Customer Reviews

Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction

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How did the Old Testament get to us in such good shape and what are the apologetics for such a claim? Can someone who is not a student of Hebrew get some basic information on this subject? The answer is `Yes', with some effort, since the book is geared to an intermediate student of Hebrew, as stated near the end of the book.

Author Ellis Brotzman says that it is a "miracle" that Old Testament even exists, and a "double miracle" that it is highly accurate after its transmission from ancient times! I am very impressed with the care of the Old Testament by the Jewish custodians of the scriptures for such a long period of time. We have them to thank (through God's Providence) for what we have today. To explain how, Brotzman stayed fairly high-level, taking us from the creation of the original manuscripts to the present day, through different text styles, different language translations, and through the different gyrations of textual criticisms. Textual criticism, I found out, is a very organized, scholarly methodology of condensing the various texts into one that is as accurate as possible for our use today. To this end, Brotzman patiently goes through enough of the Hebrew language characteristics to allow us to understand what textual criticism is about. For example, I found that for hundreds of years early on, the Hebrew text was originally entirely consonantal, with the vowels being transmitted only through oral tradition. Later, the oral tradition was changed to written, and the vowels were indicated by adding the appropriate number of dots below the appropriate consonants. He lets us know in a general way how that works and the affect it has on the transmission accuracy of the text. He also gives examples of standard BHS texts with the margin notes on the sides and bottoms and what they mean, and the references they point to (other manuscripts, frequency of different types of errors, etc.). He also talks about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the great roll they play in validating the accuracy of the textual transmission. He then gives us some actual case studies from the book of Ruth and how the scholars settled the variant readings through textual criticism, applying the methodologies he describes earlier in the book.

The book took some work for me to understand, but it was worth it.

is concise enough to be understood and does lend something to the neat field of OT Text Criticism. it isnt exactly written for the expert in the field of hebrew knowledge (this is only my 4th semester of it), but the title says it all, "a practical introduction".

A good introduction to the issues inherent in Hebrew text criticism, but more accessible to the beginner and less intimidating than Tov's Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Brotzman also provides a helpful introduction to the transmission of the Old Testament text. His approach attempts to balance theological concerns with the data of textual criticism in a way that introduces the issues in a non-threatening way. His footnotes cover a wide swath of both Jewish and Christian scholarship on the transmission of the Hebrew Bible.

I am teaching 2nd year Biblical Hebrew at a state university and wanted to review some materials in order to give students a basic introduction to textual-criticism. A colleague recommended this and lent me a copy.

This is an excellent introduction. Well written, clear and simple English, in a way it digests and presents in simpler form information one finds in Tov, Wurthwein, to a lesser extent McCarter, and others. Perhaps one of the strongest features of the book is the final chapter which addresses text-critical issues in Ruth. "Now that I've explained all this history, background, and theory - this is how you do textual criticism".

Let me preface my mild critique of the book by stating Brotzman is clearly an excellent and vastly better scholar than I. I am not a textual critic by training, so my review is like a general practitioner commenting on a book by a neurosurgeon. Brotzman's book has a mild "bias" and refers often to the work of scholars from the more "conservative/evangelical" end of the spectrum. In and of itself, so what? At times Brotzman might overstate the case for the reliability of the Masoretic Text in comparison to other text types/traditions. (For the record that has been my bias until recently.

But that is a very mild critique. Still much worth owning and reading. Be sure to read other works with different viewpoints. Other books on textual criticism help show the broader range of scholarly opinion on some issues.

Brotzman does a good job of introducing one to the field of textual criticism (TC) and covering the essential issues and topics. It isn't an all-exhaustive work, but it is not intended to be one.

It's a good introduction and preparation for Tov's book, which should be the next logical step for someone seriously interested in the field of TC of the Hebrew Bible. However, a beginner would probably be overwhelmed by the host of technical terms and jargon used in Tov's book, unless he/she has some foundation to understand the basics, etc. I wouldn't recommend anyone to dive into Tov's book without the understanding of what TC is all about. Brotzman does a good job of that. He not only covers the basics of TC, but he also shows how to apply the principles in practice by providing a TC of the book of Ruth with a helpful commentary.

After reading his book, one can decide whether TC is something they are really interested in after all. If so, Tov is the next logical step. For the people new to the field, Brotzman's book is an inexpensive way to find out what it's all about.

This book is well organized and speaks in a language that the novice can understand. Unfortunately, I have often been left with the impression that more information could have been added to the book so as to spare me a few trips to the library. I bought Brotzman's book when I was living in Germany at the same time I also bought "Textkritik der Hebräischen Bibel", the German translation of a Hebrew work by Emmanual Tov, also, I believe, translated into English as "Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible". I have to say that I prefer Tov's work. Tov provides more information on the various non-Hebrew versions, with Saadia ben Yusuf's Arabic translation being completely absent from Brotzman's book. Also, Tov's book has much more material on the Dead Dea Scrolls. Actually, Tov's book, being considerably larger, has more material on just about everything. Also, Tov's bibliographic information is more extensive and accessible, being listed with every chapter.

Brotzman's book is easier to understand (at least for me, as I was working with Tov in German), and perhaps this is why it is more commonly found in seminary bookstores than Tov's book. I would have to recommend Tov's book on account of the content, however. If you think you are too stupid to handle Tov's book, then this one is for you, but if that is the case, you'd best not meddle in Old Testament textual criticism.

I gave this book three stars because it is a complete introduction and provides all the basic information that a beginner needs to know. Beyond this, however, the book is really disappointing. I already knew pretty much everything in Brotzman's book before I read it and have never found any reason to refer back to it. Tov's book, on the other hand, though also an introduction, was a valuable reference to me long after I bought it and read it for the first time. Unfortunately, I lost that book during my move from Germany and have occasionally picked up Brotzman's book in hopes that it might answer some question that I had, only to be disappointed every time. Three stars is a generous award for this work.

