Book of Joshua (Samaritan)


The Book of Joshua, sometimes called the Samaritan Chronicle, is a Samaritan chronicle so called because the greater part of it is devoted to the history of Joshua. It is extant in two divergent recensions, one in Samaritan Hebrew and the other in Arabic. The editio princeps is a published an Arabic manuscript written in the Samaritan alphabet, with a Latin translation and a long preface by T. W. Juynboll. The Samaritan Hebrew version was published in 1908 by Moses Gaster. Though based on the Hebrew canonical Book of Joshua, it differs greatly from the latter in both form and content and the Samaritans ascribe no canonical authority to it. The author, who was of a much later period, amplified the Biblical narratives by weaving into them legends of a later date and developing the narratives themselves, at the same time altering certain statements in accordance with Samaritan views on history. Alterations that emphasize the Samaritan belief in the sanctity of Mount Gerizim, the site of the Samaritan temple, appear throughout the text; for example, an expanded passage calls Gerizim "the chosen place" and a description of the temple being built there follows the conclusion of the conquest of Canaan. It is divided into fifty chapters, and contains, after the account of Joshua, a brief description of the period following Joshua, agreeing to that extent with the Book of Judges. Then follow histories of Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, and the revolt against Hadrian; it ends with an incomplete account of Baba Rabba.

The manuscript

The manuscript from which Juynboll prepared his edition was the property of Joseph Justus Scaliger, who, it is supposed, obtained it from the Egyptian Samaritans in 1584. Later, it was studied by Johann Heinrich Hottinger, who described it in his Exercitationes anti-Morinianæ and in his Smegma Orientale. Two other manuscripts have since come to Europe. An English translation of Juynboll's text has been made by Oliver Turnbull Crane.

Date and authorship

Contrary to Reland, Juynboll concluded that the Samaritan Joshua was the work of one author, who did not live later than the thirteenth century, basing his conclusion on the fact that Abu'l-Fath, who wrote in 1355, drew from it much material for his own chronicle. It is also quoted by Maqrizi.
Crane refers in his preface to Juynboll's "conclusion that it has been redacted into its present form about A. D. 1300, out of earlier documents", a conclusion also shared by Crane.

Contents

Ch. xlv.-l. give accounts of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Mausil, Alexander the Great, the revolt against Hadrian, the high priests 'Aqbon and Nathanael, and Baba Rabba.

Resources