Editing Masoretic Text (section)

==Some important editions==
There have been very many published editions of the Masoretic Text, some of the most important being:
* [[Daniel Bomberg]], ed. [[Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah]], 1524–1525, [[Venice]]
:The second [[Mikraot Gedolot|Rabbinic Bible]] served as the base for all future editions. This was the source text used by the translators of the [[King James Version]] in 1611, the [[New King James Version]] in 1982, and the [[New Cambridge Paragraph Bible]] in 2005.<ref name=price>{{cite web |author=Price, James D. |title=(DOC) This file is a letter I wrote to Mrs. Ripplinger in 1994 in response to her book, ''New Age Bible Versions''. It deals primarily with her criticism of the ''New King James Version''. |publisher=James D. Price Publications |date=1994-02-14 |url=http://www.jamesdprice.com/images/Ripplinger_February_15,_1994.doc
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713075128/http://www.jamesdprice.com/images/Ripplinger_February_15,_1994.doc |archive-date=2011-07-13 |url-status=live |page=4 |format=MS Word |access-date=2010-08-28 |df=dmy-all |quote=But regardless of these details, as former executive editor of the ''NKJV Old Testament'', I can confidently assure you that the NKJV followed, as carefully as possible, the Bobmerg &#91;[[sic]] Bomberg]<!-- sic in original --> 1524–1525 Ben Chayyim edition that the KJV 1611 translators used — I personally made sure.}}</ref>
* [[Everard van der Hooght]], 1705, [[Amsterdam]] and [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]]
:This was practically a reprint of the [[Joseph Athias|Athias]]-[[Jean de Leusden|Leusden]] edition of 1667; but at the end it has variants taken from a number of printed editions. It has been much prized because of its excellent and clear type; but no manuscripts were used in its preparation. Nearly all 18th and 19th&nbsp;century Hebrew Bibles were almost exact reprints of this edition.
* [[Benjamin Kennicott]], 1776, [[Oxford]]
:As well as the van der Hooght text, this included the [[Samaritan Pentateuch]] and a huge collection of variants from manuscripts and early printed editions; while this collection has many errors, it is still of some value. The collection of variants was corrected and extended by [[Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi]] (1784–1788), but his publications gave only the variants without a complete text.
* [[Wolf Heidenheim]], 1818, [[Frankfurt-am-Main]]
:This edition (called ''Me'or Enayim'') included the Five Books of Moses, Haftarot, and Megillot. It had many differences from earlier editions in vowels, notes and lay-out, based on a comparison with old manuscripts and a correction of misprints based on analysis of grammatical principles. There were extensive textual notes justifying all these alterations. Heidenheim also divided each weekly Sabbath reading into seven sections (seven people should be called up each Sabbath), as there had been considerable variation in practice about where to make the divisions, and his divisions are now accepted by nearly all Ashkenazi communities. [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]] used this text (omitting the textual notes) in his own commentary, and it became the standard text in Germany. It was frequently reprinted there, again without the textual notes, up to {{nowrap|[[World War II]]}}, and the edition of [[Jack Mazin]] (London, 1950) is an exact copy.
* ''[[Max Letteris]]'', 1852; 2nd edition, 1866 (published [[British and Foreign Bible Society]])
:The 1852 edition was yet another copy of {{nowrap|van der Hooght}}. The 1866 edition, however, was carefully checked against old manuscripts and early printed editions, and has a very legible typeface. It is probably the most widely reproduced text of the Hebrew Bible in history, with many dozens of authorised reprints and many more pirated and unacknowledged ones.<ref>{{cite book |first=Harry M. |last=Orlinsky |article=Prolegomenon to the 1966 reprint |editor-link=Christian Ginsburg |editor-first=Christian |editor-last=Ginsburg |title=Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible |year=1966 |edition=reprint |orig-date=1894}}</ref>
* [[Seligman Baer]] and [[Franz Delitzsch]], 1869–1895
:Incomplete publication: Exodus to Deuteronomy never appeared.
