As our project transcription is now going full-speed ahead, I wanted to take this first project blog post as an opportunity to celebrate our transcribers who are at this moment hard at work transcribing the most important Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of Psalms 1-50. As of today, we have had 181 responses to our Google form, of which 124 have joined the project and have started working on transcription assignments! Brent and I were both overwhelmed at the response to our call for volunteer transcribers! Brent was the more cynical of the two of us about crowdsourcing, but he told me that this response "has renewed my faith in humanity." I suspected all along that others out there would find biblical languages and manuscripts as interesting as we do and would want to be involved in a project like this, but even I was blown away by the response of highly-skilled individuals willing to volunteer their time to help make these manuscripts publicly available.

Who are these transcribers?

Almost all of our active transcribers have completed degrees related to the texts and/or languages of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. Over 70% have relevant Master's degrees, and fully 20% have Doctorates in the field.

Respondents self-reported relatively high levels of competency in Hebrew and Greek language, with lower levels of competency in Aramaic, Latin, and Syriac. We have allocated assignments of Hebrew and Greek manuscripts according to self-reported linguistic competencies, degree specialties, and research interests.

The transcribers represent more than 70 different institutional affiliations with universities, colleges, seminaries, Bible translation organizations, and various religious ministries in 21 countries from all six regularly inhabitted continents.

What are the transcribers doing?

Transcribers on the HBCE Psalms team are using our state-of-the-art Virtual Manuscript Room digital workspace to encode the texts of each of the most important manuscripts of Psalms 1-50 in a standard, machine-readable text format. Transcribers start with high-resolution digital images of the manuscripts and a digital base text from a standard edition and then modify the text to match the manuscript. They also use special markup code to indicate special features like scribal corrections and layout. We have divided up Psalms 1-50 into five roughly equal parts and assigned at least two transcribers to each of these parts for each manuscript. The first round of assignments is scheduled to be completed by the end of July, and the transcribers are hard at work as we speak. Every transcriber who completes at least one assignment on time according to project standards will be recognized as a project transcriber in the final edition in gratitude for their service to the field.

How will we use the transcriptions?

When two independent transcriptions are complete for a section of a manuscript, we then have an expert compare them and reconcile any differences to generate approved project transcriptions. This allows us to open up the transcription process to many contributors, while still maintaining strict standards of data quality.

The reconciled and approved project transcriptions then form the basis of our manuscript evidence for the edition. We present these alongside images (where permissible) of the manuscripts included in our system. When all of the transcriptions for a passage are complete, reconciled, and approved, then we also compare all of the transcriptions, using a semi-automated Collation Editor to line up all of the texts and group readings that agree with each other. From this, we can automatically generate the apparatus for the digital edition, which is fully integreated with and linked to the transcriptions of the individual manuscripts.

Conclusion

I would like to reiterate just how grateful Brent and I are at the outpouring of support from our transcribers who are volunteering their time to studying these fascinating manuscripts and making their texts available to the world. A project of this scope and magnitude would be impossible without the generosity of others who share our interests and passions, and we are honored to have assembled such a top-notch team. My goal is not just to produce the first digital and eclectic edition of Psalms 1-50, but also to raise up a generation of scholars who are not scared of digital tools, but are rather well-equipped to use state-of-the-art technology to produce the kinds of editions that the world needs for the 21st century. A big thanks to all of the transcribers who are joining us on this journey! I hope it is an enjoyable learning experience for all.