Texts in Conversation
Leviticus 17 commands that sacrifices be brought to the tabernacle, but the Samaritan Pentateuch includes a longer version, also found in the Greek Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls. These versions add clarifying details about how offerings are made.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 17:4
Hebrew Bible
2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them, ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded, 3 “Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, 4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. 5 This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent—to the priest—and sacrifice them there as peace-offering sacrifices to the Lord.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Samaritan Leviticus 17:4
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
2 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘This is what Shema has commanded, saying, 3 ‘If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, 4 and has not brought it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to make it a burned offering or a peace offering to Shema so that it may be accepted for a pleasing aroma, and he killed it outside and he did not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as an offering to Shema in front of the tabernacle of Shema, that man shall be held responsible for bloodshed. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people. 5 So that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, so that they may bring them to Shema, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the priest, and sacrifice them as peace offerings to Shema.
Date: 130–120 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A further difficulty posed by Leviticus 17:3-7 is the textual variation in the key verses 3-4 preserved in the ancient witnesses; and it is this textual variation that makes these verses a particularly fascinating case study of how evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls can reframe classical issues in Pentateuchal research. In the LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch, and one manuscript from Qumran, 4QLev (4Q26), verse 4 contains a lengthy plus over against the shorter text preserved in Masoretic text and another manuscript from Qumran, namely 11QpaleoLev (11Q1). The plus offers an expanded description of the offering that is to be presented by the person who wishes to slaughter his or her livestock for food. The length of the plus is particularly striking given the high degree of uniformity that usually characterizes the text of Leviticus ..."
* 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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