This book explains the process of textual criticism in a way that anyone can understand. As you read this book you begin to realize that the Bible we have today has been carefully reconstructed from many different sources. The book will compare different readings from different sources and demonstrate the process of discovering the original reading.

An introduction to the goals and methods of textual criticism of the Bible, intended to give students of Hebrew the necessary tools to study the text. The principles of textual criticism are explained in terms of both their usefulness and their limitations, and are illustrated with examples from the Bible.

Professor McCarter here offers an introduction to the art and science of textual criticism for students of the Hebrew Bible. His emphasis is on the work involved in the critical evaluation of a given portion of a text. His explanations of critical principles are illustrated with carefully selected examples of the textual phenomena discussed - in Hebrew, with English translations. The book concludes with unique appendices on several kinds of essential but hard-to-find information.

P. Kyle McCarter is William Foxwell Albright Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the John Hopkins University.