When completed, it will supersede the fourth edition, the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS/ BH4).

The edition has been described as "international and ecumenical" as it features editors from a diverse range of institutions, countries, and denominations (with involvement from Catholics, Protestants and Jews).

A number of consultants are also assisting with the project: for the Masorah, Aron Dotan (Tel Aviv University); for the electronic edition, data management, and programming, Alan Groves† and Soetjianto (Westminster Theological Seminary); for copyediting, Roger Omanson, Harold Scanlin, and Sarah Lind (United Bible Societies); and as associate editors/reviewers, Siegried Kreuzer (Protestant University Wuppertal), Matthieu Richelle (University of Louvain), and Malka Strasberg-Edinger (Jewish Theological Seminary) Due to meticulous nature of the work, the timeline for the edition's completion has constantly been delayed.

Before the release of the first fascicle in 2002, one of the original editors, Richard D. Weis, expressed optimistically that the project would be completed by 2010.

[5] As recently as June 2023, Rolf Schäfer, another of the BHQ editors, expressed that the present estimate for completion is approximately 2032.