew antecedent (their vorlagen). The authors conclude with an exercise in exploring the text critical issues in the book of Ruth. Additional resources are continually cited; appendices are included to provide assistance in understanding all the Latin terms in BHS, the philosophy of textual reconstruction, and other resources.

The book is modern, clear, and a very good introduction; it does well at clarifying things that might seem very complex and strange to the new student. From it one can profitably turn to other books on textual criticism.

Highly recommended for those with some familiarity in Hebrew and Greek and are interested in OT textual criticism.

**--galley received as part of early review program
**--reviewer went to college with one of the authors (Tully) show less

Very lucid and easy to understand. Explains all of the technical language and difficulties of doing the textual criticism of the Old Testament.