Richard Saley is currently involved in a computer-driven...

Richard Saley is currently involved in a computer-driven research project on the Septuagint text of 2 Samuel (including 1 Kings 1:1–2:11).  The initial phase of the project focused on creating the computer database by digitizing and morphologically tagging all of the readings of all of the 35 manuscripts cited in the Brooke–McLean edition (Larger Cambridge Septuagint) of 2 Sam 1:1–1 Kgs 2:11, some 39,000 words!  The second phase, recently completed, was concerned with digitally reconstructing all of the cited manuscripts in their entirety—not just where they differed from Codex Vaticanus—and on writing a variety of computer programs for interrogating the data, largely through a comparison of the reconstructed manuscripts.  The third phase, still in its infancy, will aim to understand, more fully than formerly possible, the interrelationships between the major Greek textual traditions in 2 Samuel (Old Greek, Kaige, Hexaplaric and Lucianic), and the text-critical implications of this for identifying, understanding and restoring damaged portions of the received Hebrew text of 2 Samuel.