As Emanuel Tov has stated, these introductions form âan almost complete introductionâ to the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. They hold an important place in Old Testament textual criticism and can stand alone, apart from the detailed discussions of the textual problems found in the volumes. Part one surveys the history of OT textual criticism âfrom its origins to J. D. Michaelisâ and presents the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and its goals. Part two describes in detail the background of the modern versions that the HOTTP took into account in its work. Part three, the most extensive section, discusses the textual witnessesâthe different forms of the Hebrew text and the contribution of the ancient versions. As his concluding program for a critical edition makes clear, the groundbreaking work of BarthÊlemy and the HOTTP served as the basis for the new Biblia Hebraica Quinta, which began publication in 2004.
UBS undertook the HOTTP to offer Bible translators help in applying the results of textual criticism to their work, but there is no doubt that many others will benefit from this work, as well as the other volumes in the series âTextual Criticism and the Translator.â