’Samaritans through the Ages’ Conference – Abstracts

Synagogue Mosaics and the Samaritan Temple
The paper will discuss the possible reasons for the absence of references to the Gerizim temple in the traditions of the Samaritans from the early to the contemporary sources and try to examine whether the depictions of temple-like structures and ritual implements on the Samaritan synagogue mosaics as well as references in early Samaritan piyyutim can shed light on this enigma.

July 22 Friday 15.30 – 16.00 h: KRU (Károli Reformed University)

Wie könnte das Garizimheiligtum wirtschaftlich funktioniert haben?
Überlegungen und Thesen zu ökonomischen Aspekten
Während für den (Zweiten) Jerusalemer Tempel seit Längerem verschiedene Theorien zu wirtschaftlichen Aspekten in persischer Zeit diskutiert werden, stehen entsprechende Untersuchungen für das Garizim-Heiligtum noch am Anfang. Methodisch ist der vergleichende Blick auf das benachbarte Jehud/Judäa hilfreich, denn beide Regionen hatten seit der persischen Zeit in politischer und administrativer Hinsicht wie im Hinblick auf ihre JHWH-Heiligtümer Einiges gemeinsam. War aber auch die ökonomische Bedeutung beider Heiligtümer vergleichbar? Hatten sie überhaupt eine ökonomische Bedeutung und wenn ja, in welcher Form und in welchem Umfang und in welchem Verhältnis zur jeweiligen politischen Administration? Wer finanzierte hier wie dort den Kultbetrieb in einer Zeit, in der beide Heiligtümer nach Untergang des Königtums einer ständigen und verlässlichen Neuregelung ihres Unterhalts bedurften? Im Beitrag wird u.a. die These vertreten, dass das Garizimheiligtum ebenso wie das in Jerusalem im Grundsatz auf die freiwillige Unterstützung durch die Bevölkerung angewiesen war und dass durch die Integration und Ausgestaltung verschiedener kultischer Weisungen in die Mosetora in Judäa und Samarien gemeinsam versucht worden war, den Kultbetrieb zumindest in der Theorie zu sichern und Freiwilligkeit und damit verbundene Zufälligkeit idealerweise in Verbindlichkeit und Kontinuierlichkeit zu transformieren. Weiterhin spielen für die Frage nach den ökonomischen Grundlagen für das Heiligtum auf dem Garizim seit dem 3./2. Jh. v. die Beziehungen zwischen der in relativ kurzer Zeit entstandenen Stadt auf dem Hauptgipfel und dem Heiligtum eine Rolle. Wie nicht anders zu erwarten gibt es mehr Fragen als Antworten.

July 22 Friday 16.40 – 17.10 h: KRU (Károli Reformed University)

The sacred terms in Kitāb Sharh Sifr al Khurūj Ghazāl (Ṭabya) ad-Duweik exegetical and lexicon study
The Samaritan Pentateuch is the Resource in History and Regulations, to the Samaritans. According to the study position it was exposed for such exegetical. The Samaritans got benefit from the Pentateuch a lot of texts in the field of their Researches, which are related to the Language, Literature, and Jurisprudence.
In this research we going to present one of The Samaritan Arabic literature texts which begins with two grammatical treatises by Ghazāl (Ṭabya) 10^th century, In the first half of the 11^th century follow exegetical, halakhic, and theological works in Arabic, but also the tradition of Samaritan Aramaic literature. The content of the my proposal is to investigate a manuscript It was reworked by Duwaik wrote in the 13^th century Kitāb Sharh Sifr al-khuruj, and his exegetical that is written in Samaritan Arabic which is a distinctive variety of Middle Arabic with examples in Samaritan Pentateuch, I will do New study, investigate it, and criticize it through the influence of the Islamic and Jewish (Rabbinic and Karaite).
We did a great effort to present a lexicon exegetical study about some sacred terms that have been interpreted by Duweik according to the Dictionaries and Lexicons which are related to the Semitic Languages This work explain sacred terms systema­tically with all those religious practices and doctrines in which Samaritans and Jews differ. only be achieved if it is contextualized within the contemporary Jewish-Muslim and Samaritan-Jewish exegetical debates. These latter points are the center of the project proposed. Will contain variant readings from the manuscripts The Samaritan Pentateuch with different scribes about Exodus writing in medieval. To show how the other jurisprudence influence in Duweik.

