Editing Samaritan Pentateuch (section)

==Manuscripts and printed editions==

=== Abisha Scroll ===
Samaritans attach special importance to the ''Abisha Scroll'' used in the Samaritan synagogue of Nablus. It consists of a continuous length of [[parchment]] sewn together from the skins of rams that, according to a Samaritan tradition, were ritually sacrificed.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/samaritanpentate00bart/page/9 Barton 1903, p. 9].</ref> The text is written in gold letters.<ref name = "Fallows"/> Rollers tipped with ornamental knobs are attached to both ends of the parchment and the whole is kept in a cylindrical silver case when not in use.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/samaritanpentate00bart/page/9 Barton 1903, pp. 9–10].</ref> Samaritans claim it was penned by [[Abishua]], great-grandson of [[Aaron]] ({{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|6:35|HE}}), thirteen years after the entry into the land of Israel under the leadership of [[Joshua]], son of Nun,<ref>The Abisha scroll makes this claim for itself in a note inserted between columns of text at Deuteronomy 5. ([https://archive.org/stream/samaritansearlie00montuoft#page/287/mode/1up Montgomery 1907, p. 287])</ref> although contemporary scholars describe it as a composite of several fragmentary scrolls each penned between the 12th and 14th centuries CE.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MURxhWhTRTQC&pg=PA215 Eshel 2003, p. 215].</ref> Other manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch consist of [[vellum]] or cotton paper written upon with black ink.<ref name = "Fallows"/> Numerous manuscripts of the text exist, but none written in the original Hebrew or in translation predates the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name = "Vanderkam93"/> The scroll contains a cryptogram, dubbed the ''tashqil'' by scholars, which Samaritans consider to be Abishua's ancient colophon:
<blockquote>I am Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the [[kohen|Priest]], unto them be accorded the grace of YHWH and His glory—I wrote this holy book at the entrance of the tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, in the year thirteen of the Israelites' possession of the Land of Canaan according to its boundaries [all] around; I praise YHWH.</blockquote>

===Western scholarship<span class="anchor" id="Codex B"></span>===
[[File:Genesis 5 18 as published by Jean Morin in 1631 in the first publication of the Samaritan Pentateuch.png|thumb|Genesis 5:18-22 as published by Jean Morin in 1631 in the first publication of the Samaritan Pentateuch]]
Interest in the Samaritan Pentateuch was awakened in 1616 when the traveler [[Pietro della Valle]] purchased a copy of the text in [[Damascus]]. This manuscript, now known as Codex B, was deposited in a [[Paris]]ian library. In 1631, an edited copy of Codex B was published in Le Jay's (Paris) Polyglot by Jean Morin.<ref name="Florentin">{{harvnb|Florentin|2005|p=1}}: "When the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch was revealed to the Western world early in the 17th century... [footnote: 'In 1632 the Frenchman Jean Morin published the Samaritan Pentateuch in the Parisian Biblia Polyglotta based on a manuscript that the traveler Pietro Della Valle had bought from Damascus sixteen years previously.]"</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IOAtAAAAYAAJ Exercitationes ecclesiasticae in utrumque Samaritanorum Pentateuchum], 1631</ref> It was republished in Walton's Polyglot in 1657. Subsequently, [[Archbishop Ussher]] and others procured additional copies which were brought to Europe and later, America.<ref>{{cite book|last = Cowper| first = B. Harris| title = Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record| publisher = Williams and Norgate| year = 1863| url = https://archive.org/details/journalsacredli15cowpgoog |page = [https://archive.org/details/journalsacredli15cowpgoog/page/n144 131]}}</ref>

===Modern publications===
Until the latter half of the 20th century, [[Textual criticism|critical edition]]s of the Samaritan Pentateuch were largely based upon Codex B. The most notable of these is ''Der Hebräische Pentateuch der Samaritaner'' (''The Hebrew Pentateuch of the Samaritans'') compiled by August von Gall and published in 1918. An extensive critical apparatus is included listing variant readings found in previously published manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch. His work is still regarded as being generally accurate despite the presence of some errors, but it neglects important manuscripts including the Abisha Scroll which had not yet been published at the time.<ref name = "Vanderkam93"/><ref> [[Ellis R. Brotzman]] notes that Gall's edition "because of the principles used to prepare it, must be used with caution." ([https://books.google.com/books?id=93_Dc4SC5ngC&pg=PA66 Brotzman 1994, p. 66].)</ref> Textual variants found in the Abisha scroll were published in 1959 by Federico Pérez Castro<ref name="Brotzman">[https://books.google.com/books?id=93_Dc4SC5ngC&pg=PA66 Brotzman 1994, p. 66].</ref> and between 1961 and 1965 by A. and R. Sadaqa in ''Jewish and Samaritan Versions of the Pentateuch&nbsp;– With Particular Stress on the Differences Between Both Texts''.<ref name = "Vanderkam93"/> In 1976 L.F. Giron-Blanc published Codex Add. 1846, a Samaritan Pentateuch codex dating to 1100 CE in the critical edition ''Pentateuco Hebreo-Samaritano: Génesis'' supplemented with variants found in fifteen previously unpublished manuscripts.<ref name = "Brotzman"/> Certain recently published critical editions of Pentateuchal books take Samaritan variants into account, including D.L. Phillips' edition of Exodus.<ref>Phillips, D.L. ''Hebrew-English: Paleo Exodus: Scripture at the End of the Iron II Period.'' Edwin Mellen, 2004.</ref>

The Arabic translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch has been edited and published at the beginning of the 21st century.<ref>The Arabic Translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch - Volume One: Genesis-Exodus. Volume Two: Leviticus-Numbers-Duteronomy, Hebrew and Arabic. Shehadeh, Haseeb, The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 2002</ref>

Several publications containing the text of the Samaritan Targum have appeared. In 1875, the German scholar Adolf Brüll published his {{Lang|de|Das samaritanische Targum zum Pentateuch}} (''The Samaritan Targum to the Pentateuch''). More recently a two volume set edited by Abraham Tal appeared featuring the first critical edition based upon all extant manuscripts containing the Targumic text.<ref>{{cite book|last = Tal| first = Abraham F. |title = The Samaritan Targum of the Pentateuch: a critical edition (2 vols.)(Texts and Studies in the Hebrew Language and Related Subjects, 5.) |location = Tel-Aviv |publisher = Tel-Aviv University| year = 1981}}</ref>