Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ)

The first fascicles of a new edition of Biblia Hebraica are now reaching publication. The first installment contains the General Introduction and Megilloth (Ruth, Canticles, Qoheleth, Lamentations, Esther). The edition should be complete by 2015.

Some features included:

• Diplomatic text of the Leningrad Codex, cited from new colorphotograps. As the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, it serves as the base text against which other witnesses are collated.
• Masorah magna and parva of the Leningrad Codex are included with the text.
• Layout of poetic texts corresponds as closely as possible to Masoretic accentuation.
• Indications of parallel texts are given on the page.
• A single apparatus is found at the foot of the page.
• Text critical cases are generated and noted in the apparatus when a pre-Tiberian witness arguably, but not necessarily witnesses a Hebrew text that differs from the Tiberian text.
• Two other Tiberian codices are collated for each book.
• Qumran and Judean Desert fragments are collated.
• All available pre-Tiberian witnesses for each textual case are noted.
• A general introduction presents the edition, characterises the text and masorah of the base text, the particular use of resources, the relation of BHQ to BHS and previous editions etc.