THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. 



209 



in special and Samaritan literature in general, of which I 

 possess possibly the largest collection outside of Nablus, I have 

 come to the definite conclusion that we have in the Samaritan 

 Pentateuch the Pentateuch of the Ten Tribes. Leaving graphical 

 differences aside and changes due to mistakes of the copyists and 

 writers, there remains a solid mass of deliberate interpolations and 

 dogmatic changes behind which must lie the work of authors and 

 scholars. The Hebrew differs somewhat dialectically and syntheti- 

 cally from that of the rest of the Pentateuch. 



Although some people have been led astray by incompetent 

 writers who decried the Joshua discovered by me as a modern com- 

 pilation, it is none the less a fact that the language of the Book of 

 Joshua agrees in its main characteristic features with these very 

 insertions and interpolations found in the Samaritan Pentateuch, and 

 difiers on the other hand very considerably from the language used 

 by the Samaritans in their own later compilations. 



There can be no doubt that these deliberate changes and interpo- 

 lations, as well as the compilation of a national history, must go hand 

 in hand if the Samaritans were to maintain their claim that they 

 were the true representatives of ancient Israel, and the " faithful 

 preservers " (Shamerim), as they claim, of the old law of Moses. It 

 seems plausible now in the light of Mr. Munro's investigations that the 

 process of interpolation which may have been going on for 

 centuries had been practically concluded at the time of Hezekiah, 

 and on the occasion mentioned in ii Kings, to which Mr. Munro 

 refers. 



It is of the utmost importance that the internal evidence of the 

 Samaritan and Hebrew Pentateuchs and the intimate relation which 

 exists between these two versions of the Word of God should be more 

 fully investigated sine ird et studio, with less prejudice, less bias, less 

 intolerance, than is displayed by those who claim to be the holders 

 of the only Truth : the ever-shifting, changing Higher Critics, who 

 attempt to tear the Bible to shreds, and are lost in the masses of 

 fragments into which they have dissolved the Bible. The Eock of 

 Scripture remains impregnable. If only more workers would come 

 forward of the character, and with the equipment, shown by the 

 lecturer ! 



P 



