Samaritan theology differs from that of ancient Judaic traditions in several respects. Amongst those is the difference in the Samaritan Pentateuch in which the tenth commandment is to worship at
Genesis 22:2 in the Samaritan Pentateuch says: “And he said, ‘Take your son, your only one whom you love, Isaac, and go to the
Anderson and Giles write: “Genesis 22:2 serves as a well-known example of a small variant that results in support of Samaritan beliefs and priorities. The place of Abraham’s sacrifice of Issac is rendered in the MT as Moriah [MT or Masoretic Text is the Hebrew text used for English translations of the Old Testament][2] whereas in the SP the place is Morah [SP is the Samaritan Pentateuch].[3] The effect of this variant is to change the association of the place of sacrifice from the Temple Mount of Jerusalem (Jerusalem of Moriah) by way of 2 Chr 3:1 to the preferred Samaritan site, Shechem (a city often associated with Morah). On the other hand, 4QExod avoids the dilemma by eliminating the mention of Moriah/Morah altogether” [4QExod is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls]. [4]
The tenth commandment in the Samaritan Pentateuch is different than the Jewish and Christian versions. The additions are not so much made up as edited into the command from elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Exodus 20:17 in
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“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not
covet your neighbor’s wife, his field, his mal or his female slave, his ox or
his ass, or anything that is you neighbor’s.a And when the Lord your God brings you into the land of the Canaanites
which you are about to invade and occupy,b you shall set up large stones and coat
them with plaster. c And you shall inscribe upon the stones all
the words of this teaching. And, upon crossing the |
Compare: a Exod b Deut 11:29 c Deut 27:2-8 d Deut 11:30 e Gen 12:6, 7; SP Gen 22:2 (see above) |
Selections from the Samaritan Pentateuch
The following is an excerpt from Tibat Marqe (Memar Marqe) a old traditional work of Samaritan theology (c. 3rd or 4th cent ce).[6]
Thus, this represents traditional Samaritan interpretation. Because of this God said about him, “To work the land from which he was taken” (Gen 3:23). The good Mount is holier than any other Mount. From the beginning of creation it has been exalted with holiness. Jacob in holiness learned and encountered it when he saw what he saw and said, “This is none other than the House of God” (Gen 28:17).
There are seven best things in the world that the True One chose and set apart as divine: light, Sabbath, Mount Gerizim, Adam, two tablets of stone, the great prophet, Moses, and Israel. Light is from fire because it is the beginning of everything. In it is order and life. The two stone tablets have their base in God. He brought them forth in power by the will of his mind. The Sabbath is the best of all the days because He set it exclusively apart. Adam is the best of all creatures because from him prophets and righteous men rose in the world. Mount Gerizim is the best of the Holy things because He made it a dwelling for His glory. Moses is the best who magnifies all the best things. Israel is the best of all peoples. God chose her and made her his selection.
So God wrote in His Scripture on behalf of Enoch, “And Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:22). He knew the place of the True One and ran to his side just as Abraham had hurried in the time of his calling. He said to Abraham, “To the land I show you” (Gen 12:1). What did he show him except the Good Mount? And He spoke words to him again in the time of his trial when He asked for Isaac and revealed His Holiness. He said, “To the good and blessed land of the vision” (Gen 22:2). Abraham knew it and hastened to it knowingly.
Hear now a question regarding what was said to Abraham. What is the meaning in the saying of the True One to him when He asked for Isaac “to be sacrificed as an offering upon one Mount which I will tell you” (Gen 22:2)? He made it known from the beginning of His speech. Turn your mind to the question and listen now. The answer does not need any second [source] of knowledge on its behalf. When he came supported by righteousness and truth, he asked about the place, which God had chosen. He looked at the site from a distance. He turned toward it and prayed, and when he had finished praying, he raised his eyes. He did not raise his eyes except to worship because it was the time to stand for Morning Prayer.
