Samaritan PentateuchEdit
The Samaritan Pentateuch is the version of the Torah preserved by the Samaritan community, a small but ancient religious group centered around Mount Gerizim near modern-day Nablus. Unlike the Masoretic Text—the basis for most Jewish scripture today—and the Greek Septuagint used in early Christian circles, the Samaritan Pentateuch represents a distinct textual tradition with its own readings and theological emphases. Foremost among these is the Samaritans’ longstanding privileging of Mount Gerizim as the sanctuary chosen by God, a stance that shapes readings in several key passages and helps explain why the Samaritan manuscript tradition sometimes diverges from the standard Masoretic text. Torah Samaritanism Mount Gerizim
Scholars have long treated the Samaritan Pentateuch as a crucial witness in the broader field of biblical textual criticism. It interacts with other textual witnesses such as the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls in ways that illuminate how the biblical text circulated, was read, and was interpreted in different communities. The SP is not simply a “different Bible” for a minor sect; it is a window into ancient Israelite religion, its geography of worship, and the competing claims about where the true sanctuary stood. Pentateuch Textual criticism Samaritanism
History and textual basis
Origins and purpose
The Samaritan community presents itself as a continuation of a northern Israelite tradition that kept its own form of the five books of Moses. The SP is their canonical Torah, and its most distinctive theological feature is the emphasis on Mount Gerizim as the divine sanctuary, in contrast to the Jerusalem-centered emphasis found in much of the Jewish tradition. This theological difference is reflected in textual choices within the SP and in how certain laws, liturgical prescriptions, and sanctuaries are described. The relationship between this text and later religious developments is a central question for scholars tracing Samaritanism and the history of biblical interpretation. Mount Gerizim Torah
Readings and distinctive features
The SP shares a large core with the Masoretic Text but contains a number of readings that differ in important places, particularly in passages dealing with holiness, sanctuary, and ritual practice. In key passages that discuss the sanctification of a chosen holy site, the SP favors Mount Gerizim as the locus of divine presence and worship, a reading that reinforces Samaritan religious identity. The variants are diverse enough that the SP cannot be simply dismissed as a corrupted copy; instead, it stands as a parallel witness offering its own theological and historical perspective. For scholars, these readings matter for understanding how a unified canon could be interpreted in different communities. Mount Gerizim Textual criticism Samaritanism Pentateuch
Transmission and manuscripts
Samaritan religious tradition
The Samaritan Pentateuch has survived primarily through medieval manuscript copies kept by the Samaritan community, with the Mount Gerizim temple tradition playing a central role in its transmission. The manuscript tradition is typified by its own script and orthography, and it preserves readings that sometimes diverge from the widely used Masoretic tradition. While the surviving physical copies are medieval, the tradition itself claims continuity from antiquity, a point of pride for the Samaritan community and a subject of scholarly debate about how ancient a given reading might be. Cairo Geniza Manuscripts Mount Gerizim
Archaeology and manuscripts
Beyond the Samaritan libraries, the Samaritan Pentateuch intersects with the broader manuscript culture of the Hebrew Bible. Comparative work involves examining how SP readings align with or diverge from the Masoretic tradition and how some readings find parallel or divergent support in other ancient witnesses like the Dead Sea Scrolls and early versions of the Septuagint. This cross-textual work helps scholars assess the relative age and significance of various readings, while also highlighting how communities shaped sacred text to fit their religious landscapes. Dead Sea Scrolls Septuagint Masoretic Text
Controversies and debates
The Mount Gerizim issue
A central point of contention in the SP vs. MT dialogue concerns Mount Gerizim’s place in biblical law and worship. The Samaritan reading consistently foregrounds Gerizim as the legitimate sanctuary, which has led some non-Samaritan scholars to question how much influence Samaritan theology exerted on the textual tradition. Supporters of the SP argue that the existence of multiple textual streams shows the Bible’s vitality and the legitimate diversity of early Israelite religion, rather than a single authoritarian core. Critics inside and outside the academy note that such readings complicate claims about a perfectly uniform text from antiquity, but they also see value in understanding how different communities lived out their faith in concrete places and practices. Mount Gerizim Torah Textual criticism
Dating and textual priority
Scholars debate how old the Samaritan textual core is and how it relates to the received Masoretic text. Some argue that the SP preserves conservative readings that anticipate the later MT in places, while others contend that certain SP readings reflect independent Samaritan innovations. There is no consensus about a single “original” text, and the SP is generally treated as one important witness among several, not the sole authority on the Bible’s earliest form. The Dead Sea Scrolls provide additional points of comparison, sometimes aligning with SP in particular passages and other times diverging, which underscores the complex web of textual transmission in the ancient world. Dead Sea Scrolls Masoretic Text Samaritanism
Cultural and political implications
Textual variation has become a focal point in broader cultural debates about religious authority and pluralism. From a traditionalist angle, the existence of distinct scriptural traditions reinforces the importance of preserving diverse liturgical and theological heritages, rather than insisting on a single, centralized canon. Critics who frame textual diversity as a challenge to religious authority sometimes mistake today’s plural scholarly landscape for a crisis; proponents argue that multiple witnesses enrich our understanding of how sacred texts were lived and interpreted across different communities. In this view, the Samaritan Pentateuch stands as a durable testament to a community’s religious fidelity and geographic rootedness. Samaritanism Textual criticism Mount Gerizim