The Samaritan Pentateuch: A Critical Editio Magna

The research project aims to provide a critical edition of the Hebrew Pentateuch of the Samaritans. The Samaritan Pentateuch is one of the most important text sources of Old Testament studies and Hebrew linguistics. To this day, however, there is no edition available that meets the requirements of modern text science. This holds true especially for the edition prepared by August Freiherr von Gall (1914-1918) which must be considered as out-dated and unreliable with regard to the manuscript data as well as to the methodological approach.

We intend to prepare a diplomatic edition that is based on MS Dublin, Chester Beatty Library 751 (dating to 1225 CE.). MS Dublin, Chester Beatty Library 751 is the oldest dated manuscript which has preserved almost the complete Samaritan text. Variant readings of ca. 100 further Samaritan Hebrew manuscripts (dating from the 9th to the 14th centuries) will be noted in the critical apparatus. Two additional apparatus will record the variants of the different Samaritan translations (Samaritan Aramaic Targum and Samaritan Arabic translation) as well as of parallels found in non-masoretic texts (the Septuagint and Qumran manuscripts in particular). Marginal notes will show the vocalization of single words where the oral tradition is required in order to understand the specifically Samaritan reading of the text, particularly in those cases where significant differences to the masoretic vowel tradition occur or where a certain word allows more than one reading.

In the Samaritan tradition there is no fixed written vowel text. Therefore the vocalization must be established by consulting the orally transmitted reading tradition of the Samaritans. The Samaritan vocalizations will be transposed into the Masoretic pointing system in order to enable readers of the edition to easily follow and to compare the Samaritan vowel tradition with the masoretic one.

The project is realized by two research teams based in Halle and Budapest who are working in close collaboration:

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (director: Prof Dr Stefan Schorch)

Pápai Református Teológiai Akadémia/ Hungary (director: Prof Dr József Zsengellér).

The edition project is based on extensive pre-studies which were carried out in accordance with leading experts of Samaritan research and of text critical and text historical studies of the Old Testament.

The project is financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Halle) as well as by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Pápa).

Colleagues working on the edition:

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

stud. theol. Susanne Becker

stud. theol. Angelica Dinger

Dipl. theol. Endre Gránicz

stud. theol. Martin Hagg

Ulrike Hirschfelder, MA

Dr Irina Wandrey

Director: Professor Dr Stefan Schorch

Reformed University “Károli Gáspár” Budapest/Hungary:

Piroska Hajnal, MA

Dipl. theol. Zoltán Hamar

stud. theol. Edina Kekk

Director: Professor Dr József Zsengellér

Expert Advisors:

Professor Dr Moshe Florentin (Tel Aviv University)

Professor Dr Adrian Schenker (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

Professor Dr Haseeb Shehadeh (Helsinki University)

Professor Dr Abraham Tal (The Academy of the Hebrew Language, Jerusalem)

Benyamim Tsedaka (Director of the “Institute A.B. for Samaritan Studies“, Holon)