When its first articles were published in 1996, TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism became the first peer-reviewed journal in the field of biblical studies to appear online. In its first two years of operation--encompassing volumes 1, 2, and the early stages of 3--TC has published eleven articles and sixteen book reviews, and additional articles and reviews for volume 3 are now being prepared. TC has a strong academic foundation, with fifteen textual critics from eight different countries (in addition to myself and two technical editors) serving on the editorial board. As the only journal, paper or electronic, devoted entirely to the study of the biblical text, TC is committed to promoting the critical study of the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity, and as general editor, I am particularly interested in encouraging studies that span the traditional canonical boundary between the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament.
In comparison with other electronic journals in the field of religious studies, TC has a strong track record of accomplishment. In addition to being the first journal to publish an article related to biblical studies, TC has also blazed the trail in other areas:
Despite these accomplishments, TC and other electronic journals in the field of biblical studies have a long way to go before they are considered in any way equal to the traditional print journals. And that is as it should be: TC has yet to prove itself in terms of the number of articles published, the outstanding quality of the articles that appear on its pages, or longevity. However, TC is sometimes maligned simply because it is electronic: many reputable scholars continue to look askance at journals like TC, believing that "real scholarship" will only appear in print, at least for the foreseeable future. This attitude is unfortunate, but without a concerted effort on behalf of online journals, it may prevail, at least in the short term, and pioneer efforts like TC may fail.
For electronic journals to prosper, scholars must be convinced that their reputed shortcomings (impermanence, poor quality, difficulty of use) can be overcome and that they offer real advantages over their print counterparts (timelier publication of articles and reviews, more widespread and perpetual access, useful features such as hyperlinks and multiple windows). If this grant proposal is approved, the funds will be used to develop TC into a more usable and useful journal, and the journal will be promoted to scholars, publishers, and institutions of higher education as a publication of value.
E-Canon improvements: All references to the biblical text in TC articles are hyperlinked to a program called E-Canon, which displays biblical passages in one of several different languages (currently English KJV, Hebrew OT, Greek NT, Syriac NT, or Latin Vulgate). Texts in Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac are transliterated, but the technology exists to display these texts in their original scripts. Doing so would facilitate the careful reading of TC articles, since the reader will be able to click on the scripture reference and view it in a separate HTML frame at the bottom of the page, while maintaining the text of the article on the screen at the same time. Because of limitations in the underlying program, at present we are unable to display the text of the Septuagint. This limitation is the result of two complications in the text of the LXX itself: (1) the existence of verse "numbers" that include letters (e.g., 3 Kgdms 12:24a-z); (2) the varying order of many chapters and verses in the LXX with respect to the MT. The E-Canon program needs to be substantially redesigned to handle the display of Hebrew, Greek, and texts in other non-Roman scripts and to deal with the versification scheme of the LXX. Also, as additional versions (e.g., English RSV, Aramaic targums, Syriac OT) become available electronically, we plan to incorporate them into the E-Canon family of texts.
When complete, the E-Canon will not be limited to use in TC. We will release it into the public domain and allow access either to our online version or to the source code itself. Thus, the E-Canon will be available to other SBL online projects that use the biblical text, and other scholars will have access as well.
Different critical editions of the text use a variety of reference schemes for referring to manuscripts. This variety, present in critical editions of both the OT and the NT, makes using different editions difficult. For example, the critical editions of the Greek NT produced by von Soden and Tischendorf use different schemes for referring to Greek manuscripts than does the new Editio Critica Maior produced by the Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung at Münster; similarly, the Cambridge and Göttingen editions of the LXX use different references for referring to manuscripts. We plan to create a database of these different reference schemes and write a program that will automatically convert from one scheme to another. We will make this database and program available on our Web site
The following budget is presented in conjunction with the specific proposals listed above.
Total: $2,950
I hope the Research and Publications Committee will give its approval to this grant proposal, for by doing so, it will be supporting an important pioneering effort propelling the field of biblical studies into the information age. Four people who come to mind as potential reviewers of this project are Charles Prebish (editor of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics), Gordon D. Fee or Eldon J. Epp (NT text critics not associated with TC), and Robert A. Kraft (long-time supporter of electronic projects involving the biblical text).
James R. Adair, Jr. Scholars Press P.O. Box 15399 Atlanta, GA 30333Click here to see my CV.