Historical Background

Specialisation in the history of the biblical text is a tradition established in Fribourg for over fifty years. Initiated by Prof. Dominique Barthélemy, OP, professor at Fribourg from 1957 to 1992, and author of reference works on the Greek Bible,and the textual criticism of the Old Testament, this tradition was maintained and developed by Prof. Adrian Schenker, OP, professor from 1982 to 2005, and by his successor, Prof. Philippe Lefebvre, OP.
The research work of Professors Barthélemy and Schenker has succeeded in making biblical textual criticism one of the marks of excellence of Fribourg University, recognized throughout the world.

In 1969 D. Barthélemy was invited by the United Bible Societies to participate in a group of specialists to study the principal textual difficulties of the Old Testament.

He became the powerhouse of this international project, the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (HOTTP), which worked annually for ten years (1970-1980).

A. Schenker collaborated in this work and became editor of the Interim Report. D. Barthélemy was invited to take responsibility for the Final Report of the findings of this committee’s work. This report was published under the title La critique textuelle de l’Ancien Testament (5 volumes). D. Barthélemy did not have time to prepare the Pentateuch volume.

On the basis of this work, and on the initiative of the German Bible Society, a new committee was put in place under the direction of Adrian Schenker, to undertake a new critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, the Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ). Fribourg is the centre of this enormous ongoing international and ecumenical project.