And in what direction would he pray except toward Mount Gerizim? When he prayed devoutly, he saw in his enlightenment that you do not say, “in regard to that which I said to you,” that is something which is coming, but to what is long since paste because the world “which” made it known and revealed the meaning of this statement. Now I set for you real evidence that the word “which” is used so that you may know it refers to that which is long since past. When God proclaimed the Ten Words, He did not say there, “who brought you out” (Exod 20:2). If he referred to what is to come, Israel would not have gone out from Egypt and would not have stopped to listen.
It is good that you know that Adam worshiped in its presence and that Enosh proclaimed in the name of God on it and Enoch knew it and hastened to it and Noah built an altar there and stood by it and gave praise to the Lord of the world. So it is said about him, as it was about Abraham, “And Noah built an altar” (Gen 8:20) “And there Abraham built an altar” (Gen 12:9), just as surely as Noah had done. So Abraham truly exalted our God, who set secrets in the hearts of good men that they might illuminate them and they might reveal them. The hearts of good men are tied with their Lord. Righteousness sees them through and truth increases their goodness.
Isaac saw it, Jacob knew it, and Joseph possessed it. In full completeness it was inherited from their fathers [and passed on] to their songs. Good is the one who possesses and good is the one who inherits. A fugitive or deviant son was not [found] among them. Rather they were all good from beginning to end.
O, world full of blessing. It was a time when the great prophet Moses was seen. Let us enhance our world by praising our Lord, and let us not cease so we do not come to an [untimely] end. Let us make a shield in the face of all impurity so that we may dwell in His favor. Let us be abided by faith in YHWH and in Moses, his servant, because except for the great prophet, Moses, the law would not have been revealed and no commandment would have come down. Let us magnify our Lord and believe in him, and let us witness and say, “There is no God except One.”
It is special that a blessing is returned from our Lord, who is compassionate and merciful, who is good to those who love him. Let us consider Moses, a man of God, who spoke a great prophecy at the sea, “On a Mount of Your own possession” (Exod 15:17). What is His possession? Israel is His possession. As He said, “Israel is His allotted possession” (Deut 32:9). The appointed place of your dwelling has two parts.
The following is from a review of Tradition Kept.[7]
They present many examples of the Samaritan Pentateuch’s expansionistic passages concerning Mount Gerizim as God’s chosen place for his dwelling, including a detailed and illuminating discussion of Exodus 20. The tenth commandment in the Samaritan Pentateuch is worship at Mount Gerizim.
In subsequent chapters Anderson and Giles briefly introduce and present lengthy sections of the “Samaritan Joshua” (a history from Joshua through the Roman occupation of the land of Israel) and other Samaritan histories up through modern times. Readers can hear of the wicked ways of Samuel, David, and Elijah (who died by drowning in the Jordan River), each of whom rejected God’s will for faithful Samaritan-style devotion centered at Gerizim. In the Samaritan tradition, Sanballat the Levite is the hero, working against the fraudulent Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah (contra Nehemiah 2, etc.). The problem with Ezra is his use of a Pentateuch with alterations favoring Jerusalem against God’s will for Gerizim. The problem with Zerubbablel is his use of “certain books written after the days of Moses” (the other books of the Judaic Bible) that wrongly affirm Jerusalem (p. 130). Samaritan histories from much later also deal with Jesus of Nazareth, conceived out of wedlock by Joseph the carpenter and his bride-to-be Mary. The Jesus of Samaritan history is crucified and buried (without the involvement of any Samaritans) along with his twelve disciples. Many other colorful anti-Judaic and anti-Christian traditions make clear the defensive and tenacious faith of the Samaritans. The lengthy chapters dealing with Samaritan theology and liturgy could benefit the motivated student but may need study questions to provide guidance (study questions are not in the text).
Anderson and Giles attempt to fill a longstanding hole by treating the Samaritan writings as a subject for student inquiry. The chapter on the Samaritan Pentateuch is especially welcome in beginning to cure a much neglected part of studies of Second Temple Judaic tradition. The value of the chapter on the Samaritan Pentateuch, in spite of its selective illustrations and occasional preachy tone on the importance of the Samaritan Pentateuch, accents the need for student-oriented writings of the pentateuchal witnesses at the turn of the era.
