Help
Add this page to your book
Show book (0 pages)
Suggest pagesSamaritan Pentateuch
The Samaritan Pentateuch, sometimes called Samaritan Torah, (Hebrew: תורה שומרונית torah shomroniyt), is a version of the Hebrew language Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, used by the Samaritans.
Scholars consult the Samaritan Pentateuch when trying to determine the meaning of text of the original Pentateuch and to trace the development of text-families. Scrolls among the Dead Sea scrolls have been identified as proto-Samaritan Pentateuch text-type.[1]
Samaritan practices are based on their version of the Five Books of Moses, which is slightly different from the Masoretic text or the Greek Septuagint texts. Some differences are minor, such as the ages of different people mentioned in genealogy, while others are major, such as the commandment to be monogamous which appears in the Samaritan text. (See Lev 18:18.)
Special importance is attached to the Abisha Scroll, which is used in the Samaritan synagogue of Nablus. The Samaritans claim it was penned by Abishua, great-grandson of Aaron (1 Chronicles 6:50), thirteen years after the entry into the land of Israel under the leadership of Joshua, son of Nun.[2] Modern scholars, however, have observed that the scroll appears to include scraps of work by different scribes from different centuries, with the oldest texts dating to the 12th century A.D.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Background
Samaritans claim that they are descended from the northern Kingdom of Israel, which had parted ways with the southern Kingdom of Judah after the death of King Solomon (see 1 Kings 12). Eventually the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians, and the southern by the Babylonians.
Jews have never accepted this account of Samaritan origins, relying instead on the account given in II Kings 17:24-41.
Samaritans reject the Talmud and use their own oral traditions, which have been passed down through the generations and which they believe is the original practice that Moses taught the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. There have been numerous conflicts between Jews and Samaritans in history.
[edit] Differences from the Masoretic text
.jpg)
The Samaritan Pentateuch is written in the Hebrew language, but in the Samaritan alphabet, which differs from the Hebrew alphabet, and was the form in general use before the Babylonian captivity. There are other peculiarities in the writing. Frank Moore Cross (1966) considers that archaizing forms and pseudo-archaic forms point to a post-Maccabaean date.[4]
It is claimed that there are significant differences between the Hebrew and the Samaritan versions in the readings of many sentences. In about two thousand out of the six thousand instances in which the Samaritan and the Jewish texts (Masoretic text) differ, the Septuagint (LXX) agrees with the Samaritan. For example, Exodus 12:40 in the Samaritan and the LXX reads:
- "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they had dwelt in the land of Canaan and in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years."
In the Masoretic text, the passage reads:
- "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." (Exodus 12:40)
The Samaritan version of the Ten Commandments commands them to build the altar on Mount Gerizim, which would be the site at which all sacrifices should be offered.[5]
Wider interest in the Samaritan Pentateuch commenced in 1616, when the traveler Pietro della Valle brought a copy of the text from Damascus. Subsequently, other copies were brought to Europe and later, America. In 1645, an edited copy of the text was published in the Le Jay's (Paris) Polyglot by Jean Morin, a Jesuit-convert from Calvinism to Catholicism, who believed that the Septuagint and the Samaritan texts were superior to the Hebrew Masoretic text. It was republished again in Walton's Polyglot in 1657.
Scholarly evaluation of the Samaritan Pentateuch has changed after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some manuscripts of which display a text that corresponds closely to that of the Samaritan Pentateuch. This shows that, apart from the clearly Samaritan references to the worship of God on Mount Gerizim, the distinction at that date between the Samaritan and non-Samaritan versions was not as clear-cut as previously thought.
[edit] Support for the Samaritan text
Some Protestant Bible scholars[6] believe that the reading Gerizim is actually the original reading, since that is the mountain for proclaiming blessings, and that it is very green and rich of vegetation (as opposed to Mt. Ebal, which is barren and the mountain for proclaiming curses) amongst other arguments.
