Volume 2 of the Textual History of the Bible breaks new ground in multiple areas:
- Covers all the known textual versions and translations of each deuterocanonical book whose origins reach back to the tenth century C.E. or earlier.
- Offers comprehensive treatments of the canonical and the textual histories of the deuterocanonical texts in the diverse language traditions.
- Provides detailed descriptions of the manuscripts and lists of manuscripts that include deuterocanonical writings in Ethiopic, Armenian and Georgian
- Discusses the text-critical value and the history of research of each version
- Makes interrelations and dependent transmission histories between biblical versions transparent in a comprehensive way, such as between the Syriac, Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, not coicidentally all anti-Chalcedonian Churches
This new approach to old texts requires the detailed knowledge of many experts, scholars with intimate knowledge of the language traditions and the manuscripts.
2A covers the canonical histories and the textual histories of the deuterocanonical texts in the diverse language traditions. 2B and 2C are devoted to the deuterocanonical books themselves. The chapters on each book begin with an overview article, followed by individual entries on each of the known language traditions in which the book is attested, up to the tenth century C.E.
