# Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia

The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, abbreviated as BHS or rarely BH$^4$, is an edition of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Leningrad Codex, and supplemented by masoretic and text-critical notes. It is the fourth edition in the Biblia Hebraica series started by Rudolf Kittel and is published by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (German Bible Society) in Stuttgart.

## BHS fascicles and editors

The work has been published in 15 fascicles from 1968 to 1976 according to this release schedule taken from the Latin prolegomena in the book.
| | Fascicle | Editor | Publication |
| 01 | Librum Geneseos (Book of Genesis) | Otto Eißfeldt | 1969 (Fascicle 1) |
| 02f | Libros Exodi et Levitici (Books of Exodus and Leviticus) | Gottfried Quell | 1973 (Fascicle 2) |
| 04 | Librum Numerorum (Book of Numbers) | Wilhelm Rudolph | 1972 (Fascicle 3a) |
| 05 | Librum Deuteronomii (Book of Deuteronomy) | J. Hempel | 1972 (Fascicle 3b) |
| 06f | Libros Josuae et Judicum (Books of Joshua and Judges) | Rudolf Meyer | 1972 (Fascicle 4) |
| 08 | Librum Samuelis (Books of Samuel) | Pieter Arie Hendrik de Boer | 1976 (Fascicle 5) |
| 09 | Librum Regum (Books of Kings) | Alfred Jepsen | 1974 (Fascicle 6) |
| 10 | Librum Jesaiae (Book of Isaiah) | David Winton Thomas | 1968 (Fascicle 7) |
| 11 | Librum Jeremiae (Book of Jeremiah) | Wilhelm Rudolph | 1970 (Fascicle 8) |
| 12 | Librum Ezechielis (Book of Ezekiel) | Karl Elliger | 1971 (Fascicle 9) |
| 13 | Librum XII Prophetarum (Book of the Twelve Prophets) | Karl Elliger | 1970 (Fascicle 10) |
| 14 | Librum Psalmorum (Book of Psalms) | H. Bardtke | 1969 (Fascicle 11) |
| 15 | Librum Iob (Book of Job) | Gillis Gerlemann | 1974 (Fascicle 12a) |
| 16 | Librum Proverbiorum (Book of Proverbs) | F. Fichtner | 1974 (Fascicle 12b) |
| 17 | Librum Ruth (Book of Ruth) | Theodore Henry Robinson | 1975 (Fascicle 13a) |
| 18f | Libros Cantici Canticorum et Ecclesiastes (Books of the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes) | F. Horst | 1975 (Fascicle 13b) |
| 20 | Librum Threnorum (Book of Lamentations) | Theodore Henry Robinson | 1975 (Fascicle 13c) |
| 21 | Librum Esther (Book of Esther) | F. Maass | 1975 (Fascicle 13d) |
| 22 | Librum Danielis (Book of Daniel) | Walter Baumgartner | 1976 (Fascicle 14a) |
| 23 | Libros Esrae et Nehemiae (Books of Ezra and Nehemiah) | Wilhelm Rudolph | 1976 (Fascicle 14b) |
| 24 | Libros Chronicorum (Books of Chronicles) | Wilhelm Rudolph | 1975 (Fascicle 15) |
The processing and development of the Masoretic annotations and notes within all editions of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia was the privilege of Gérard E. Weil. He also released the book Massorah Gedolah iuxta codicem Leningradensem B 19a at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1971, which is the very first Edition of the Masora Magna, what gives an idea of his unique expertise in relation to the Masora.

## A print edition of the Leningrad Codex

The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is meant to be an exact copy of the Masoretic Text as recorded in the Leningrad Codex. According to the introductory prolegomena of the book, the editors have "accordingly refrained from removing obvious scribal errors" (these have then been noted in the critical apparatus). Diacritics like the Silluq and Meteg which were missing in the Leningrad Codex also have not been added.
Like its predecessor the Biblia Hebraica Kittel the BHS adds the letters samekh "ס" (for סתומה, setumah: "closed portion") and "פ" (for פתוחה, petuchah: "open portion") into the text to indicate blank spaces in the Leningrad Codex, which divide the text into sections.
One more difference to the Leningrad Codex is the book order: the Books of Chronicles have been moved to the end as it appears in common Hebrew bibles, even though it precedes Psalms in the codex.