July 23 Saturday 10.30 – 11.00 h: KRU (Károli Reformed University)

The concept of tadwīn in Abū l-Ḥasan aṣ–Ṣūrī’s Commentary on the Decalogue
The paper I propose to read at the SES conference will present the project of a critical edition and translation of the Arabic commentary on the Decalogue by the Samaritan scholar Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣūrī (eleventh century CE). I will touch upon some basic issues such as the dating of the work and the question of authorship and discuss the manuscripts available, their proble­matic state, and the methodological difficulties in establishing a reliable text. To give an example of the author’s exegetical method in this commentary, I want to draw attention to his use of the Arabic terms tadwīn and mudawwin, roughly trans­latable as ‘putting something down in writing’ and ‘recorder, redactor’ respectively. The concept of a redactor figure as a tool to explain certain pecu­liari­ties in the narrative structure of various biblical texts is well known from classical Karaite exegesis—most importantly from a number of Karaite scholars con­tem­porary to Abū l-Ḥasan—and has been studied in some depth in recent years. It remains to be de­ter­mined, however, to what degree Abū l-Ḥasan shared this concept and how exactly he envisioned the process of revelation and recording of the Pentateuch. By giving some preliminary considerations on this point, I hope to demonstrate the impor­tance of the comparative study of Karaite commentaries and of Abū l-Ḥasan’s other extant works for an adequate understanding of the Decalogue commentary.

July 23 Saturday 11.10 – 11.40 h: KRU (Károli Reformed University)

Helpers, Tricksters, and Clever Heroines: The Depiction of Women in the Kitāb al-Tarīkh of Abu ’l-Fatḥ
Although focused principally on the deeds and succession of the high-priesthood, as well as a series of persecutors, kings and emperors, heretics, and non-Samaritan clergy, the Samaritan chronographic tradition nonetheless contains a myriad stories featuring or centered around female characters. These characters comprise a spectrum ranging from the daughter of a high-priest to otherwise anonymous residents of Roman Palaestina, including heroes and their antagonists, Samaritans and non-Samaritans alike. The depictions of female characters in the chronicles is similarly diverse — encompassing tricksters, pious helpers of the Samaritan community, and clever heroines. However, although these stories point to frequent historical contacts and the cultural influence between the Samaritan-Israelite community and the neighbouring Christian and Jewish populations of the region, the narrative depictions of women in the Samaritan chronicles remain almost entirely unstudied. Focusing on the Roman and Late Antique chapters of the Kitāb al-Tarīkh of Abu ’l-Fatḥ and adopting a literary-historical approach, the proposed paper will seek to address this gap in the existing scholarship by identifying common tropes and narrative motifs surrounding the accounts of female characters. Where possible and pertinent, it will also draw comparison to the narrative depiction of women in Christian and Jewish sources. In so doing, it will endeavour to contribute to the literary and historical analysis of the Samaritan chronographic tradition, as well as to the development of a more nuanced understanding of the cultural interactions and influences which shaped that tradition during Late Antiquity.

July 23 Saturday 14.00 – 14.30 h: KRU (Károli Reformed University)

Story of a Samaritan Secretery of Sugar Office of the Sultan Baybars (1269)
I would present a story of an Samaritan secretery of sugar office of the sultan Baybars (1269) who was punished by nailing for embezzelment of sultan’s money. The story is based on Ibn Suqais collection of biographies Kitab Tali (13th century).

July 23 Saturday 14.40 – 15.10 h: KRU (Károli Reformed University)

The Greek Inscriptions from Mt Gerizim
The Greek inscriptions have not been published in full, but Leah di Segni and Yitzhak Magen have published some of them, and it is possible to use this material for a preliminary insight into Samaritan life in Roman-Byzantine times. It is also interesting to compare these inscriptions to the Aramaic inscriptions from the second century BCE.

July 24 Sunday 9.00–9.30 h: KRU (University of Jewish Studies)

The (so-called) “Samareitikon”: Emergence and Trans­mission of Greek versions of the Samaritan Pentateuch in light of their sources
Evidence for Greek versions of the Samaritan Pentateuch emerges from a number of quite diverse late antique and medieval sources, starting from the 4th century CE. The most important among these sources are inscriptions from Samaritan synagogues in Greece and in Palestine, marginal notes in Septuagint manuscripts with variants labeled as Samaritan, and also historical sources explicitely refering to a Samaritan Greek translation. Proceeding from an analysis of these sources, and from insights gained through their contextualization within our current knowledge about the transmission of the Samaritan Pentateuch in the late antique and medieval periods, the paper argues that there was not one single Greek translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch, but several of them.
In addition to presenting the evidence and dealing with the question as described above, the paper will also recognize the important contributions made by Samuel Kohn (1841–1920) to the scholarly study of the Samareitikon, paying due respect to the genius loci of the Országos rabbiképző (Landesrabbinerschule, today: University of Jewish Studies) in Budapest, the hosting institution of this SES conference, where Kohn served as professor, besides his function as Chief rabbi of Budapest.

