The New Journal on Text Criticism

The New Journal on Text Criticism May 15, 2012

Here is a useful reminder of online resources on text criticism.

by larry hurtado

One of the growth areas in biblical studies of the last several decades has been textual criticism. This is certainly true for NT studies, and seems to me to be the case also in Hebrew OT and LXX studies. It is particularly encouraging that this growth in interest is represented among students and younger scholars in the field. As well, a wider public seem always interested in any developments.

So, I want to highlight a journal devoted to textual criticism of biblical writings, whether NT or OT: TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism. I’m proud to be a member of the editorial board, and happy here to promote interest in reading the journal, and, among those with something to offer, submitting items for publication.

From its birth onward, TC has been an online journal only, and that’s another reason that I’m proud to be associated with it. This is the direction that learned journals need to go, and TC is a pioneering venture. (As far back as the early 90’s I have been plumping for learned journals to go online. When I was Director of the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities, 1990-92, I formed an organizing committee who held the first international conference on refereed electronic journals at the UM, 1-2 October 1993. The proceedings are available: Proceedings of the 1993 International Conference on Refereed Electronic Journals, ed. Carlolyn Presser, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Libraries.)

The brain-child of Jimmy Adair, TC is now officially sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature, which I hope will ensure that the journal is properly managed and its future secured. It is an open-access journal, which means that anyone interested is free to read and download articles from the journal (but permission is required, of course, for further reproduction of material).

So, I hope that students and scholars in biblical studies will certainly place the journal firmly on their regular list of journals to be perused, and that “general readers” interested in textual criticism will also have a look. As an editorial board member, I also invite submissions for publication. It’s a fully refereed journal, and so publication “counts” as for any print journal of comparable standards.


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