Texts in Conversation
In Exodus, priests wash hands and feet at a bronze basin made from women’s mirrors before entering the tabernacle. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, “serving women” and “armies” sound alike, suggesting the basin’s design may represent an army of angels.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 38:8
Hebrew Bible
6 He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. 7 He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it. He made the altar hollow, out of boards. 8 He made the large basin of bronze and its pedestal of bronze from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 9 Bezalel made the courtyard. For the south side the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, 150 feet long, 10 with their twenty posts and their twenty bronze bases, with the hooks of the posts and their bands of silver.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Samaritan Exodus 38:8
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
6 And he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with bronze. 7 And he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar to carry it with them; he made it hollow with planks. 8 And he made the basin of bronze and its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 9 And he made the courtyard; for the south side southward the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, one hundred cubits; 10 and its pillars were twenty, and their sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.
Date: 130–120 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Exodus 38:8: The Israelite Samaritan commentators and translators understood “the visions of the armies” as angels who were always at the gate of the tent of meeting ..."
Benyamim Tsedaka and Sharon Sullivan, eds., The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version, trans. Benyamim Tsedaka (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 220.
* 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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