Vowel points, Accents, Dagesh, and Consonantal issues in various Hebrew and Aramaic texts.

[Ben Denckla]

49 minutes ago, Brian K. Mitchell said:

Here is a link to an article about [BHL]:

http://scholar.davidesstein.name/Articles/ReviewOfBHL--Stein.pdf

 

Wow, thanks for that link: I know Rabbi Stein and I thought I knew most of his work but I did not know of this review!

 

Just to clarify, BHL can be used in two different ways:

• The primary way to use BHL is as a general-purpose Hebrew Bible. For this, you just use its body text and ignore its Appendix A. This is the use Stein is reviewing.
• A secondary, obscure/academic way to use BHL is as a transcription of the Leningrad Codex. For this, every time you see an "A-reference" in the body text, you use the word you find in Appendix A rather than what you find in the body text.

Also, I am so glad you got your hands on an original (hardcover) printing of BHL. Readers of this forum should be aware that though Hendrickson (now acquired by Tyndale House) has kept BHL in print, it has done so using a method I'd call "scan and print on demand." While in theory this is an exciting new way to keep old books in print, in practice the scan (and possibly the printing), at least in this case, degraded the quality in a way that is important for a book of this font size (particularly the size of niqqud). I have both editions and can provide sad documentation of this if desired.

[Ben Denckla]

1 hour ago, Brian K. Mitchell said:

Ben wrote: "My guess is that whoever provided the digital text of the BHQ to Accordance simply reused an untagged digital text of the BHS when they started making the BHQ files."

 

This is a very sad state of affairs. 

 

I both agree and disagree. It is only sad because so many people (including many with PhDs in divinity who know far more Hebrew than me!) are unaware that there are alternatives outside of the GBS (German Bible Society) (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) (DBG) editions (BHS and BHQ). Or, they may be aware of alternative, but are uninterested in pursuing them.

 

I perceive awareness of GBS alternatives to be greater in Jewish circles, particularly in Israeli circles.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

5 hours ago, Benjamin Denckla said:

I perceive awareness of GBS alternatives to be greater in Jewish circles, particularly in Israeli circles.

 

Yep Koren or ArtScroll are the biggies.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

17 hours ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

Yep Koren or ArtScroll are the biggies.

 

You are forgetting ...

 

(1) N. Ben-zvi Publishing Enterprise Ltd 's Keter Yerusalem Tanakh) The official Bible of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

(2) Bar-Ilan University's Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer

 

(3) Mosad HaRav Kook (they publish the Breuer TANAKH, various commentary series with the Breuer text, and much much more!)

 

(4) Moznaim Publishing (they publish the Mekraos Gedolos Chumash and the Matok Midvash Tehillim/Psalms)

 

(5) Oz Vehadar (they publish the Chamisha Chimshei Torah Shul Edition, Chumash Mikraos Gedolos, Chumash Rashi Hamevuar, Nevi'im/prophetic books U'Kesuvim/Writings Mikraos Gedolos,  and more)

 

(6) Feildheim Publishers (they publish the Tanach Simanim and the Tikun Korim Simanim)

 

(7) Sinai Publishing Company (they publish various Tanach)

 

(8) The Jewish Publication Society (they publish an English-Hebrew Tanakh)

 

(9) Soncino Press (they publish the Hertz Chumash and the voluminous Soncino Books the Bible)

 

(10 ) Judaica Press 

 

 

 

[Ben Denckla]

8 minutes ago, Brian K. Mitchell said:

 

You are forgetting ...

 

[...]

 

Thanks, @Brian K. Mitchell for that list. I would add that although most or all of those are refreshingly outside of the "GBS orbit," only some of those represent the latest in scholarship. For example, the only ones you'll see MAM referencing are 1, 2, 3, & 6.

 

Regarding #3 (Mosad HaRav Kook), readers should be aware that although Breuer's introductory notes in various of the 30 volumes of Da`at Miqra are a GREAT resource, the body text of those volumes is not edited by Breuer or according to his methods. I.e. the body text of those volumes is "nothing special." That is pretty confusing so I thought I'd call it out here.

 

Regarding #8 (JPS), readers should be aware that the JPS HET (Hebrew-English Tanakh) is an interesting case: it is a HIGHLY edited version of WLC (indeed JPS partially funded the development of WLC for this purpose!) but despite all that editing, it occasionally shows signs of WLC "leaking through."

[Brian K. Mitchell]

20 hours ago, Benjamin Denckla said:

only some of those represent the latest in scholarship.

Indeed! Spot on!

and I would add that neither are Artscroll and Koren Tanakh  are anywhere close to the latest scholarship. Koren represents beautiful modern typesetting (but I think it is probably based in part of Everard van der Hooght's texts, the Letteris Bible, and Benjamin Wolf ben Samson Heidenheim), and Artscroll represents a 'Haredi' point of view in regards to their English translations/commentary although those are often overly simplified for the ba’alei teshuvah.

Edited January 20 by Brian K. Mitchell

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for giving the ones I've missed. :-)

[Ben Denckla]

On 1/15/2024 at 6:39 PM, Benjamin Denckla said:

Neither Groves nor anyone else maintains WLC any longer. To put it bluntly, WLC is dead/frozen.

 

Sorry, I was wrong. WLC 4.22 came out in November of 2020 and there are plans for a WLC 4.24. As far as I know, Accordance did not update HMT-W4 to WLC 4.22. There was a 4.22 release of WHM (Westminster Hebrew Morphology) along with the 4.22 release of WLC, so that was not the issue.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

12 hours ago, Benjamin Denckla said:

WLC 4.22 came out in November of 2020 and there are plans for a WLC 4.24. As far as I know, Accordance did not update HMT-W4 to WLC 4.22. There was a 4.22 release of WHM (Westminster Hebrew Morphology) along with the 4.22 release of WLC, so that was not the issue.

 

This is good to know!

The organization that manages the WHM called the J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research can be found here: https://www.grovescenter.org

 

 

[Accordance Enthusiast]

Here's another issue with the Mishnah: