The essays by Shemaryahu Talmon presented in this fourth volume of his collected studies in English were written against the background of the momentous manuscript finds at various sites in the Judean Desert, including approximately 200 biblical or Bible-related manuscripts and manuscript fragments discovered at Qumran. These discoveries date from the crucial period of the turn of the era and afford scholars unprecedented information on the early transmission history of the biblical text. Talmon likens the transmission process (in agreement with Paul Kahle, and contrary to Paul de Lagarde) to a confluence of variant pristine traditions that Judaism, Christianity, and the Samaritan communities severally channeled into one fixed and closely circumscribed text form. It is his thesis that at least some of the "biblical" manuscripts and fragments from Qumran preserve original variants of the wording in the Masoretic Text, which eventually was recognized and transmitted in Judaism as the acclaimed and exclusively binding wording of the Hebrew Bible. These manuscripts and fragments evidence a "textual strategy" consisting of the interaction of the original authors and the transmitters of their work. Scribes and editors were minor partners of the authors. They did not refrain from occasionally changing wordings within a given range of "poetic license," often adapting literary techniques and patterns that had been used by the primary creators of the texts that they copied. The 18 essays reprinted in this volume relate to a variety of phenomena that affected the biblical literature in the stages of transition from oral tradition to hand-written transmission, initially in Paleo-Hebrew, then in the square alphabet, and ultimately in the promulgation of the Masoretic version in print. Talmon's articles published herein initially appeared over a period of about 50 years, thus giving expression to his developing thought regarding the transmission history of the biblical text up to the present time. The papers have undergone revision in the process of preparing the present volume. Scholars and students alike will benefit from owning and using this superb comprehensive collection of studies.

Textus is the only scholarly journal in the world devoted solely to issues of the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible and related questions. The volumes present a wide range of research papers dealing with general topics and the specialized aspects of the work of the Bible Project, in English, French (with Hebrew summaries), and Hebrew. To date twenty three volumes of studies have been published, edited by the editors of the HUBP and other textual scholars Contents Alexander Rofé - Isac Leo Seeligmann – Text Criticism in Context Jože Krašovec - Phonetic Factors in Transliteration of Biblical Proper Names into Greek and Latin D. Andrew Teeter - “You Shall Not Seethe a Kid in its Mother’s Milk”: The Text and the Law in Light of Early Witnesses Christoph Levin Aram und/oder Edom in den Büchern Samuel und Könige David Weissert - Obadiah 20: Septuagint and Vulgate Adele Berlin - Rams and Lambs in Psalm 114:4 and 6: The Septuagint’s Translation of X //
 Y Parallelisms Johann Cook - The Relationship between Textual Criticism, Literary Criticism and Exegesis – An Interactive One? Frank H. Polak - The Place of the Dikaios: Creative Translation and Verse Order in the Septuagint of Proverbs Bradley Gregory - The Rebuilding of the Temple in the Text of Tobit 13 and its Implications for Second Temple Hermeneutics Christopher - Begg Solomon Secures his Kingdom According to Josephus Yonatan Sagiv - “To Give Moses a Pause …”: New Examples of Biblical Textual Divisions as Reflected in Rabbinic Literature and a Suggested Connection to the Calendar Debate Moshe A. Zipor - “The Blessing of the Priests is not Read and not Translated”? Rafael Isaac (Singer) Zer - Was the Masorete of the Aleppo Codex of Rabbinate or of Karaite Origin? Sara Japhet - Did Rashbam Know the Vulgate Latin Translation of the Song of Songs? Yosef Ofer - Methods and Sources of Yedidya Shelomo Norzi in his Treatise Minhat Shay Hebrew Abstracts 

