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 SAMARIA

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SAMARIA

recension. Some maintain the opinion that the Samaritans became acquainted with the Pentateuch tlirough the Jews who were left in the country, or through the priest mentioned in IV Kings, xvii, 28. Others, however, hold the view that the Samaritans did not come into possession of the Pentateuch until they were definitely formed into an independent community. This much, however, is certain: that it must have been already adopted by the time of the founding of the temple on Garizim, consequently in the time of Nehemias. It is, therefore, a recension which was in e.vistence before the Septuagint, which fact makes evident its importance for the verification of the text of the Hebrew Bible.

A comparison of the Samaritan Pentateuch with the Masoretic text shows that the former varies from the latter in very many places and, on the other hand, very often agrees with the Septuagint. For the variant readings of the Samaritan Pentateuch see Kennicott, loc. cit., and for the most complete list see Pctermann, loc. cit., 219-26. A systematic grouping of these variants is given by Gesenius, "De Pentateuchi Samaritani origine indole et auctoritate" (Halle, 1815), p. 46. Very many of these variations refer to orthographic and grammatic details which are of no importance for the sense of the text; others rest on ex-ident blunders, while still others are plainly deliberate changes, as the removal of anthropomor- phisms and expressions which seemed objectionable, the bringing into conformity of jiarallel passages, insertion of additions, large and small, different members in the genealogies, corruptions in favour of the religious opinions of the Samaritans, among them, in Deut., xxvii, 4, the substitution of Garizim for EhaV, and other like changes. Although, in com- parison with the Masoretic text, the Samaritan Pentateuch shows many errors, yet it also contains readings which can be neither oversights nor delib- erate changes, and of these a considerable number coincide with the Septuagint in opposition to the Masoretic text. Some scholars have sought to draw from this the conclusion that a copy of the Old Testa- ment used by Samaritans settled in Egypt served as a model for the Septuagint. According to Kohn, "De Pentat. Samar." (Breslau, 1865), the translators of the Septuagint used a Grajco-Samaritan version, while the same scholar later claims to trace back the agreements to subsequent interpolations from the Samareiticon [Kohn, " Samareiticon und Septua- ginta" in "Magazin fiir Gesch. und Wissenschaft des Judentums" (1894), 1 sqq., 49 sqq.]. The simplest way of explaining the uniformity is the hypothesis that both the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septua- gint go back to a form of text common to the Pales- tinian Jews which varies somewhat from the Masoretic text which was settled later. However, taking everything together, the decision must be reached that the \Iasoretic tradition has more faithfully pre- served the original form of the text.

The most celebrated of the raanu-scripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch is that in the synagogue at Nablus. It is a roll made of the skins of rams, and written, according to the belief of the Samaritans, in the thirteenth year after the conquest of Canaan at the entrance to the Tabernacle on Mount Garizim by Abisha, a great-grandsfm of Aaron. Abisha claims for himself the authorship of the manuscript in a spwjch in the first person which is insertc^d be- twecm the columns of Deut., v, 6 sqq., in the form of what is called a Uirikh. This is of course a fable. The age of the roll cannot be exactly settled, as up to now it has not been possible to examine it thoroughly.

The Sarriaritan Pentateuch was printed in vol. VI of the Parit I'olygl'4 (104.5), and in vol. I of the London Polyglot (16.57); BLAYNAy edited a atpy in wjuarc characters (Oxford, 1790). Id mo<Jern times many newly - discovered fragments have been published. GESfSMua, De PentaUuchi Samaritani origine

indole et auctoritate (Halle, 1S1.5); Fell, Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Paderborn, 1906), 111 sqq.; Gall in Zeitschrift fUr die alllestamentl. Wissenschaft (1906), 293.

