The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Scribal Culture of Second Temple Judaism

Abstract

Abstract:The Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), along with its Qumran forebears, has deservedly been regarded as a key source of information for understanding the scribal culture of early Judaism. Yet studies have tended to emphasize the relative uniformity of the characteristic pre-SP readings as evidence of a scribal approach distinct within Second Temple Judaism. This article argues that both the uniformity and the distinctiveness of these readings have been overstated: there is more internal diversity within pre-SP than is usually recognized, and similar or identical readings are also preserved in other manuscript traditions. Rather than representing a distinctive scribal approach or school, the readings of pre-SP are better taken as a particularly concentrated example of scribal attitudes and techniques that appear to have been widespread in early Judaism. Keywords

Samaritans, Biblical Studies, and Ancient Judaism: Recent Trends

“…As part of the reconsideration of scriptural composition, scholars have also challenged previous interpretation of ‘Samaritan’ variants, especially the ‘pre-Samaritan’ readings found in some Qumran texts. These variants in the text of the Pentateuch have often been sorted into two classes: harmonistic ‘expansions’, like the addition of speeches or prayers from elsewhere in the text, and so-called ‘sectarian’ emphases, like the emphasis of the later Samaritan Pentateuch on Gerizim (see Kartveit 2009: 265-88, 310-312; Schorch 2012; Tov 2015; Zahn 2011: 135-77, 2015). Scholars agree that most of these readings are not ‘Samaritan’ per se, but rather provide evidence that ‘a version of the Pentateuch very similar to that found in SP (aside from the few truly Samaritan readings) must have circulated widely in late Second Temple period Judaea’ (Zahn 2020: 13).…”