Research
TAB-PUB (Tracking Ancient Bible Publishers) investigates how ancient scribes transmitted and revised the texts of the Hebrew Bible. Its central case study is the Books of Kings. The textual history of the Pentateuch, particularly the (pre-)Samaritan tradition, provides a comparative context for examining variant literary editions. The project combines textual criticism, literary criticism and digital methods to document the evidence and the researcher’s interpretation.
The surviving witnesses to Kings differ in wording, extent and arrangement. These differences do not all have the same origin or significance. TAB-PUB examines their distribution and relationships to assess which may reflect deliberate editorial activity, and which are better explained by translation technique or other processes of textual transmission.
“Ancient publishing” describes the scribal practices through which texts were revised and circulated in new literary forms. It is an analytical term for these activities, rather than a claim that ancient textual production operated like modern publishing. The reconstruction of distinct literary editions is a research question to be tested against the evidence.
Which differences provide evidence for distinct literary editions? What kinds of editorial intervention can be identified, and what literary, theological or historical purposes might they have served? What can the surviving evidence establish about the development of Kings, and where must the reconstruction remain uncertain?
Workbenches provide the starting point: researchers check witness texts against manuscripts, facsimiles and critical editions, recording corrections, local variants and source references. Electronic texts used to assist transcription are distinguished from the sources used for verification. In Correspondence, researchers link corresponding words and phrases across witnesses, including spans of different lengths. The Masoretic baseline supplies comparison positions; omissions are distinguished from text that is not preserved or evidence that is not applicable. These correspondences provide the initial alignment in the adapted Collation Editor Core. In Set Variants, researchers adjust comparison units, including joining adjacent units. In Order Readings, they group the readings and record their assessments before approval.
Agreement across languages is a scholarly assessment, not a result inferred from identical spelling or automatic translation. Researchers record agreement and partial agreement, distinguish reading groups and assess them as primary, secondary, literary editions or undetermined. Secondary readings can be characterised in relation to the relevant group. Where appropriate, a preferred Hebrew reading or a Hebrew retroversion of a literary reading is recorded separately from explanatory notes. The software organises the evidence; its interpretation remains the responsibility of the researchers.
TAB-PUB adapts Collation Editor Core through source preparation, researcher-defined correspondences and reading assessment around the Core’s editing stages. Saved Approved collations appear in the public Textual Collations interface and are updated as passages or revisions are approved. Versioned datasets are prepared separately for deposit in the TAB-PUB Zenodo community, with source references, documentation and licensing information. The GitHub repository explains the workflow, data model and software adaptations, with illustrative examples.
TAB-PUB makes the comparison of ancient biblical texts accessible beyond individual editions and specialist apparatuses. Readers can examine where witnesses agree, where they differ and how researchers interpret those differences. This provides a documented basis for teaching and for discussion of textual transmission, interpretation and authority. The collations support case studies and a broader account of the textual and literary development of Kings, including the uncertainties of reconstruction.