17.2.2. Samaritans

² William Smith, Smith’s Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997), s.v. “Samaritans.”

³ Modifications included: “1. Emendations of passages and words of the Hebrew text which contain something objectionable in the eyes of the Samaritans, on account either of historical improbability or apparent want of dignity in the terms applied to the Creator. Thus in the Samaritan Pentateuch no one in the antediluvian times begets his first son after he has lived 150 years; but one hundred years are, where necessary, subtracted before, and added after, the birth of the first son. An exceedingly important and often-discussed emendation of this class is the passage in Ex. Ex. 12:40, which in our text reads, ‘Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.’ The Samaritan has ‘The sojourning of the children of Israel [and their fathers who dwelt in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt ] was four hundred and thirty years’; an interpolation of very late date indeed. Again, in Gen. Gen. 2:2, ‘And God [?] had finished on the seventh day,’ is altered into ‘the sixth,’ lest God’s rest on the Sabbath day might seem incomplete. 2. Alteration made in favor of or on behalf of Samaritan theology, hermeneutics and domestic worship.”—Ibid., s.v. “Samaritan Pentateuch.”

⁴ “The Samaritans claim descendancy from the northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh following the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Since Assyrian documents record deporting a relatively small proportion of the Israelites (27,290), it is quite possible that a sizable population remained that could identify themselves as Israelites, the term that the Samaritans prefer for themselves, indicating their status as remnants of the northern kingdom.”—R. T. Anderson, “Samaritans,” in Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979, 1915), 4:303.

⁵ Merrill K. Unger, R. Harrison, Frederic F Vos, and Cyril J. Barber, The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1988), s.v. “Samaritans.”