Welcome to the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project
The first eclectic and digital critical edition of the first 50 Psalms.
This Virtual Manuscript Room digital workspace will support the three-year NEH-funded project “‘I Shall No Longer Want’ (Psalm 23:1): The Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter” (CEHP) to produce the first full eclectic and digital critical edition of the Hebrew Psalms 1-50, as well as the printed volume for Psalms 1-50 for the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition series. The project is co-directed by Prof. Brent Strawn and Dr. Drew Longacre at Duke University/Divinity School.
The project will move beyond existing scholarly editions that use one manuscript as their basic text and will instead collate and evaluate the best readings of the text of the Hebrew Bible from all available sources and publish those in an eclectic edition with critical apparatus and full textual commentary. Among these sources are the important Psalms manuscripts among the Dead Sea Scrolls that have been missing or inadequately treated in previous editions. The world has waited more than two thousand years for a critical text of one of the greatest classics of religious literature, the book of Psalms. When complete, all who study, translate, or read the Psalms will be able to say ‘I no longer want’—a play on Psalm 23:1—for a critical and reliable edition.
This exciting project would not be possible without the help of many collaborators and especially our volunteer transcribers to record the vast evidence of the ancient and medieval manuscripts in multiple languages. If you would like to participate, please register your interest by filling out this Google form. Note that, when you create transcriptions within this VMR system, they will be jointly owned by you and the project. Your transcription will be connected to your personal account, and you are free to reuse it as you would like. But you also grant the CEHP project rights to use, adapt, and/or publish the transcription in conjunction with the project.
Financial Sponsors
*If you're interested in partnering with us by supporting the research financially, please reach out to Prof. Brent Strawn.
National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Editions and Translations grant
*Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this site, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Mr. and Mrs. Alex and Anne Bernhardt
Mr. George Blumenthal
Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric
Rev. Dr. James and Lisa Howell, in memory of Bishop Thomas B. Stockton and in honor of Fr. Roland Murphy
Rev. John H. McMullen, Jr.
Bishop Carlton P. Minnick, Jr.
Mr. John Stubbs
Yonat Shimrom has published a nice article on NEH funding cuts for grants in the area of religion that features our CEHP project. Dear Volunteers and Friends of the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project:
We write you with heavy hearts. We have just learned last week that our federally funded grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter was summarily terminated without warning by the US federal government. The long and short of this terrible news is that Drew’s position at Duke University must end because there is no longer funding for it, and Brent’s research leave to work on the project is immediately over as well.
This is obviously a major blow to the project and its timely completion. We wanted you to hear it from us, first, before learning of it some other way. We will appeal the decision with the NEH, but we do not expect the appeal to be successful. We are presently considering alternative funding sources, but we have no clear immediate prospects for continuing the research at its previous pace. Drew will need to be seeking regular employment elsewhere, and Brent will be occupied once again full time with teaching and service responsibilities. It seems that the work on the CEHP will, therefore, slow down considerably; indeed it may be on a long hiatus barring some unexpected benevolence.
We are, again, very sorry to report this news. We could never thank each of you enough for all you’ve done for this project and for us. We are forever grateful and we remain committed to bringing this work to completion as opportunity allows. We are convinced it is of great importance for biblical studies, Bible translation, and larger communities of faith, and we also wish to honor the work our volunteers and supporters have done. Indeed, one of the things that makes us most upset about this termination is that it is not just a cancellation of two researchers at a university somewhere. It is a cancellation of the work of some 200 volunteers drawn from across the world—indeed from every continent on the planet except Antarctica. Thankfully, none of that transcription work will be lost, but for the foreseeable future we will be considerably limited in our ability to manage new transcription work and construct the edition itself.
So please accept our heartfelt thanks for your help and service. We welcome your prayers and any suggestions or advice you might offer as we ponder our next steps. If you wish to stay involved with CEHP and help us continue toward our shared goals, we would be happy to know that as well.
Yours sincerely,
Brent and Drew
For those who are looking for more information about the methodology and goals of the CEHP project, Andrew Case has a nice podcast where we discuss these issues and examples in detail. Yonat Shimron has published a nice article highlighting the work of our transcribers on the CEHP project. If you want to learn more about our work with the Cairo Genizah Psalms manuscripts, Melonie Schmierer-Lee interviewed me on the Genizah Fragments blog about our work. 
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