Also, Benjamin Kennicott states, the Hebrew version cannot be more authentic just because it is the Hebrew version:
"We see then that as the evidence of one text destroys the evidence of the other and as there is in fact the authority of versions to oppose to the authority of versions no certain argument or rather no argument at all can be drawn from hence to fix the corruption on either side".[7]
[edit] Support for the Masoretic Text
A Dead Sea Scrolls fragment — known as 4Q41(981) — of Deuteronomy 5:1-25 does not contain any reference to Mount Gerizim, but matches the Masoretic Text.
The Masoretic text is neutral in regards to "place of worship," instead of being inclined towards the view of the Jews (Jerusalem being the "chosen place"). On the other hand the Samaritan text is inclined specifically towards Mt. Gerizim, agreeing with the view of the Samaritans.[8]
The New Testament agrees with the Masoretic version designating Jerusalem as the "chosen place".[9]
[edit] References
- ^ The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, chapter 6: Questions of Canon through the Dead Sea Scrolls by James C. VanderKam, page 94, citing private communication with Emanuel Tov on biblical manuscripts: Qumran scribe type c.25%, proto-Masoretic Text c. 40%, pre-Samaritan texts c.5%, texts close to the Hebrew model for the Septuagint c.5% and nonaligned c.25%.
- ^ "Emmanuel: studies in Hebrew Bible". Books.google.de. http://books.google.de/books?id=MURxhWhTRTQC&pg=PA215&lpg=PA215&dq=Abisha+Scrolls&source=bl&ots=NvigFoB9Cc&sig=v1JxxF61oRGxsPnuGB1t79mXBoY&hl=de&ei=nv1mS5OWDp-hsQbB2oCfAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CDcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Abisha%20Scrolls&f=false. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
- ^ "The Abisha Scroll - 3,000 Years Old?" Bible Review, October 1991
- ^ Frank Moore Cross Harvard Theological Review July 1966 "The language of the Samaritan Pentateuch also includes archaizing forms and pseudo-archaic forms which surely point to the post-Maccabaean age for its date"
- ^ "Overview of the Differences Between the Jewish and Samaritan Versions of the Pentateuch". Web.meson.org. http://web.meson.org/religion/torahcompare.php. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
- ^ Kennicott, Benjamin. The State of the Printed Hebrew text of the Old Testament. http://books.google.com/books?id=AORDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20&dq=Benjamin+Kennicott+samaritan&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=3sTiS9LDM4jGyATZ-fGSCg&hl=sv&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- ^ "Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation". Books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OMlT-FViF40C&pg=PA796&lpg=PA796&dq=Benjamin+Kennicott+on+samaritan+text&source=bl&ots=vehoHD1pZF&sig=Jc2-yaFTTCqNNk4tnhL8o1Z5WgU&hl=en&ei=wlA7TMWdA4K78gbw0LimBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCwQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Benjamin%20Kennicott%20on%20samaritan%20text&f=false. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
- ^ "Torah from Heaven". Evidencefortorah.comxa.com. http://www.evidencefortorah.comxa.com/samaritans.php. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
- ^ John 4:21, 22, Luke 9:53
[edit] Bibliography
- The Torah: Jewish and Samaritan versions compared (Hebrew Edition, December 2008). Compiler Mark E. Shoulson. Evertype. ISBN 1904808182 / ISBN 978-1904808183.
- Die Vokale Des Gesetzes: Die Samaritanische Lesetradition Als Textzeugin Der Tora (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Fur Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft) (German Edition) by Stefan Schorch. Pub. Walter de Gruyter (June 3, 2004). ISBN 3110181010 / ISBN 978-3110181012
[edit] External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Samaritans: Samaritan Version of the Pentateuch
- Orthodox Jewish view of the Samaritan Text
- Text of Samaritan Torah (samaritan hebrew)
- James H. Charlesworth. Announcing a Dead Sea Scrolls Fragment of Deuteronomy
This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.
|
||||||||||||||
