Source texts
Modern Bible translations, such as the Good News Bible and the New International Version, are based on the source texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
Source Texts of the Old Testament
For the (Hebrew) Old Testament:
- Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, published by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart (5th revised edition, 1997). This contains the Masoretic text, as preserved in Codex Leningradensis
. - Since 2004 a new standard edition of the Old Testament has been appearing in fascicles: the Biblica Hebraica Quinta. The parts that are available are being used by modern Bible translations.
- For the (Greek) Deuterocanonical books: Septuaginta Id est Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX interpretes, in the edition by Alfred Rahlfs, published by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart (1979 and later reprints). This text is based mainly on three codices containing the whole of the Bible in Greek: Vaticanus, Sinaiticus from the fourth century AD and Alexandrinus from the fifth century AD.
Source Texts of the New Testament
For the (Greek) New Testament:
- Novum Testamentum Graece
by Nestle-Aland, in the 27th or (since 2012) the 28th edition, published by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (1993 and 2012). This is a critical edition. A critical edition does not give the text of just one manuscript but has compiled the best text from all the available manuscripts. The Novum Testamentum Graece incorporates, among other things, papyri from the second century AD onwards and codices from the fourth century AD onwards.
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