The Origin of the Samaritans Supplements to Vetus Testamentum Edited by the Board of the Quarterly h.m. barstad – r.p. gordon – a. hurvitz – g.n. knoppers a. van der kooij – a. lemaire – c.a. newsom – h. spieckermann j. trebolle barrera – h.g.m. williamson VOLUME 128 e Origin of the Samaritans By Magnar Kartveit LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kartveit, Magnar, 1946- The origin of the Samaritans / by Magnar Kartveit. p. cm. – (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum ; v. 128) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-90-04-17819-9 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Samaritans–Origin. 2. Josephus, Flavius–Knowledge–Samaritans. I. Title. II. Series. BM910.K37 2009 296.8'17–dc22 2009023695 ISSN 0083-5889 ISBN 978 90 04 17819 9 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands Dedicated to Professor Dr Magne Sæbø on his 80th birthday, 23 January 2009 CONTENTS Preface ................................................................. xi Abbreviations.......................................................... xiii .Introduction......................................................... 1 .TheLegacyfromJosephus.......................................... 17 .. Josephus’VersionoftheOriginoftheSamaritans........... 17 .. TheChurchFathers........................................... 20 .. TheSamaritanVersionoftheOrigin:TheChronicles....... 22 BackgroundinJosephus................................... 23 The Tolidah /Chronicle Neubauer .......................... 24 The Kitab al-Tarikh by Abu"lFath ......................... 27 The Arabic Book of Joshua.................................. 34 The New Chronicle /Chronicle Adler ....................... 37 Chronicle II ................................................. 39 .StateoftheQuestion................................................ 45 .. TheImpactoftheSamaritanVersion ........................ 45 .. Josephus’VersionMirroredinScholarship.................. 49 TheCross-PurvisHypothesis.............................. 59 R. J. Coggins’ Model: Estrangement, and no Reconciliation........................................... 68 “CainandAbel”............................................ 69 .JosephusontheOriginoftheSamaritans.......................... 71 .. TerminologyandSources..................................... 71 .. Josephus’ Tendenz ............................................. 80 Opportunism............................................... 82 .. TheFirstStory:AnEasternOrigin........................... 85 .. The Second Story: Origin from Jerusalem and ConstructionoftheTemple .................................. 90 .. TheThirdStory:Sidonians ................................... 96 .. TheDestructionoftheTemple............................... 100 .. FurtherInformationontheSamaritans...................... 103 .. SummingupsoFar........................................... 104 .. GenesisinJosephus’Rendering........................... 106 viii contents .Josephus’Predecessors.............................................. 109 .. Genesis..................................................... 111 .. GenesisInterpretedintheLXX........................... 117 .. DemetriustheExegeteandChronographer ................. 119 .. Theodotus..................................................... 122 .. Sirach:–............................................... 140 .. Jubilees ..................................................... 149 .. QNarrative and Poetic Compositiona-c ....................... 160 .. Aramaic Levi Document and Testament of Levi .............. 171 .. Judith.......................................................... 182 .. Joseph and Aseneth ............................................ 189 ..Philo........................................................... 192 ..Pseudo-Philo.................................................. 194 ..GenesisintheSamaritanPentateuch ..................... 194 ..Conclusions................................................... 199 .SamaritanInscriptionsandRelatedTexts.......................... 203 .. Excavations.................................................... 203 Shechem/TellBalatah ..................................... 203 Teller-Ras.................................................. 205 MountGerizim/Jabalat-Tur.............................. 206 .. TheInscriptionsfromMountGerizim....................... 209 .. TheInscriptionsfromDelos.................................. 216 Excursus:LaterSamaritanInscriptions ................... 225 .. Textswith“Argarizein”........................................ 228 Maccabees:and: .................................. 236 Josephus’ War .......................................... 240 MasadaFragment....................................... 241 Pseudo-Eupolemus......................................... 243 .. Summary...................................................... 256 .ThePentateuchthattheSamaritansChose......................... 259 .. TheSamaritanPentateuchintheWest....................... 259 .. The Predecessors of the Samaritan Pentateuch in Qumran 263 .. TheMajorExpansions........................................ 265 QExod-Levf =Q ...................................... 267 QpaleoExodm =Q .................................... 267 QNumb =Q........................................... 270 RP = Q: a, Q: b, : c, : d, : e . .......... 271 Q ...................................................... 272 contents ix .. Explanations .................................................. 273 .. ALayerofMajorExpansions................................. 276 .. Script.......................................................... 288 .. TheSamaritanTenthCommandment........................ 290 .. MosesasaProphetintheDurran............................ 296 .. Conclusion.................................................... 299 Excursus: Deuteronomy : in the Old Greek Papyrus Giessen and in the Old Latin Lyon Manuscript, andtheAltar-PericopeinJoshua:–.............. 300 Chart : Major Expansions in the Samaritan Pentateuch:Gen–Exod............................. 310 Chart : Major Expansions in the Samaritan Pentateuch:Exod–Deut .......................... 311 .TheSamaritanAttitudetotheProphets............................ 313 .. AProphetlikeMoses......................................... 313 .. TheCanonoftheProphets ................................... 316 .. The Ascension of Isaiah ....................................... 317 LiteraryAnalysis........................................... 317 TheOldestStratum ........................................ 325 TheAccusationsagainstIsaiah ............................ 329 .. QList of False Prophets ar/Q........................... 337 .. FalseProphetsfromtheNorth ............................... 344 .. TrueandFalseProphets ...................................... 346 .. Conclusion.................................................... 348 .TheOriginoftheSamaritans....................................... 351 .. TheConstructionoftheTemple.............................. 353 .. TheBiblicalEvidence......................................... 362 Bibliography ........................................................... 371 Indices IndexofAncientSources........................................... 393 IndexofModernAuthors .......................................... 399 SubjectIndex........................................................ 403 PREFACE As a student I had the privilege in of meeting the Samaritan High Priest, Amram Ben Yitzhaq Ben Amram, and this meeting made a lasting impression on me. Some years later Professor Magne Sæbø of Oslo sug- gested that Samaritan studies would be an interesting field for scholarly work, as it indeed has proved to be. The book is dedicated to him in appre- ciation for his suggestion and continuous support. The School of Mis- sion and Theology (Misjonshøgskolen), has made it possible to pursue the subject, especially during sabbaticals of varying length in –, , , and . Initial studies were made during a stay at the University of Göttingen in the fall of and the spring of , for which I received support from the Norwegian Research Council for Sci- ence and the Humanities (Norges Almenvitenskapelige Forskningsråd). After years devoted to other tasks Samaritan studies were taken up again in the library of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in the summer of with support from the University Funds in Stavanger (Universitets- fondetiStavanger).AnewgrantwasprovidedbytheResearchCouncilof Norway (Norges forskningsråd), for work in Jerusalem and Cambridge, UK, in the fall of . I am much obliged to these research funds for their support. To the staff of the university libraries in Göttingen, Cambridge, Jerusalem and Oxford, as well as of the libraries of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, of Tyndale House, Cambridge, and Campion Hall,