This post is a re-blog of my post at Rolfing Unshelved.
This post is part of a series entitled Key Bible and Theological Reference Tools. This series seeks to provide one with an introduction to some key Biblical and theological reference tools. In this series one will find basic explanations, significant examples, and other information about these reference tools.
Basic Description of BHS
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) (BS 715 1990) is an edition of the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament text. It is based on the Lenigrad Codex B19A (the oldest known manuscript of the complete Hebrew Bible), includes a textual apparatus (provides information relevant for textual criticism), and is the most widely used scholarly text of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Helpful Resources
For more information on BHS or using BHS, see William R. Scott’s A Simplified Guide to BHS: Critical Apparatus, Masora, Accents, Unusual Letters, and Other Markings (Richland Hills, TX: D & F Scott Publishing Inc., 2007). (BS715 2007)
For a helpful introduction to Old Testament text criticism in general as well as text criticism as it relates to BHS in particular, see Ellis R. Brotzman’s Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Intorduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1993). (BS1136 .B765 1994)
BHS Sample
Elliger, K. and W. Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1998), 17-16. * Click photo for larger image.
- This post’s information can be found within Rolfing Library’s research guides. See the guide to BHS here.
Kirk E. Miller 