The Samaritan Pentateuch

Samaritans trace their lineage to the northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and claim to have remained in northern Israel after the Assyrian invasion and deportations of 722 BCE. Their canon is limited to their own version of the Pentateuch and does not include the books of the Prophets and Writings or the oral traditions of the Second Temple period and rabbinic authority. The textual differences between the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Vorlage—that is, the base text used for the translation—of the Septuagint, and the Proto-Masoretic Text are evidence that there were different versions of the Pentateuch in use during the Second Temple period.

Although many of the differences between the Masoretic Text and the Samaritan Pentateuch are quite minor, mostly consisting of differences in spelling and grammar, one significant example of textual difference between versions is that of Deuteronomy 12:5. The Masoretic version of this verse states, “But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there” (NRSV). Not only is this verse understood by Samaritans to refer to their own temple on Mount Gerizim, but the Masoretic version speaks of the place God will choose in the future, whereas the Samaritan text speaks of the place God has chosen in the past. For more on the Samaritans, see Samaritans.