According to the conclusion, this is an introduction to textual criticism for the intermediate Hebrew student (pp. 168, 170). That seemed to fit the bill since I took only a year of Hebrew prior to picking this little thing up and I had few difficulties. In fact, thanks to a book that expands on Brotzman's simplified and summarized categories (The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia by Kelley, Mynatt, and Crawford), I was not only flying through the various practical exercises with the BHS' critical apparatus, but augmenting it with a direct examination of the Masorah parva. Chapter five, however, an introduction to BHS, must have been geared toward beginners since any first-year Biblical Hebrew student will have (or should have!) already become familiar with its layout and contents.

Four things make this a good read for beginning/intermediate students: a brief analysis of the types of scribal errors encountered in biblical texts, a step-by-step guide to doing textual criticism, a hands-on examination of textual problems in Ruth and ways to work through them, and the Latin-to-English abbreviation list.

1. Scribal Errors (ch. 6). This is the meat and potatoes of textual criticism. Brotzman has laid out quickly and simply the various sorts of scribal errors and how we might identify them in a biblical text.

2. Step-by-step Guide (ch. 7). After helping us understand in the previous chapter how and why texts were altered, Brotzman proceeds to lay out a method for doing textual criticism that enables us to understand what may or may not be the better or more original reading.

3. Hands-on Examination (ch. 8). This is what makes Brotzman's book both special and practical. As we work through the various textual problems in Ruth utilizing BHS' critical apparatus, we see the previously mentioned scribal errors appear in the biblical text itself, watch the method applied again and again to each instance of textual difficulty, and gain insight into the particularities of BHS that might otherwise be difficult or confusing. What follows are some examples of that latter insight.

Although both Brotzman and BHS include a symbol list where LXX* is identified as the original Greek Septuagint, it wasn't until the hands-on examination that we were clued in on exactly how we knew that: it was the unanimous reading of all Greek witnesses (p. 134, n. 2).

Even though the purpose of the BHS critical apparatus is to clue us in to variants, it is an imperfect system. You can't always assume that just because BHS doesn't include a variant from the various Greek texts (for example) that there isn't one.

Sometimes there is no critical note in the text or in the apparatus for a verse, but there are still textual difficulties identified by the Masorah parva (p. 160). This means that the Masorah parva and the critical apparatus with its textual notes do not always work together. Both need to be consulted.

The critical apparatus references chapter and verse numbers in an odd manner. Instead of writing out 1 Ch 2:5, 9-15, it has 1 Ch 2,5.9-15 (p. 163-64).

4. Abbreviation List (appendix). Even though this is basically a spin-off from other such lists both within and without BHS, what I liked about this was not only the way it clarified definitions, but how it made common abbreviations instantly available while one already has BHS open. Given the choice between looking up the definition of an abbreviation in either BHS or Brotzman, losing one's place within that text, and then having to return and find it again, I am glad for the opportunity to leave my primary text, BHS, alone and go hunting elsewhere.

If the book's strengths reside in its second half, its weaknesses reside in the first. Chapters 1 through 4 are basically simplified summarizations of content and data available in very much the same layout and description elsewhere. Reading something like Wurthwein's Text of the Old Testament or Yeivin's Tiberian Masorah really makes most of what Brotzman says not only redundant, but obsolete. Those books are light-years better than Brotzman when it comes to either the quality of their shared content or the details. The one thing Brotzman provides on his own is a comparison of the sources he is summarizing. I believe that the biblical student will be better served by reading one or more of Brotzman's sources and skipping his first four chapters altogether.

The other major problem I have with the book is its uncritical confessional bias. As long as Brotzman is dealing with something other than textual criticism, he feels free to assume all sorts of things that would shame professionals in those fields. For instance, Brotzman has no problem talking about Moses as though Moses were a real, historical person whose very existence, not to mention what we might or might not know about such a person, were not in question and also takes for granted the historicity of the exodus account (p. 32-33). Did Brotzman really have to say something like "The existence of an alphabetic script greatly facilitated the recording of divine revelation in written form" (pp. 34-35)? What exactly does that mean? Does that mean only the Hebrew Bible was greatly facilitated by the formation of an alphabet? Does that mean only alphabetic texts that people believe are divine revelation were greatly facilitated by the alphabet? I thought the point was that the alphabet made the reading and writing of texts easier and the Old Testament took advantage of that historical shift. But, apparently, the divine realm has something to do with it. When Brotzman discusses possible dates for the biblical texts, he has no problem assuming the "traditional" view without substantiating that choice (see ch. 2). On p. 39, Brotzman is fine identifying the Pentateuch synchronically as a unified composition without giving a reason for that treatment. And last, but not least, Brotzman pretends to settle the question of whether we should rely on the Masoretic Text or something else by appealing to its "acceptance" as "standard" by 135 BC without saying who it was that accepted it as standard or why their acceptance should dictate our own (p. 44). I'm sure Brotzman would take issue with someone who decided to do textual criticism uncritically by preferring a variant in the LXX over the Masoretic because the LXX is the accepted divine scripture in their religion (see Eastern Orthodox). So why does he turn around and do the same sort of thing to those in other fields? I wanted to give this book two stars for its woeful disregard for professionalism, but the strength of the second half saves it from mediocrity.

I personally enjoyed this book but unless you absolutely love to read about textual criticism, you will probably be bored by it. There is some extremely interesting information about the Old Testament text that many are unaware of. You may want to consider this book as a resource for your theological library. It will certainly help you understand how the Old Testament came into existence.