* [[Christian David Ginsburg]], 1894; 2nd edition, 1908–1926
:The [[editio princeps|first edition]] was very close to the second Bomberg edition, but with variants added from a number of manuscripts and all of the earliest printed editions, collated with far more care than the work of Kennicott; he did all the work himself. The second edition diverged slightly more from Bomberg, and collated more manuscripts; he did most of the work himself, but failing health forced him to rely partly on his wife and other assistants.<ref>{{cite book |article=Introduction to the Ginsburg Edition of the Hebrew Old Testament |title=The Hebrew Old Testament |publisher=[[British and Foreign Bible Society]] |year=1928 |editor-link=Christian David Ginsburg |editor-first=Christian David |editor-last=Ginsburg}}</ref>
* [[Biblia Hebraica (Kittel)|''Biblia Hebraica'']], first two editions, 1906, 1912
:Virtually identical to the second Bomberg edition, but with variants from Hebrew sources and early translations in the footnotes
* [[Biblia Hebraica (Kittel)|''Biblia Hebraica'']]
:Third edition based on the ''[[Leningrad Codex]]'', 1937; later reprints listed some variant readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
* [[Umberto Cassuto]], 1953
:Based on Ginsburg 2nd edition, but revised based on the ''[[Aleppo Codex]]'', ''[[Leningrad Codex]]'', and other early manuscripts.
* [[Norman Snaith]], 1958 (published [[British and Foreign Bible Society]])
:Snaith based it on Sephardi manuscripts such as British Museum Or. 2626-2628, and said that he had not relied on ''Letteris''. However, it has been shown that he must have prepared his copy by amending a copy of ''Letteris'', because while there are many differences, it has many of the same typographical errors as ''Letteris''. Snaith's printer even went so far as to break printed vowels to match some accidentally broken characters in ''Letteris''. Snaith combined the accent system of ''Letteris'' with the system found in Sephardi manuscripts, thereby creating accentuation patterns found nowhere else in any manuscript or printed edition.
* [[Hebrew University Bible Project]], 1965–
:Started by [[Moshe Goshen-Gottstein]], this follows the text of the ''[[Aleppo Codex]]'' where extant and otherwise the ''[[Leningrad Codex]]''. It includes a wide variety of variants from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, early Rabbinic literature and selected early medieval manuscripts. So far, only Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel have been published.
* ''The Koren Bible'' by [[Koren Publishers Jerusalem]], 1962
:The text was derived by comparing a number of printed Bibles, and following the majority when there were discrepancies. It was criticised by [[Moshe Goshen-Gottstein]]: "the publisher of the Koren Bible – who laid no claim to expertise in masoretic issues ... sought the help of three scholars, all of whom suffered from the same lack of Masoretic expertise ... Basically, the Koren edition is hardly an edition like that of Dotan, but another rehash of the material prepared by ben&nbsp;Hayim."<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Moshe Goshen-Gottstein |first=Moshe |last=Goshen-Gottstein |article=Editions of the Hebrew Bible – Past and Future |pages=239–240 |title=Sha'arei Talmon |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=1992}}</ref>
* [[Aron Dotan]], based on the ''[[Leningrad Codex]]'' but correcting obvious errors, 1976
* ''[[Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia]]''
:Revision of [[Biblia Hebraica (Kittel)|''Biblia Hebraica'']] (third edition), 1977. The second edition of ''Stuttgartensia'' (published 1983) was the source text for the Old Testament portion of the [[English Standard Version]], published in 2001.
* [[Mordechai Breuer]]
:Based on the ''[[Aleppo Codex]]'', 1977–1982
* ''The [[Jerusalem Crown]]'', 2001
:This is a revised version of Breuer, and is the official version used in inaugurating the President of Israel.
* ''[[Biblia Hebraica Quinta]]''
:Revision of ''[[Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia]]''; fascicles published as of 2024 are: Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Judges, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah.