Samaritan Pentateuch

I was reading the end of Revelation in the New Testament and thinking about Deuteronomy 4:2, and how everybody always wants to declare that God is finished speaking, and then (we see from Church history and the scriptures) when he does speak again people are often upset because he doesn't say what they thought he was going to say. The Christians say the Bible is the complete and last message from God, the Jews (some of them, anyway) say the Tanakh (Old Testament) is the last, the Samaritans don't accept anything after Deuteronomy. Among other things, this shows that it's not sophistry to point people toward Deuteronomy 4:2 in answer to Revelation 22:18--there really are people (Samaritans) who read Deuteronomy 4:2 the same way, but that's not what it means. The Lord is always free to keep speaking: Moses 1:4 reads, "And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease."

But I wanted to talk about the Pentateuch. I went to check my thoughts on the Pentateuch, and turned to Wikipedia on the theory that asking Wikipedia is a lot like asking your dad: it may not always be right but it's often useful, and it probably represents conventional wisdom. It's also usually accessible to a layman and a good start for highly-technical subjects. I found this Wikipedia paragraph interesting:

'There are important differences between the Hebrew and the Samaritan copies of the Pentateuch in the readings of many sentences. In about two thousand out of the six thousand instances in which the Samaritan and the Jewish texts (Masoretic text) differ, the Septuagint (LXX) agrees with the former. For example, Exodus 12:40 in the Samaritan and the LXX reads, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they had dwelt in the land of Canaan and in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." In the Masoretic text, however, the same passage reads, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years."'

IIRC, that jives with some of the things said in the New Testament (maybe Acts 7? I forget) about the length of time in Egypt, and--given that Jochebed was Levi's daughter--helps a little to reduce the ridiculous lengths of time Levi would have needed to live and Jochebed would have needed to stay fertile in order for Moses to be 80 years old when the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Not conclusive, but I'll keep the Samaritan/Septuagint version in mind next time I'm thinking about the issue.

-Max

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"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Be pretty if you are,
Be witty if you can,
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