Texts in Conversation
The Samaritan Pentateuch and Greek Septuagint of Genesis 2 say God finished his work on the sixth day, unlike the Masoretic text which says the seventh day. The change avoids the possibility of saying that God did any work on the Sabbath.
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Samaritan Genesis 2:2
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the sixth day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made heavens and earth
Date: 130-120 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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LXX Genesis 2:2
Septuagint
1 And the sky and the earth were finished, and all their arrangement. 2 And on the sixth day God finished his works that he had made, and he left off on the seventh day from all his works that he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it he left off from all his works that God had begun to make. 4 This is the book of the origin of heaven and earth, when it originated, on the day that God made the sky and the earth
Date: 3rd Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The LXX agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch (יששה) and S in reading “sixth” for “seventh” of the Masoretic text. This reading probably derived from contextual theological harmonization because it was found difficult to explain how God could finish his work “on the seventh day” without having worked on that day. It is impossible to determine whether the easier reading of the LXX was based on an actual variant יששה or whether the exegetical tendency developed independently in all three sources ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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