John Wevers’ Guidelines for using the LXX in Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

I recently read an older article from John Wevers on guidelines for using the LXX in textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. The more the I interact with the critical apparatus of BHS, the more his words ring true.

  1. Formal Correctness. Make sure the information you are reading in the apparatus is factually correct.
  2. Clarity of Citation. There are things in the apparatus that are unclear. Do your best to understand what is being stated.
  3. Adequacy. Consider all the relevant facts about the Greek tradition in question.
  4. Text tradition and its proper presentation. Consider the textual family of the Greek reading.
  5. Avoidance of the irrelevant. There is a lot of irrelevant information in the apparatus for textual criticism of the Hebrew text. Not all notes are created equal.

John Wevers, Text History and Text Criticism of the Septuagint, VT 29 (1977) 392-402.

Leave a Reply