Pre-Order First English Translation of Samaritan Torah

[slaveofone]

The first English translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch in history is available for pre-order at Amazon.com for a nice discount on the publisher's price. This thing has been a long time coming--straight from the scholar and Samaritan, Benny Tsedaka.

[Pilgrim]

Why do they call it the "Israelite Samaritan Torah?"

[One Bad Pig]

720 pages? That's pretty hefty for just the Pentateuch.

[slaveofone]

Why do they call it the "Israelite Samaritan Torah?"

Not sure why they chose that for the title, but I could wager a few guesses...

They call themselves Israelites, but what they mean by Israelite might be different than what other people mean... They consider themselves descendants of the Northern Kingdom tribes (“Israel” instead of “Judah”) that returned and resettled there. They are an ethnic group distinct from the Jews with their own law traditions. Everyone else calls them Samaritan. And it's their Torah—again different from the Jewish Torah in a great many ways. Some of Dead Sea Scrolls actually preserve readings unique to the Samaritan version.

720 pages? That's pretty hefty for just the Pentateuch.

I haven't seen the content, so I can't verify this... it is all conjecture... BUT I do know that B.T. wrote commentary for the entire English translation talking about the unique perspectives and traditions of the Samaritans and how they come from or make sense of their version of Torah. So perhaps there will be a bit of that commentary in it. It also appears that there will be a comparison of some sort to the Masoretic text, so maybe part of the bulk comes from including the Samaritan text itself or its transliteration...and maybe the Hebrew as well.

In any event, it sure is exciting (to me at least)!

[JB]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

[One Bad Pig]

And it's their Torah—again different from the Jewish Torah in a great many ways. Some of Dead Sea Scrolls actually preserve readings unique to the Samaritan version.

I have a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. From what I've read so far, I wouldn't characterize the Samaritan Text as "greatly" different, but then again I'm only part-way through Exodus.

[Semachiah]

Shalom,

Pilgrim you wrote:

"Why do they call it the "Israelite Samaritan Torah?"

The modern Samaritans claim to be "True" Jews. They claim that unlike those who claim to be Jews today, that this very small group was not taken into the Babylonian Exile and that they, as a people, were not corrupted nor was their version of the Torah. They claim to be direct descendents of Joseph through Ephraim and Manasseh with some clerics having descended directly from Levi. They prefer and claim that the name "Israelite" is and should only be applied to them as a people while at the same time acknowledging that the name "Samaritan" is what they are more commonly known as. Therefore they have included all of this into the name of this text in what seems to be a confusing way of attempting to simply and clarify.