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Samaritan Exodus

Samaritan Penteteuch

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Chapter 20

1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 “I am Shema your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery. 3 You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness [of anything] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, Shema your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of their fathers, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 and showing faithful love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 You shall not take the name of Shema your God in vain, for Shema will not consider anyone innocent who takes his name in vain.

8 Observe the Sabbath day, for it is holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Shema your God. On it you shall not do any work: you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave, or your female slave, [or] your cattle, or the foreigner who is within your cities, 11 for in six days Shema made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore Shema blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land which Shema your God gives you. 13 You shall not kill. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, and you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his field, his male slave, or his female slave, [or] his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. And when Shema your God brings you into the land of the Canaanite, which you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set up large stones, and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law. And when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on [Mount] Ārgarizem. And there you shall build an altar to Shema your God, an altar of stones; you shall not raise any iron [tool] over them. You shall build an altar to Shema your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer burned offerings on it to Shema your God. And you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice in the presence of Shema your God. That mountain beyond the Jordan, beyond the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside Elon Moreh, opposite Shechem.”⁠

18 And all the people heard the thunder, and the sound of the trumpet, and saw the lightning, and the mountain smoking. And when all the people saw [it], they trembled, and stood far away. 19 And they said to Moses: “Look, Shema our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. We have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of Shema our God any more, then we shall die. For who is there among all living people, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of fire, as we have, and has still lived? Go near, and hear all that Shema our God will say, and you will speak to us all that Shema our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it. But do not let God speak with us, so that we do not die.” 20 And Moses said to the people: “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, [and] so that you may keep the fear of him in mind and not sin.” 21 And the people stood far away, and Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. And Shema spoke to Moses, saying:⁠ “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. Everything they have said is good. If only they had hearts like this, so that they would fear me, and keep my commandments always, so that things might go well for them, and with their children forever! I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.⁠ And if anyone does not listen to the words he shall speak in my name, I will demand [it] from him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you think to yourself, ‘How may the word which Shema has not spoken be known?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of Shema, if the word does not happen or come true, that is a word which Shema has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it arrogantly; you need not be afraid of him. Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ But you, stand here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandment, the statutes, and the rules, which you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.”

22 And Shema spoke to Moses, saying: “You shall say to the children of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make gods of silver [to be] with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. 24 You shall make me an altar of earth, and shall sacrifice on it your burned offerings, and your peace offerings of your sheep and of your oxen in the place where I recorded my name; to that place I will come to you and I will bless you. 25 And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool over it, you have defiled it. 26 You shall not offer deceitfully on my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed to it’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 18:18 and Samaritan Exodus 20:21

Hebrew Bible · Samaritan

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Summary

In Deuteronomy 18, Moses remembers God promising at Horeb to raise up a prophet like him, a promise Exodus never records. The Samaritan version of Exodus adds it to the Sinai story, so God makes the promise there, just after the Ten Commandments.

Passages

Deuteronomy 18:18

Hebrew Bible
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you—from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him. 16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this great fire anymore lest we die.” 17 The Lord then said to me, “What they have said is good. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command. 19 I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Samaritan Exodus 20:21

Samaritan · Samaritan Penteteuch
21 And the people stood far away, and Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. And Shema spoke to Moses, saying: “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. Everything they have said is good. If only they had hearts like this, so that they would fear me, and keep my commandments always, so that things might go well for them, and with their children forever! I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. And if anyone does not listen to the words he shall speak in my name, I will demand [it] from him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you think to yourself, ‘How may the word which Shema has not spoken be known?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of Shema, if the word does not happen or come
130–120 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Samaritan Exodus

References

“... The Samaritans, by rendering the Jewish Ten Commandments in nine parts, made room for a distinctly Samaritan tenth commandment which in its first part states “the vital dogmatic difference between Jews and Samaritans,” the absolute sanctity of Mount Gerizim. A second part of their tenth commandment is, however, equally important. It includes the interpolation of Deuteronomy 18:15, 18. By granting to this promise so central a place, the Samaritans stated not only their claim for Mount Gerizim, but also their hope for a Redeemer like Moses (or perhaps, better expressed, Moses redivivus) whom they called the Taheb. ...”
J. Louis Martyn, History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, 3rd ed., NTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 106.
“... The SP version of the Decalogue of Exod 20 is a composite literary piece, inserting into the Exodus text selections from Deut 5, 11, and 27. The resulting rendition of the Ten Commandments accomplishes three important tasks. First, with clarity and geographical precision, Mount Gerizim is identified as the only legitimate and divinely ordained place of sacrifice. Worship on Gerizim becomes the concern of the tenth and final command, and in this manner the importance of Gerizim, the distinctive place for Samaritan worship, is secured. Second, Moses is elevated to an even higher status than that presented in the MT. Only Moses can speak with God, and the community grants only to Moses the status of intermediary to the Divine. The third accomplishment of this text is to invest the promised prophet to come with all the authority of the ten sacred words. The promise of the prophet, in Samaritan theology, becomes a significant social construct by which the Samaritans critique the Davidic dynasty and all social power structures that detract from the centrality of the one who will restore the Divine Favor, the Taheb. ...”
Robert T. Anderson and Terry Giles, The Samaritan Pentateuch: An Introduction to Its Origin, History, and Significance for Biblical Studies (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012), 94–95.
“... The same emphasis on Moses as God’s faithful representative perhaps explains why Deuteronomy serves as the source for fifteen insertions into Exodus and Numbers. In Deut 1–3, Moses recalls incidents and events that occurred during the time of the narratives related in Exodus and Numbers. Some of these events do not appear in the MT and LXX texts of Exodus and Numbers, and the insertions in the SP and pre-Samaritan texts fill this gap. As Kartveit observes, in the SP “Moses in Deut 1–3 is depicted as a truthful history-teller. He does not report an event or a divine revelation in Deuteronomy unless it actually took place according to Exodus and Numbers.” This need for the primary narrative to appear in Exodus and Numbers is quite understandable: since Deuteronomy is postured as a recap of the earlier narrative, all of the events described there should also appear in the primary narrative of Exodus-Numbers, but not all of the details in Exodus-Numbers need appear in Deuteronomy, as Moses could have abridged the story. ...”
Robert T. Anderson and Terry Giles, The Samaritan Pentateuch: An Introduction to Its Origin, History, and Significance for Biblical Studies (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012), 68.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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