Dating Deuteronomy

The Wellhausen Fallacy

Schubert

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781532638749
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

The Torah was recognized as a unit before the separation between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. This book challenges established biblical scholarship derived from two assumptions of the Wellhausen Fallacy: a) Deuteronomy could not have been written before the time of Josiah (650 BCE); b) The existence of a group of redactors in the fifth century BCE or later. The first premise is based on the mistranslation of the biblical text. The second is based on the unlikely assumption that the scribes of the Second Temple era felt free to edit old documents or to ascribe their own writings to Mosaic times. The Samarian version of the Pentateuch is virtually identical to the traditional (Masoretic) text. It is preposterous to assume that the Samarians would accept a fictitious Torah composed by Judean exiles of the Persian period or later as authoritative. Neither Samarians nor Judeans copied the Pentateuch from each other. The biblical text and the Samarian texts are merely different editions of the same document.

II

The Law (Torah) of Israel

4

The Composition of the Pentateuch

It is generally agreed that the biblical texts underwent a process of redaction and revision in the interval between the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem (587 BCE) and the Hasmonean revolt (167 BCE). This time covers three periods, named after the empire ruling the land: 1) the Babylonian exile (597–547 BCE), when the region was ruled by Babylon; 2) the Persian (or Achaemenid) era, from the ascent of Cyrus (547 BCE) to the conquest of the area by Alexander (332 BCE); 3) the Hellenistic epoch, until the revolt of the Maccabean (165 BCE). It is widely agreed that major revisions/editions of the Pentateuch were written during the periods of the Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic era. This chapter discusses the relationship between Samaria and Jerusalem during this period, followed by a comparison of the Masoretic Text (MT) and the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP).

The Samaritans, who prefer to be called Samarians (inhabitants of the Assyrian Province of Samaria) or Shomrim (Guardians), consider themselves to be Israelites, descendants of the tribes Manasseh and Ephraim.181

In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria; and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria (17:6) . . . So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day. The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon . . . they took possession of Samaria, and settled in its cities. (2 Kgs 17:23b–24)

These events are well-documented by Assyrian sources. However, the number of exiles deported as well as the size of the imported population was probably exaggerated.182 Archaeological excavations show heavy destruction in Galilee and Bashan, but Samaria became the provincial capital and was soon resettled. The Samarians did not rebel against the Babylonians, and in the middle of the sixth century BCE, Samaria was a flourishing city. A temple for YHWH was built on Mount Gerizim. Cogan concluded,

Within three to four generations of their arrival in Samaria the foreign settlers were on their way of being absorbed by those Israelites who had escaped deportation and still lived in the land. Assimilating Israelite customs, the foreigners became virtually indistinguishable from the autochthonous population.183

Samaria became a province within the empire of Assyria, and later it became a province of Babylon, of Persia, and of the Greek ruler (Egypt or Syria) during the Hellenistic era. It was more important than Jerusalem. The inhabitants of Samaria called themselves Israelites of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.184 They maintained a sanctuary (Miqdash) on Mount Gerizim, dedicated to YHWH. The service was led by a high priest of the Aaronite lineage.

Israelite (i.e., Samarian) communities existed within the Hellenistic world. Knoppers quotes two descriptions from the early third and first century BCE, found in the Aegean island of Delos, referring to “Israelites who make offerings for the temple of (holy) Mount Gerizim.”185 Thus Samarians as well as Judeans recognized each other as Israelites. Both groups were led by Aaronite priests of the family of Phinehas and cooperated with each other.186 The rift between the Judeans and the Israelites from the province of Samaria started about 450 BCE at the time of Ezra, who ruled that sacrifices to YHWH may only be offered at the Jerusalem sanctuary. However, there was strong resistance in Jerusalem against Ezra and Nehemiah. “The sharp divisions in the Jerusalem community, and the priesthood in particular, with which we are familiar from the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, were not restricted to the fifth century BC, but continued much longer.”187

Until the Hasmonean period, the inhabitants of the province of Samaria were “Israelites.” Contemporary nomenclature reflects the bias of rabbinical thinking. The term “Samaritans” was coined only during the first century BCE, referring to those Israelites who refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Jerusalem and insisted that Mount Gerizim is the only legitimate location for a sanctuary for YHWH. The term appears in the Talmud and in the New Testament, but not in the Hebrew Bible.

The designation “Second Temple Period” too is biased and misleading. It implies that there were only two legitimate temples in Israel. Neither the first temple at the time of the monarchy nor the second temple, erected during the Persian period, was the only sanctuary serving YHWH at their time. Jerusalem became the sole temple of YHWH only after the destruction of the Israelite temple on Mount Gerizim by the Judean Hasmonean king John H...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• I: The Problem
• II: The Law (Torah) of Israel
• III: The Ethnogenesis of Israel
• Glossary
• Partial Index of Additional Topics
• Bibliography