July 24 Sunday 9.40 – 10.10 h: KRU (University of Jewish Studies)

A Manna Like Rice: An Examination of a Curious Metaphor in the Samaritan Tradition
The irruption of a foreign element into a given cultural universe is always exciting to study. Thus rice is associated with the Far East and the Bible does not mention it. Yet, in both the Aramaic and Greek Samaritan traditions of Exod 16:31 and Num 11:7, the appearance of the manna is compared with a grain of rice rather than with coriander, as yet the Hebrew of the Samaritan Pentateuch reads. This paper will study the origin and meaning of this comparison, and assess its significance for the Samaritan tradition.

July 24 Sunday 10.30 – 11.00 h: KRU (University of Jewish Studies)

“Moses and Aaron came to Egypt” – Tibat Marqe and Rabbinic Literature
Already John Macdonald designated Tibat Marqe as a ‘Thesaurus of early Samaritan Traditions, hymns, beliefs, saws and epithets.’ It is fairly certain that Marqa taught pupils in the Bit Sifra during the Roman period, and that his manner and method of teaching are directly set out in his book. Naturally all these teachings bear the stamp of Jewish culture, the neighbor and rival culture, although they both have a firm common ground, the belief in the Torah of Moses. Tibat Marqe contains many traditions derived from older sources, known also from apocryphal Jewish writings. Some of them seem to have been extend in one form or another also to Marqa’s contemporaries, the Palestinian Amoraim. The paper will address some instances where Tibat Marqe might help to date and understand aggadic motives in Rabbinic literature and provide insights into their development. The presentation will summarize some aspects of the older research and will exemplify several cases where A. Tal’s new edition of Tibat Marqe might shed new light on rabbinic aggadic traditions.

July 24 Sunday 11.10 – 11.40 h: KRU (University of Jewish Studies)

The Death of Moses in the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum and in the Tibåt Mårqe
The life of Moses is a major topic of early Jewish and Samaritan literature. Some of these works highlight the circumstances and future results of the death of Moses. In this lecture the descript­tions of Tibat Marqe and the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum are compared.
There are actualities of this topic, since manuscript 8 of Tibat Maeqe (according to the numbering of Tal) was published by Samuel Kohn founder and teacher of Jewish Theological Seminary of Budapest. And LAB has a so called Budapest manuscript kept by the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciencies.

July 24 Sunday 11.50 – 12.20 h: KRU (University of Jewish Studies)

Cataloguing Manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch: Material and Textual Aspects
The aim of my paper is to introduce my project to prepare a catalogue of Samaritan Pentateuch manuscripts in the framework of my doctoral thesis at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg „Codicological description and analysis of the ma­nuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch (16th-20th centuries)“. The project aims at the collection of all the available information on the codicology of the extant Samaritan Torah manuscripts, including the transcription of the paratexts, their translation into German with an accompanying commentary. The results are to be presented in a printed catalogue and in an online database. Both are designed to serve codicologists, from Samaritan studies as well as from related fields, as well as linguists of Samaritan Hebrew, Samaritan Aramaic, and Samaritan Arabic.
In addition to the fundamental importance of all codicological data for a comprehensive understanding of the material aspects of Samaritan Hebrew, Samaritan Aramaic, and Samaritan Arabic scriptural culture and its history, as well as its important contribution to a comparative codicology of scriptural cultures and textual traditions, this study is fundamental for the understanding of the Samaritan Pentateuch itself, which becomes fully comprehensible in the context of its material history of transmission, especially with regard to such features as the material condition of paratexts or different traditions of layout. Samaritan Torah manuscripts are textual witnesses for the text of the Pentateuch, but they convey much further information. The physical shape of the codices, the layout of the text, the design of the patterns accompanying it as well as further material aspects may shed light on the time, place and cultural context in which they were created. The same holds true for the various kinds of paratexts that are associated to, partly even interwoven into the Torah text – some of them stemming from the Torah copyists themselves, others – as the deeds of sale – from scribes of different decades and centuries after them. This sector is of fundamental and paradigmatic importance for Samaritan codi­cology, because the Pentateuch tradition testifies to the greatest breadth of written cultural phenomena within Samaritan manuscript culture and because it is the only section of Samaritan written culture in which there is a coherent tradition over longer historical periods, unlike, for example, the handwritten tradition of the Samaritan liturgy or the Samaritan midrashim. The development of this part of the Samaritan written culture is there­fore an indispensable prerequisite for all further studies in this area. In addition, the Samaritan Pentateuch manuscripts far exceed all other parts of the Samaritan manuscript culture in terms of the amount of data to be indexed. The comprehensive indexing and analysis of these data therefore also creates a basis for comparison with undated texts that have identical or similar characteristics.
The paper aims at presenting project and to discuss some of its challenges. Also, it is my hope that this presentation helps to foster interaction with a specialist audience already at an early stage of the project, in order to improve the adequacy and utility of the database in preparation.