The twenty-third volume of Textus as well as the forthcoming twenty-fourth are dedicated to the memory of Prof. Isac Leo Seeligmann on the centennial of his birth and the twenty-fifth anniversary of his passing away. In his research and teaching Seeligmann emphasized the relationship between the establishment of the text (constitutio textus) and the exegetical endeavor; in addition, he highlighted the connection between the transmission of the writings and the beliefs of the scribes that copied them. An illustration of this method, an extreme one perhaps, is offered here in his article on Psalm 47 which concludes the major, non-Hebrew, part of this volume; the article was first published in Hebrew in Tarbiz 50 (1980/1) 25–36. We have tried in any case, to carry on Seeligmann's projects and work by dedicating the present two volumes to the subject "Text-Criticism and Beyond". Thus we intend to emphasize that textual criticism should not become an isolated discipline, but rather should remain an integral part of the philological historical study of the Bible. The editorial board of Textus has been expanded in this circumstance in order to comprise representatives of four generations of text-critics formed in Jerusalem. A fifth generation is already at the gate, represented by the editorial secretary, Mr. Guy Darshan, M.A., who undertook the heavy burden of preparing the manuscripts for press. Ms. Naama Baumgarten-Sharon assisted conscientiously throughout this project. I hereby thank the colleagues who participated in this enterprise and the authors that committed their writings to this periodical. Let their work be blessed!

Essays in this volume include: Mordechai Cogan – Some Text-Critical issues in the Hebrew Bible from an Assyriological Perspective Gary N Knoppers – Projected Age Comparisons of the Levitical Townlists: Divergent Theories and their significance Michael Avioz – The Date of the Destruction of the First Temple in Ancient Versions and Early Biblical Interpretation Moshe J Bernstein –"Rewritten Bible": A Generic Category which has outlived its usefulness?

The base text of the edition reproduces the Aleppo Codex, the most important representative of the Tiberian masoretic text of the Ben Asher tradition. Underneath the text, four apparata of variant readings culled from various textual witnesses are presented: (I) the ancient Versions – the Greek Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Aramaic Targum Jonathan, and the Syriac Peshitta; (II) the extant fragments of scrolls from the Judaean Desert and biblical quotations found in rabbinic literature; (III) select Genizah fragments and 'extra-masoretic' Hebrew medieval manuscripts; (IV) various Hebrew manuscripts representing the development of the masoretic text up to Ben Hayyim's Biblica Rabbinica of 1514-5. Associate Editor-Galen Marquis. The Hebrew University Bible Project is an inter-disciplinary research project of the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, whose goal is to publish a comprehensive critical edition of the Bible

Articles in this volume include: Isaac L Seeligman – Studies in the History of the Biblical Text Anssi Voitila – Some text-critical remarks on the Greek text of the Pentateuch Donald W Parry – An aftermath of Abner's murder Emanuel Tov – The textual basis of modern translations of the Hebrew Bible: The argument against eclecticism Assistant Editor: M. Segal.

Articles in this volume include: Emanuel Tov – 4QJer – A preliminary edition James C VanderKam and JT Milik - 4QJub (4Q218) and 4QJub (4Q220): A preliminary edition Frank H Polak Benjamin G Wright Jr – A Greek Fragment of the Books of Samuel Al Woters – Text and Script of the LXX Vorlage of the Job 40:17b

Sample pages A digital version of this book is available here In the studies collected in this volume, the author aims at highlighting salient literary modes which can be identified in the books of the Hebrew Bible. The application of such modes is illustrated by analyzing the biblical writers' technique of underscoring the concurrency of events by splitting a narrative account, intersplicing it with a second account, and then resuming the first. Thus they steer clear of conveying the impression of a chronological succession of events in question which would be unavoidable in a one-line sequential presentation. A reinvestigation of the question whether biblical literature ever knew a 'national epic' culminates in the conclusion that ancient Israel rejected this Gattung because of its intrinsic affiliation with pagan cults. In its stead it developed the genre of the 'historiographical psalm'. In a group of studies, identifiable literary traits are brought to bear on the investigation of principles and problems relating to the 'comparative approach' in biblical exegesis.

This volume includes the following articles: E Tov – The Lucianic Text of the canonical and the Apocryphal sections of Esther: A rewritten Biblical Book M L Klein – A neglected MS of a Palestinian Fragmnent-Targum from the Cairo Genisah L H Schiffman – The interchange of the Prepositions Bet and Mem in the Texts from Qumran M Cohen – Systems of Light Ga'yot in Medieval Biblical Manuscripts and their Importance for the History of the Tiberian Systems of Notation