ORDINAEY GENERAL MEETIXG* 



The Rey. Canox Girdlestoxe, M.A., in the Chaik. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The following candidate was put forward by the Council and was 

 elected : — 



Life- Associate — Eev. Arthur I. Birkett, M.A., C.M.S. Missionary, 

 India. 



The following paper was then read by the Author, entitled : — 



No. 1. 



THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. By Rev. Canon 

 Garratt, M.A. 



THE Samaritan Pentateuch is preserved at Nablous by the 

 small remaining body of Samaritans in various MSS., some 

 of unknown antiquity, greatly older to say the least than any 

 MSS., either of the Old Testament or of the New Testament, 

 and w^ritten not in that square Hebrew character wdth which 

 we are familiar, but in the older Hebrew character, which is 

 nearly that used by the Samaritans now, and closely resembles 

 tliough not altogether identical with, that on the Moabite stone 

 and in an ancient inscription found at Jerusalem in connection 

 with the conduit which Hezekiah made. I do not say that it is 

 exactly like either of these. All our present copies were copies 

 made by Samaritans in the fifteenth century. The sight of the 

 original MSS. is a privilege hardly ever granted in the present 

 day, and the opportunity of examinhig them never. They have 

 been to a certain degree tampered with by their guardians or 

 perhaps I should rather say copyists ; for some readings which 

 were in them in Jerome's days are not in the copies which we 

 possess. 



These MSS. were well known in the fifth century to Jerome, 

 who valued them highly. They were known to be very ancient 

 MSS. when he saw^ them. Kennicott at the close of the 

 eighteenth century proved in the Dissertaiio Generalis at the 

 end of his great Bible, that the Samaritan Pentateucli was the 



* Monday, March 21st, 1904. 