July 25 Monday 9.40–10.10 h: JTS – UJS (OR-ZSE)

A Samaritan Inscribed Glass Bottle
The paper deals with a unique Samaritan inscribed Late Roman\Early Byzantine Period (4^th-5^th century AD) glass bottle. It has a pear-shape body, a cylindrical neck and a reverted uneven trapezoid rim. The body was blown in a mold made of two parts. The body and the base are decorated with four prominent vertical palm branches which meet in the center of the base. The branches are dividing the body into four registers consisting of ten sun-like motifs, two triplets and two pairs. At the lower area of a register containing two sun motifs there is a short three Samaritan letters inscription (which will be presented during the meeting). Samaritan inscriptions are found on a variety of objects and materials, on stones, terracotta oil lamps, bronze rings and amulets, gold jewelry etc, yet this is for the first time that a Samaritan inscription is found on a glass bottle.
The bottle has no recorded provenance and was purchased from a licensed dealer in Jerusalem (Israel Antiquities Authority export permit no. 0353; 21.6.2004). It is presently kept in a private collection and is planned to be exhibited with all his collection in a museum.

July 25 Monday 11.10 – 11.40 h: JTS – UJS (OR-ZSE)

Samaritan Hebrew *ś > š
The inventory of Samaritan Hebrew consonants conforms by and large to the one reflected in Jewish reading traditions. Most deviations from the ‘common’ Hebrew pattern are easily explicable as late changes, possibly under the influence of vernacular languages: The loss of [p] (and also [v]) and its realization as either [b] or [f] is due to Arabic influence, and the loss of the laryngeal and pharyngeal consonants and their merger with /ˀ/ has been tied by some to Greek influence. But Samaritan Hebrew evinces an additional distinct merger: That of historical *ś > š. Two explanations for this state of affairs have been put forward: 1) That it reflects a northern isogloss traceable to the Hebrew (and Phoenician) of the late Iron Age; 2) That it constitutes a late spelling pronunciation (Macuch, Grammatik, 84-85). I shall revisit the arguments for each of the proposals, including the following aspects. A) Is *ś > š a typologically likely shift? B) What is the early non-Samaritan evidence for *ś > š in northern Hebrew (and Phoenician)? C) What do Hebrew substrate words in Samaritan Aramaic and Arabic reveal about the pronunciation of *ś? D) What is the overall likelihood of a spelling pronunciation for this phoneme in the restricted corpus of Samaritan Hebrew?

July 26 Tuesday 9.00 – 9.30 h: KRL (Károli Reformed University)

On the Meaning of kā̊zēba šā̊ka כזבח שכח in the SP Ex 23:19a
Attempts to understand the phrase כזבח שכח  were mainly based on the general meaning of the verb שכח ‘forget’. Other interpretations based on the context have sometimes been suggested. The interpretation proposed here is based on the main use of the verb  שכח  in the Torah and on its surprising occurrence in a fourteenth-century Samaritan piyyut.

July 26 Tuesday 9.40–10.10 h: KRL (Károli Reformed University)

The Samaritan Pentateuch as an Intra-lingual Translation
What does translation theory add to our understanding of textual criticism? Can we view scribal activity in translational terms, even within the same language?
This paper presents a translational model for examining the Samaritan Pentateuch: as an intralingual translation to the Samaritan Hebrew dialect. Many view translation as an exclusively inter-lingual activity, but translation theory can be applied much more broadly. Drawing on the semiotics of Charles Peirce, Marais (2019) describes translation as a trajectory of interpretation and reinterpretation of signs. Translation theory also gives us the idea of skopos – the aim or intention behind translational activity (Reiss and Vermeer 2014, Nord 2018).
In simplistic terms, scribes engage in translational activity with the skopos of reproducing the original text. However, this is a complex process, as scribes compare different texts and oral traditions and respond to their cultural and religious context.
This paper starts with the assumption that both the SP and MT share a common source. Thus, most differences can be traced to a point where the translational trajectories of either the SP or the MT had a significant shift. Irrespective of their relative dates, there were more such shifts in the translational trajectory of the SP than of the MT. Many of these shifts have particular skopoi, some relating to Samaritan theology and culture. Others, such as the harmonisations found the Exodus narrative, are not Samaritan innovations. To discern the skopoi behind these shifts we have to look more broadly at scribal practices in the Second Temple era.

