Sefer Yetzirah: which text are we reading?
A critical edition opens a small but complex work through its manuscript recensions and variant readings.
Begin with a specific edition
A. Peter Hayman’s edition presents the Short, Long, and Saadyan recensions in parallel, using selected manuscripts and a critical apparatus. The differences between recensions are part of the object of study. Mohr Siebeck ↗
Attribution and attestation are different
Traditional attribution does not date the surviving manuscript. Keep the work’s proposed origin, its earliest attestations, and the modern edition separate. Mohr Siebeck ↗
Follow a variant
Choose one passage and compare its wording across the recensions before discussing letters, numbers, or cosmology. A quotation needs an identified text and translator. Mohr Siebeck ↗