In 1906, Hebrew scholar Rudolf Kittel (1853-​1929) published in Germany the first edition of his Biblia Hebraica (BHK), a printed version of the Hebrew Scriptures in Hebrew. The Latin term Biblia Hebraica (meaning “The Hebrew Bible”) came to be used in the titles of a series of scholarly editions of the Hebrew Scriptures.​—See MASORETIC TEXT; SCHOLARLY EDITIONS.

The Hebrew text of the first and second editions of Kittel’s work (the second edition published in 1909-1913) was based on the rabbinic Bible by Jacob ben Chayyim, published by Daniel Bomberg in Venice, Italy, in 1524-1525. But a much older Hebrew text was reproduced as the main text of the third edition of Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (BHK3, completed in 1937 by Kittel’s associates). It was the Hebrew text found in the Leningrad Codex (B 19^A), dated 1008/1009 C.E. The Leningrad Codex is the oldest manuscript of the complete Hebrew Bible. (See LENINGRAD CODEX.) Later editions of the Biblia Hebraica series (1951-1955) included readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls. These later editions were used as the basis for the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (1953-1960).

More recent editions of this series are Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS, published in 1967-1977) and Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ, published from 2004 onward). Both editions include later research based on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts. These scholarly works also reproduce the Leningrad Codex as their main text and provide footnotes that contain comparative wording from other sources, including the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Targums, the Latin Vulgate, and the Syriac Peshitta. These more recent editions of Biblia Hebraica were consulted when preparing the 1984 and 2013 revisions of the New World Translation.​—See App. A3.