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The Hebrew Bible ends the Ten Commandments with the command against coveting. The Samaritan Pentateuch adds a command to build an altar on Mount Gerizim, drawn from Deuteronomy, making Gerizim worship part of the Ten Commandments.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 20:17
Hebrew Bible
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” 18 All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking—and when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance.
Samaritan Exodus 20:17
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, and not thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his field, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. And when it so happens that LORD God brings you to the land of Caanan, which you are coming to posses, you shall set-up there for you great stones and plaster them with plaster and you write on the stones all words of this law. And it becomes for you that across the Jordan you shall raise these stones, which I command you today, in mountain Grizim. And you build there the altar to the LORD God of you. Altar of stones. Not you shall wave on them iron. With whole stones you shall build the altar to LORD God of you. And you bring on it ascend offerings to LORD God of you, and you sacrifice peace offerings, and you eat there and you rejoice before the face of the LORD God of you. The mountain this is across the Jordan behind the way of the rising of the sun, in the land of Caanan who is dwelling in the desert before the Galgal, beside Alvin-Mara, before Sechem. 18 And all the people heard the thunderings, and the noise of the trumpet, and saw the lightnings, and the mountain smoking: and when all the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
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Notes and References
... By including the Mount Gerizim diktats among the ten words spoken by Yhwh to his people on Mount Sinai, Samaritan scribes granted these decrees a privileged place within the Torah. Whereas in Deuteronomy 27:1, the directives are given by Moses (accompanied by the elders) to the people, the literary recontextualization of the material drawn from Deuteronomy 27:4a, 5-7 within the Ten Commandments elevates the Mount Gerizim altar commands into orders given directly by Yhwh to his people. In so doing, Samaritan scribes accord the (new) tenth commandment an extraordinary status. ...
Knoppers, Gary N.
"Altared States: The Altar Laws in the Samaritan and Jewish Pentateuchs, and Their Early Interpreters" in Langlois, Michael (ed.) The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls
(pp. 109-111) Peeters, 2019
* 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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