The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Scribal Culture of Second Temple Judaism

Abstract

The Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), along with its Qumran forebears, has deservedly been regarded as a key source of information for understanding the scribal culture of early Judaism. Yet studies have tended to emphasize the relative uniformity of the characteristic pre-SP readings as evidence of a scribal approach distinct within Second Temple Judaism. This article argues that both the uniformity and the distinctiveness of these readings have been overstated: there is more internal diversity within pre-SP than is usually recognized, and similar or identical readings are also preserved in other manuscript traditions. Rather than representing a distinctive scribal approach or school, the readings of pre-SP are better taken as a particularly concentrated example of scribal attitudes and techniques that appear to have been widespread in early Judaism.