(2) The Samaritan Targum. — In addition to the Hebrew Pentateuch, the Samaritans had also a trans- lation of this in the Samaritan-Aramaic idiom, the Samaritan Targum. According to their own account this was written by Nathanael, a priest, who died B. c. 20. In reality, it probably belongs to the begin- ning of the third century after Christ; in any case it cannot be put earlier than the second century of our era. In all the manuscripts the text is hopelessly garbled, and what has been published up to the pres- ent time as the Samaritan Targum proves in reality to be a text frequently corrected, altered, and cor- rupted, both in language and contents, at various times, in various localities, and by various hands, a text that is constantly farther removed from its original which in the end is almost lost sight of. An approximate idea of what the original may have been is presented in the St. Petersburg fragments published by Kohn, "Zur Sprache, Literatur und Dogmatik der Samaritaner" (Leipzig, 1876), p. 214. According to Kahle, " Textkritische und lexikalische Bemerkungen zum Samaritan. Pent.-Targum" (Leipzig, 1898), there had never been a universally acknowledged original Targum, but only partial translations made by various priests for practical purposes. On this point cf. E. Littmann in "Theol. Literatur-Zeitung" (1899), No. VI. So far as it is possible to judge, the original Targum was a fairly literal translation from the Samaritan Pentateuch, but a translation made without any real comprehension of the sense and with a defective knowledge of the Hebrew language.

It was first, and most incorrectly, printed in vol. VI of the Paris Polyglot (1645), somewhat more correctly in vol. VI of the London Polyglot (1657); later it was ed. by Brull in square characters (Frankfort-on-Main, 1873-76). The edition by Peterman!^, Pentateuchus Samaritanus: I. Genesis; II. Exodus (Berlin, 1872-73), is also unfortunately not critically satisfactory; its continuation by Vollers, LeiiVicus (1883); Numbers (1885); Deuteronomy (1897), rests on better authorities. In addition fragments found at Oxford, London, and St. Petersburg have been published. KoHX, Samaritanische Studien (Breslau, 1868); Idem in ZDMG, LXVII (1893), 626 sqq.

Greek readings designated as rb 'Za.ixapeinKbv are frequently quoted in old hexaplaric scholia and by some Fathers. These readings nearly all agree with the Samaritan Targum. This '^^a/xapsiTiKdv was prob- ably nothing more than a Greek translation of the Samaritan Targum made in Egypt for the use of the Samaritan communities there [Kohn in ZDMG, XLVII (1893), 650 sqq.; Idem, "Samareiticon und Septuaginta" (see above)].

(3) Translation of the Pentateuch into Arabic. — The translation of the Pentateuch into Arabic that passes under the name of Abu Said appeared in the eleventh or twelfth century, probably to drive out the translation by Saadja (d. 924). Abu Said, who lived in the thirteenth century, was the reviser of the Arabic Pentateuch; formerly he was incorrectly regarded as its translator. Bloch and Kahle have lately demonstrated that this translation has ab- solutely no uniform character, that two, if not more, recen.sions are to be accei)t(ul. The translation is, in general, an exact one, although now and then an effort is evidently made to bring (he Biblical text into conformity with the religious opinions of the Samar- itans. The work used in preparing it is of course the Samaritan Pentateuch, but it can be proved that Saadja's translation was also used.

Abu Sa'id, denenii, Exodus, Leviticus, ed. Kuenen (Leyden, 1851-.54); BixifH, Die snmnril .-nrab. Pcntdtrurh-Uebersetznng (Deut., i-xi) (Berlin, 1001), with introdiution aiul notes. Cf., as renards thi.t, Kahl in Zeilnchrift fiir htbr. H i bliographie (1902), no. 1: Idem. Die arab. BiheliibcrHetzutium (I.eii)ziK, 1904), 25 (Exod., iv, Sn-Se) ; the ceN-hriitcd linrherini Triglolt in the Barberini Library at Rome d.itcH from 1227 and contains in three columnw the Samaritan I'crilutcufli, tlie Samaritan Targum, and the Arabic translation in Samaritan characters.

Thus the succession in order of time of the trans- lations of the Samaritan Pentateuch coincides with