Paratext
What Is "Paratext"?
According to Gregory Goswell, "Paratext may be defined as everything in a text other than the words, that is to say, those elements that are adjoined to the text but are not part of the text itself if “text” is limited strictly to the words. The paratext of Scripture embraces features such as the order of the biblical books, the names assigned to the different books, and the differing schemes of textual division within the books. Since these elements are adjoined to the text and frame the text, whether a reader notices or not, they have an influence on reading and may assist (or sometimes hinder) the interpretation of the text of Scripture." [Gregory Goswell, Text and Paratext: Book Order, Title, and Division as Keys to Biblical Interpretation (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2023), 1.]
A Few Resources on Paratext
Select Books and Articles
Greg Goswell, “The Order of the Books in the Hebrew Bible,” JETS 51.4 (2008) 673–88.
Greg Goswell, “Having the Last Say: The End of the Old Testament,” JETS 58.1 (2015): 15–30.
Gregory Goswell, “Putting the Book of Chronicles in Its Place,” JETS 60.2 (2017): 283–99.
Charles E. Hill, The First Chapters: Dividing the Text of Scripture in Codex Vaticanus and Its Predecessors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
Marjo C. A. Korpel and Josef M. Oesch, eds., Delimitation Criticism: A New Tool in Biblical Scholarship, Pericope 1 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2000).
Jeremy D. Lyon, "Genesis 1:1–3 and the Literary Boundary of Day One," JETS 62.2 (2019): 269– 85.
Elvira Martín-Contreras' Academia site (numerous resources on Biblical Hebrew paratext): https://csic.academia.edu/ElviraMart%C3%ADnContreras
James Nogalski, Literary Precursors to the Book of the Twelve (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1993).
Charles Perrot, “Petuhot et setumot: etude sur les alineas du Pentateuque,” Revue Biblique 76 (1969): 50–91.
Steven E. Runge, “Where Three or More Are Gathered There Is Discontinuity: The Correlation between Formal Linguistic Markers of Segmentation and the Masoretic Petuha and Setuma Markers in Genesis 12–25,” in Greeks, Jews, and Christians: historical, religious and philological studies in honor of Jesús Peláez del Rosal, ed. Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Munoz Gallarte, Estudios de filología neotestamentaria 10 (Córdoba: Ediciones El Almendro, 2013), 13–28.
The Text and Canon Institute Website, textandcanon.org, including articles such as:
Kim Phillips on the Masoretic Text Tradition: https://textandcanon.org/the-extraordinary-hebrew-text-behind-your-english-bible/
Anthony Ferguson on the Dead Sea Scrolls: https://textandcanon.org/appreciating-the-diverse-evidence-from-the-dead-sea-scrolls/
Amy Anderson on New Testament Manuscripts: https://textandcanon.org/four-benefits-of-reading-greek-manuscripts/
Israel Yeivin, Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah, trans. E. J. Revell, Masoretic Studies, no. 5 (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1980), 40–42 §74.
Manuscript image websites
Excellent curated lists with links:
Charles Grebe at AnimatedHebrew.com https://www.animatedhebrew.com/mss/index.html
The Library at Southeastern: https://library.sebts.edu/c.php?g=457318&p=3125408
Drew Longacre at Old Testament Textual Criticism: https://oldtestamenttextualcriticism.blogspot.com/p/online-digital-images.html
Free, official sites:
British Library: https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2018/12/-download-hebrew-manuscripts-for-free-.html
British Library Hebrew Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/02/hebrew-illuminated-manuscripts-online.html
Cambridge Digital Library: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/hebrew/1
Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668156/
National Library of Israel: https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts
Sefaria.org - choose Bible passage and then click/tap Manuscripts in the right pane, and view high resolution images of the Leningrad Codex: https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Tanakh
Codex Alexandrinus https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/12/new-testament-from-oldest-complete-bible-available-online.html
Yale Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/article/hebrew-manuscripts
Logos and Accordance Bible Software have paid access to various biblical manuscript images.