II. The history and nature of other witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. IIa. The Samaritan Pentateuch The Samaritans probably did not separate from Judaism until the “mainstream” Maccabean/Hasmonean period about 166-63 BCE. Only the Torah. Written in a modified archaic Hebrew script. More than 6000 differences from the Masoretic Text. More than 1900 of those differences it agrees with the Septuagint against the Masoretic Text. Many of the differences are simply differences in spelling, or smoothing out grammar. Some of the differences reflect the religious views of the Samaritans. Genesis 5 and 11 however show differences from Septuagint and Masoretic Text. Although some scholars believe the Samaritan Pentateuch is not valuable for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Ernst Wurthwein writes that the Samaritan Pentateuch is a important witness to a form once widespread, that shows “very agreements with Qumran, the Septuagint, the New Testament, and some Jewish texts that escaped revision” (The Text of the Old Testament, 46). IIb. The Peshitta The Peshitta is basically a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Syriac which is a dialect of Aramaic. Scholars debate whether it is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic. Revisions of the Peshitta were strongly influenced by the Septuagint. So
II. The history and nature of other witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. IIa. The Samaritan Pentateuch The Samaritans probably did not separate from “mainstream” Judaism until the Maccabean/Hasmonean period about 166-63 BCE. Only the Torah. Written in a modified archaic Hebrew script. More than 6000 differences from the Masoretic Text. More than 1900 of those differences it agrees with the Septuagint against the Masoretic Text. Many of the differences are simply differences in spelling, or smoothing out grammar. Some of the differences reflect the religious views of the Samaritans. Genesis 5 and 11 however show differences from Septuagint and Masoretic Text. Although some scholars believe the Samaritan Pentateuch is not valuable for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Ernst Wurthwein writes that the Samaritan Pentateuch is a “very important witness to a form once widespread, that shows agreements with Qumran, the Septuagint, the New Testament, and some Jewish texts that escaped revision” (The Text of the Old Testament, 46). IIb. The Peshitta The Peshitta is basically a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Syriac which is a dialect of Aramaic. Scholars debate whether it is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic. Revisions of the Peshitta were strongly influenced by the Septuagint. So