In the following Gary Knoppers is trying to show why the Chronicler felt like he needed to emphasize Jerusalem as the true place of worship (see for example 2 Chron 3:1).[8]
Jerusalem was a relative latecomer. Those Samarians, for instance, who worshiped at Mt. Gerizim, could claim a stronger link to Pentateuchal tradition than the Judeans who worshiped at Jerusalem. To begin with, Mt. Gerizim is explicitly mentioned in the Torah, whereas Jerusalem is not 65. Scribes in Jerusalem undoubtedly took the mandate for centralization, as spelled out in Deuteronomy 12, to apply to Jerusalem. But the mention of “the place (hamaqom) where Yhwh your God will choose to cause his name to reside” (Deut 12:11) is inherently ambiguous. Such an indefinite locution could be taken many different ways and was. 66 Second, the site of Mt. Gerizim carries prestige in divinely authorized mandate for centralization, Mt. Gerizim is explicitly presented as a place of blessing, “and you will pronounce the blessing upon Mt. Gerizim” ... 67 Accordingly, Moses later instructs the Israelites that after they cross the Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin are all to stand upon Mt. Gerizim to hear the blessing spoken (Deut 27:11-13). 68 Hence, in the very texts that many Judeans cherished as in some sense foundational to the life of their own community, Mt. Gerizim occupied a favoured position.
Knoppers’
footnotes
65 The most likely referent for Salem in Gen 14:18 may be Jerusalem, But Jerusalem is not itself explicitly named.
66 In the SamP an attempt is made to lessen, if not eliminate, the ambiguity. There, the phrase appears in the perfect, “the place where Yhwh your God chose to cause his name to reside” … Given the mention of Mt. Gerizim in Deut 11:29, this reinforces the position of Mt. Gerizim as the divinely promised central sanctuary.
67 Cf. Gen 49:26; Deut 33:15. In the SamP, the 10th commandment includes a mandate to set up stones and an altar on Mt. Gerizim (SamP Exod 20:17b; Deut 5:18b).
68 In MT Josh 8:30-35, Joshua builds the altar on Mt. Ebal, but reference is also made to Mt. Gerizim.
65 The most likely referent for Salem in Gen 14:18 may be Jerusalem, But Jerusalem is not itself explicitly named.
66 In the SamP an attempt is made to lessen, if not eliminate, the ambiguity. There, the phrase appears in the perfect, “the place where Yhwh your God chose to cause his name to reside” … Given the mention of Mt. Gerizim in Deut 11:29, this reinforces the position of Mt. Gerizim as the divinely promised central sanctuary.
67 Cf. Gen 49:26; Deut 33:15. In the SamP, the 10th commandment includes a mandate to set up stones and an altar on Mt. Gerizim (SamP Exod 20:17b; Deut 5:18b).
68 In MT Josh 8:30-35, Joshua builds the altar on Mt. Ebal, but reference is also made to Mt. Gerizim.
[1] Trans.
mine (GES), from Der Hebräische
Pentateuch der Samaritaner, ed. August Freiherrn von Gall (Giessen : Verlag
von Alfred Töpelmann, 1918), 36 (http://rosetta.reltech.org/cgi-bin/Ebind2html/TC/vonGall
[3/28/08 ]).
[4] Robert
T. Anderson and Terry Giles, Tradition
Kept: The Literature of the Samaritans (Hendrickson, 2005), 26.
[5] Trans.
from Jeffrey H. Tigay, “Conflation as a Redactional Technique,” 79-80, in
Jeffrey H. Tigay, ed. Empirical Models
for Biblical Criticism (Eugene, Or.: Wipf & Stock, 1985).
[6] From
Anderson and Giles, Tradition Kept,
290-91.
[7] From
Gary E. Schnittjer, Review of Tradition
Kept by Robert T. Anderson and Terry Giles, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49 (2006): 593-95.
[8] Gary
Knoppers, “Mt. Gerizim Mt. Zion 3/28/08 ]).