## Contents

The BHS is composed of the three traditional divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah (תורה "instruction"), Neviim (נבאים "prophets"), and the Ketuvim (כתבים "writings").
In the margins are Masoretic notes. These are based on the codex, but have been heavily edited to make them more consistent and easier to understand. Even so, whole books have been written to explain these notes themselves. Some of the notes are marked sub loco ("in this place"), meaning that there appears to be some problem, often that they contradict the text. The editors never published any explanation of what the problems were, or how they might be resolved.
The sub loco notes do not necessarily explain interesting text variants; they are, in the vast majority, only notes on inaccurate word countings/frequencies. See Daniel S. Mynatt, The Sub Loco Notes in the Torah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Bibal, 1994); Christopher Dost, The Sub-Loco Notes in the Torah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Gorgias, 2016).
Footnotes record possible corrections to the Hebrew text. Many are based on the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and on early Bible translations ("versions") such as the Septuagint, Vulgate and Peshitta. Others are conjectural emendations.

## Book order

The order of the biblical books generally follows the codex, even for the Ketuvim, where that order differs from most common printed Hebrew bibles. Thus the Book of Job comes after Psalms and before Proverbs, and the Megillot are in the order Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations and Esther. The only difference is with Chronicles.
The Torah:
    1. Genesis [בראשית / B$^e$re’shit] (English rendering: "In beginning")
    2. Exodus [שמות / Sh$^e$mot] (English rendering: "Names")
    3. Leviticus [ויקרא / Vayik$^e$ra’] (English rendering: "And he called")
    4. Numbers [במדבר / Bamid$^e$bar] (English rendering: "In the wilderness")
    5. Deuteronomy [דברים / D$^e$varim] (English rendering: "The words")
The Nevi'im:
    6. Joshua [יהושע / Y$^e$hoshua‛]
    7. Judges [שופטים / Shoph$^e$tim]
    8. Samuel (I & II) [שמואל / Sh$^e$muel]
    9. Kings (I & II) [מלכים / M$^e$lakhim]
    10. Isaiah [ישעיה / Y$^e$sha‛yahu]
    11. Jeremiah [ירמיה / Yir$^e$miyahu]
    12. Ezekiel [יחזקאל / Y$^e$khezq’el]
    13. The Twelve Prophets [תרי עשר]
       a. Hosea [הושע / Hoshea‛]
       b. Joel [יואל / Yo’el]
       c. Amos [עמוס / Amos]
       d. Obadiah [עובדיה / ‛Ovadyah]
       e. Jonah [יונה / Yonah]
       f. Micah [מיכה / Mikhah]
       g. Nahum [נחום / Nakhum]
       h. Habakkuk [חבקוק /Havaquq]
       i. Zephaniah [צפניה / Ts$^e$phanyah]
       j. Haggai [חגי / Khagai]
       k. Zechariah [זכריה / Z$^e$kharyah]
       l. Malachi [מלאכי / Mal’akhi]
The Ketuvim
    The Sifrei Emet, the poetic books:
       14. Psalms [תהלים / Tehilim]
       15. Job [איוב / ’Iyov]
       16. Proverbs [משלי / Mishlei]
    The Five Megillot or "Five Scrolls":
       17. Ruth [רות / Ruth]
       18. Song of Songs [שיר השירים / Shir Hashirim]
       19. Ecclesiastes [קהלת / Qoheleth]
       20. Lamentations [איכה / Eikhah]
       21. Esther [אסתר / Esther]
    The rest of the "Writings":
       22. Daniel [דניאל / Dani’el]
       23. Ezra-Nehemiah [עזרא ונחמיה / ‛Ezra’ v$^e$Nekhemiah]
       24. Chronicles (I & II) [דברי הימים / Div$^e$rei Hayamim]

## Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: A Reader's Edition

In September 2014 an edition of the BHS called Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: A Reader's Edition (abbreviated as the BHS Reader) was published by the German Bible Society and Hendrickson Publishers. This edition features the same Hebrew text as the regular BHS, but without the Masora on the side margins and with a "Lexical and Grammatical Apparatus" on the bottom of the page replacing the critical apparatus of the BHS.
The edition defines an English translation to every word in the text: words that occur 70 times or more are listed in a glossary in the back of the book, and words that occur fewer than 70 times are listed in the apparatus. The translations were mostly taken out of the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, but also from DCH and the Brown–Driver–Briggs.
Alongside the translations it features a grammatical parsing of the words encoded in a system of abbreviations (e.g. an introductory example in the book states that the word "והקריבו" from Lev 1:15 has the note "Hr10s0 קרב" in the apparatus which means that the word is a "Hiphil suffix conjugation third masculine singular verb with a wāv retentive and a third masculine singular pronominal suffix of the root קרב"). It also has a 50-page appendix listing paradigm-tables for strong and weak verbal roots and noun suffixes.

## Criticism

The bible scholar Emanuel Tov has criticised BHS somewhat for having errors, and for correcting errors in later editions without informing the reader.