Gary Knoppers
Address: 342 Malloy Hall, Department of Theology, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA 46556
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Papers by Gary Knoppers
Following recent developments in the study of the LXX and the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), this essay questions whether the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) should be viewed, as it often is, as an offshoot of the proto-Masoretic Pentateuch. That the so-called pre-Samaritan manuscripts found among the DSS share many features with the SP, such as conflationary tendencies, linguistic features, and content, means that some of the specific features that were formerly thought to be distinguishing marks of the SP turn out to be non-exclusive to the Samaritans. Rather, these particular texts and the larger tradition of which they are a part belong to the common patrimony of Judeans and Samarians in the late centuries BCE. That the SP was developed with its distinctive sectarian readings out of one particular family of pentateuchal texts at a relatively late date (second–first centuries BCE) has important implications for our understanding of the editing and transmission of the Pentateuch in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods. The long-term historical relationship between the Samarians and Judeans – before these groups became somewhat alienated in the second century BCE – should be given, therefore, more attention in elucidating the formation, editing, and early transmission of the Pentateuch.
Following recent developments in the study of the LXX and the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), this essay questions whether the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) should be viewed, as it often is, as an offshoot of the proto-Masoretic Pentateuch. That the so-called pre-Samaritan manuscripts found among the DSS share many features with the SP, such as conflationary tendencies, linguistic features, and content, means that some of the specific features that were formerly thought to be distinguishing marks of the SP turn out to be non-exclusive to the Samaritans. Rather, these particular texts and the larger tradition of which they are a part belong to the common patrimony of Judeans and Samarians in the late centuries BCE. That the SP was developed with its distinctive sectarian readings out of one particular family of pentateuchal texts at a relatively late date (second–first centuries BCE) has important implications for our understanding of the editing and transmission of the Pentateuch in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods. The long-term historical relationship between the Samarians and Judeans – before these groups became somewhat alienated in the second century BCE – should be given, therefore, more attention in elucidating the formation, editing, and early transmission of the Pentateuch.
Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E. is the publication of the proceedings of the third conference, which was held in Muenster, Germany, in August 2005; the essays in it focus on the century during which the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic kingdoms came to the fore.
Participants whose contributions are published here are: R. Achenbach, R. Albertz, B. Becking, E. Ben Zvi, J. Blenkinsopp, E. Eshel, H. Eshel, L. L. Grabbe, A. Kloner, G. N. Knoppers, I. Kottsieper, A. Lemaire, O. Lipschits, Y. Magen, K. Schmid, I. Stern., O. Tal, D. Vanderhooft, J. Wiesehöfer, J. L. Wright, and J. W. Wright.