DEMONSTRATING THE BIBCRIT ANCIENT WITNESS BRIDGE: A TOOL FOR MULTI-TRADITION COLLATION OF HEBREW BIBLE VARIANTS
Jose Fresco Benaim
Independent Researcher at the Center for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade, Serbia
Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade, Serbia
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2026-0836
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20835719
PREPRINT
Abstract
This methodological communication presents the BibCrit Ancient Witness Bridge, a digital humanities tool designed to facilitate the comparative analysis of textual witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. The platform brings together readings from the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Peshitta, and the Vulgate within a unified interface, enabling scholars to examine textual variation across multiple traditions without consulting numerous specialized editions separately.
The article explains the workflow of the tool, which retrieves normalized textual data for a selected verse and processes it through a large language model in order to generate structured comparisons of variant readings. Particular attention is devoted to methodological transparency, reproducibility, and the necessity of independent scholarly verification of all generated results.
The contribution of the article lies not in proposing new textual reconstructions but in presenting a reproducible digital methodology for the assembly, comparison, and preliminary evaluation of textual evidence across multiple traditions of the Hebrew Bible.
Keywords
Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible; Dead Sea Scrolls; Samaritan Pentateuch; Septuagint; Peshitta; Vulgate; Digital Humanities; Large Language Models; Biblical Textual Criticism; Multi-Tradition Collation; Tool Criticism; Hebrew Bible
This preprint introduces the BibCrit Ancient Witness Bridge, a digital humanities tool developed to assist scholars in the comparative analysis of textual witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. The platform integrates data from major textual traditions—including the Masoretic Text, Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, Samaritan Pentateuch, Peshitta, and Vulgate—into a unified analytical environment.
The study demonstrates how artificial intelligence can assist textual critics in assembling, organizing, and comparing variant readings across traditions while maintaining scholarly control over interpretation and evaluation. Through practical examples and a survey of multiple variants, the article explores both the possibilities and limitations of large language models in biblical textual criticism.
Rather than replacing traditional philological methods, the proposed approach functions as a supplementary research tool intended to improve efficiency in the initial stages of textual investigation. The study therefore contributes to ongoing discussions concerning digital methodologies, artificial intelligence, and the future of textual criticism in biblical studies.
Research Areas
Hebrew Bible; Textual Criticism; Dead Sea Scrolls; Samaritan Pentateuch Studies; Septuagint Studies; Digital Humanities; Artificial Intelligence in Humanities; Biblical Philology; Manuscript Studies
Citation
Benaim, Jose Fresco. Demonstrating the BibCrit Ancient Witness Bridge: A Tool for Multi-Tradition Collation of Hebrew Bible Variants.. Belgrade: Center for Hebrew Language and Literature, 2026. Preprint Version.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20835719
Additional Information
Language: English
Type: Preprint Research Article
Primary Topics: Hebrew Bible; Textual Criticism; Digital Humanities; Artificial Intelligence; Dead Sea Scrolls; Septuagint; Samaritan Pentateuch; Biblical Manuscript Traditions
Author Contact
Jose Fresco Benaim, Spain
E-mail: jossi@somosunodigital.com
Publisher Center for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade, Serbia
Research place: Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade, Serbia