July 26 Tuesday 10.30 – 11.00 h: KRL (Károli Reformed University)

Some thoughts on dating a “significant variant”
The contribution and limits of the Qumran manuscripts and punctuation marks in the Samaritan manuscripts. As part of the first French translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch, the only edition of the Paris P2 manuscript was chosen. The edition of the text from the manuscript preserved at the National Library of France and the translation into French have given rise to debates on the notion of significant variant. The use of oral tradition and other Samaritan texts is well known in modern editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In addition, it seems that passages in the so-called proto- or pre-Samaritan manuscripts of Qumran make it possible to settle occasional debates on a variant due to Sama­ritanism or to an ancient version of the text, that is to say before the Samaritan reception. In addition, a reflection was elaborated on the place to be given to punctuation marks for the detection of an old version or a medieval rewriting. It is proposed to examine these questions using examples chosen from the book of Genesis.

July 26 Tuesday 11.10 – 11.40 h: KRL (Károli Reformed University)

Yahweh and the Samaritan Pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton
The pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton remains a matter of dispute in biblical studies. A major piece of evidence in favor of the common scholarly pronunciation “Yahweh” comes from a fifth century Church Father Theodoret of Cyrus (circa 393–circa 460). Theodoret says that the Jews considered the ineffable name to be Ἀϊά (or: Ἰά, Αἰά) whereas the Samaritans called it Ἰαβέ (or: Ἰαβαί).[1] Samaritan knowledge of how to pronounce the Tetragrammaton in this period seems to be corroborated by a report in the Jerusalem Talmud. According to the 4th century Amora, Rabbi Mana II, some Samaritans made oaths by pronouncing the Tetragrammaton (y. Sanh. 10:1 28b). Against this, Benyamim Tsedaka maintains that the Samaritans never pronounced the Tetragrammaton, referring to God as שמא (Shema; Aramaic: “the name”) already in biblical times. Ben-Ḥayyim has shown that the Tetragrammaton was read as Shema in recent centuries, as evidenced by rhymes in Samaritan poetry. In the thirteenth century, Ibn Ezra conflated the Samaritan use of שְׁמָא with the name of the purported Samaritan deity אֲשִׁימָא in 2 Kings 17:30. This lecture will argue that the Samaritan ban on pronouncing the Tetragrammaton was already in force in the Second Temple period. Geiger suggested that the Second Temple period rabbinical enactment requiring that the Tetragrammaton be used in greetings (Mishnah, Berakhot 9:5) was designed to create a social distinction between Jew and Samaritan. Similarly, a reference in Josephus (Ant. 12:259 [5.5]) to the cult site on Mount Gerizim as a “Temple … without a name” (ἀνώνυμον … ἱερὸν) is specifically in a context distinguishing between Jews and Samaritans. If the Samaritans refrained from pronouncing the Tetragrammaton in the Second Temple period, Theodoret could not have been relying on what Dalman argued was a “living tradition” of the Samaritan pronunciation of the divine name in the 5th century CE. An 18th century commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud may explain the report that some Samaritans made oaths by pronouncing the Tetragrammaton. The context in the Jerusalem Talmud is “he who pronounces the Name according to its letters” (ההוגה את השם באותותיו). German rabbi David ben Naphtali Fränkel (1707–1762) suggested in his commentary Qorban Haʿedah that the Samaritans referenced the Tetragrammaton in their oaths, not by actually pronouncing it, but rather by spelling out the letters yod he vav he. As implausible as this may initially seem, Ben-Ḥayyim demonstrated based on rhymes in Samaritan poetry that יהוה was sometimes read yūt-i-bā-ī, that is, the Samaritan pronunciation of the names of the letters yod-he-vav-he.

[1] Quaest. in Octateuchum, in Exod., quaest. 15; Haereticarum fabularum compendium 5.

July 26 Tuesday 11.50–12.20 h: KRL (Károli Reformed University)