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Misprints in BHS

Ben Clackson (student)

Biblia Hebraia Stuttgartenia (BHS) claims that its text reproduces Codex Leningradensis (L). Emanuel
Tov listed three cases where there were consonantal errors in the 1984 printing, all of which were
corrected in the 5th edition (1997)1. But errors remain in the 5th edition. Daniel Mynott pointed out

that in 2 Kings 10:2, BHS has ‫ ְבּבֹא‬where L has ‫ְכּבֹא‬ 2


. A more bizarre error occurs in Psalm 89:18,

for which BHS gives the qere in the margin as ‫ תרים‬i.e. identical consonants to the kethiv printed in

the text ‫ ָתּ ִרים‬. The actual qere in L is ‫ תרום‬3. As it stands BHS completely obscures L’s intention
to propose a Qal 3fs verb (“our horn is raised/exalted”) instead of Hiphil 2ms (“you raise our horn”).

These examples of demonstrable errors in the text of BHS suggest some questions.

First, can it be assumed that the number of errors diminished with each new edition of BHS? In this
respect the error just explained in Psalm 89:18 is discouraging. In Marvyn Tate’s WBC Commentary
published in 1990 writes of this verse “Reading hiphil with kethiv; qere has simple 3rd pers. Sing.”4.
This makes it clear that the Hebrew Bible he was using (presumably an edition of BHS) had the same
qere as L. In that case the 5th edition introduced an error that was not there before.

Secondly, will the number of errors in Biblia Hebraia Quinta (BHQ) be much reduced when it is
complete? In the absence of published information about the way the project is being managed or
descriptions of any automated digital checks one cannot be sure. But in any case the bulk and cost of
BHQ put it beyond the reach of most students.

Given the above, it is still interesting to ask how many errors there are in BHS? At one level, the
answer is clearly that no-one knows exactly, and it is not worth any one person’s time to find out.
But the answer is not quite unknowable, because it is possible to imagine a distributed project to put
a lower bound on the number of errors as follows. My copy of BHS (5th edition) has 1574 pages. If
the average number of verses per page is about 20, then if 32,000 students of biblical Hebrew were
willing to check one verse each against the online version of the Westminster Leningrad Codex and if
the reported errors at this first stage were not too numerous to be checked in a second stage by
more experienced scholars, we would arrive at a minimum number of errors (admitting that careless
first stage checking might miss some errors). In the absence of such a project, it is hard to know if
the answer is nearer 2 or 1000.

1
Tov, Emanuel: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Second Revised Edition (2001) p7
2
Mynatt, Daniel S: The Sub Loco Notes in the Torah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1994) p129
3
See online version of Westminster Leningrad Codex at http://tanach.us/Tanach.xml
4
Tate, Marvyn: Word Biblical Commentary Psalms 51-100 (1990) p 410 footnote 18.b.

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