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Old Testament:
Samaritan Pentateuch


The Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), is an important witness to the Hebrew text. It is preserved in ancient Hebrew called "paleo-Hebrew," whereas the Masoretic Text (MT) is in Aramaic block script. Some places differ from the MT especially where to worship, but when the SP agrees with the Septuagint it can be an important alternate reading. There are 1900 such instances (Wurthwein 1979, 43). The only striking difference in Genesis is the chronology in chapters 5 and 11.

The Samaritan Targum translates the Samaritan Pentateuch into Aramaic which can show us how they understood the text. There was no official recension of this targum so surviving manuscripts have their own text.

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