Texts in Conversation
The Masoretic Hebrew text of Genesis 3:12 attributes Adam passing the blame of eating the fruit to the woman, while the Samaritan Pentateuch uses grammar that shifts the action to the serpent. This alteration subtly changes the flow of blame in the narrative, making the serpent the primary agent of the transgression.
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Genesis 3:12
Hebrew Bible
10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Samaritan Genesis 3:12
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And Adam said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she was given to from the tree to me, and I ate. 13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Date: 130-120 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Genesis 3:12: “Given to" = by the serpent. The word in the source is “netina” and not “natna" as in the Jewish Masoretic Text ..."
Tsedaka, Benyamim
The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version
(p. 9) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013
* 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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