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Samaritan Leviticus

Samaritan Penteteuch

About this book
Chapter 17

1 And Shema spoke to Moses, saying: 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. 6 And the priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of Shema, which is at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and burn the fat for a pleasing aroma to Shema. 7 And they shall no longer offer sacrifices at the gates to which they prostitute themselves.⁠ This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.’ 8 And you shall say to them, ‘If any one of the house of Israel or of the foreigners who live among them offers a burned offering or sacrifice, 9 and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to sacrifice it to Shema, that man shall be cut off from his people.

10 And if any one of the house of Israel or of the foreigners who live among them eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against the person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life.’ 12 Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any foreigner who lives among you eat blood.

13 And any one of the house of Israel, or of the foreigners who live among you, who catches any animal while hunting or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. 14 For the life of all flesh is its blood; its blood is its life.’ Therefore he said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. 15 And every person who skins an animal that dies on its own or is torn by wild animals, whether a native or a foreign resident, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 16 But if he does not wash [them] or bathe his body, then he shall bear responsibility for his wrongdoing.’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 17:4 and Samaritan Leviticus 17:4

Hebrew Bible · Samaritan

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Summary

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.

Passages

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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Samaritan Leviticus 17:4

Samaritan · Samaritan Penteteuch
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.
130–120 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Samaritan Leviticus

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 ..."
Julia Rhyder, “The Prohibition of Local Butchery in Leviticus 17:3–4: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in La Bible hébraïque et les manuscrits de la mer Morte. Études en l’honneur de George Brooke, eds. Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder (Semitica, 2020), 307–327.

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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