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xi. 21, xii. 21.

xiv. 1-6.

xiv. 8-14, 17-20.

xiv. 21, 22, xv. 2-7.

XV.
xvi. 1-20.

32-38.

xviii. 1-3.

xviii. 13, 17-37.

xix. 1-37.

xx. 1-11.

xx. 12-21.

xxi. 1-9.
xxi. 17-26.

xxii. 1-20.

xxiii. 1-3.

xxiii. 21-23.

xxiii. 29, 30.

xxiii. 30-37, xxiv. 1—6.

xxiii. 1-21.

xxiv. 1-27.

xxv. 1-4.

xxv. 17-28.

xxvi. 1-4, 21–23.
xxvii. 1-9.

xxviii. 1-27.
xxix. 1, 2.

Isa. xxxvi. 1-22.

Xxxvii. 1-38. 2 Ch.

xxxii. 1-21.

Xxxviii. 1-8.

xxxix. 1-8. 2 Ch.

xxxii. 24-33.

2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-9.
Xxxiii. 18-25.

xxxiv. 1-28.

xxxiv. 29-32.

xxxv. 1, 17—19.

XXXV.

20-24,

xxxvi. 1.

xxxvi. 2-8

2 Kings xxiv. 8-17.

xxxiv. 18, 20, }

xxv. 1-30.

2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23.

Compare 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, 10.
S Jer. lii. 9, 10. 2 Chron.

xxxvi. 11-21.

Ezra i. 1-3

LAWS, HYMNS, AND ORACLES, WHICH ARE REPEATED.

II.

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III. THOUGHTS, SENTENCES, PROVERBS, ETC., THAT ARE

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Among the ancient documents commonly cited in judging of, or amending, the present Hebrew text, there is scarce any which has exercised the minds of critics more than the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch. The opinions of learned men have been widely different, not only in respect to its age, but also in respect to its character and critical authority. Some, and in particular philologists of the Catholic church, have far preferred it to the masoretic text; others have deemed it a point of their religion not to depart a finger's breadth from the received text of the church. While the controversy

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• Translated from the Latin treatise of Gesenius, entitled De Pentat. Sam. Origine Indole et Auctoritate, Commentatio Philologico-Critica.

was recent, it was carried on with no small ardor, and, as it usually happens, faults were committed on both sides. When the more intelligent critics perceived this, as it was easy to do, the greater part of them adopted a middle course, namely, the opinion that the authority of the two was nearly equal that each had its own excellences and defects.

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ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE SAMARITAN CODEX.

At what time did the Samaritans receive the Pentateuch, and from whence? This is a very important question, in the solution of which the critics of our times have embraced various opinions. It is our design to examine the most remarkable of these, and to give our own opinion in this matter.

Those critics who assign the highest antiquity to this codex maintain that among the citizens of the ten tribes, before the time of Jeroboam, there were copies of the Pentateuch, which they think then existed in its present form. Such is the opinion of Jo. Morinus, Kennicott, J. D. Michaelis, Eichhorn, and others, to whom Bertholdt has recently added himself. Their arguments may be comprised under these four heads:

I. "After the institution of the worship of the calf, so violent a hatred arose, between the two people, on account of the disagreement in their sacred rites, that no one will suppose copies, after that time, could pass from one kingdom to the other." Vater and De Wette have much weakened the force of this argument, showing, by many examples, that this disagreement in sacred affairs never destroyed all connection between the worshippers of God in the two kingdoms, and that there was no violent hatred between them before the building of the temple on Mount Gerizim; and who can doubt that the Jewish prophets, who very often taught in the kingdom of Samaria, might have communicated the Law, if it were then written, to the pious worshippers of God in that region? Bertholdt has recently made use of this argument, a little altered, but with what success the reader must judge.' He says, "Since the Pentateuch

a Vater, Com. in Pent. vol. iii. p. 626. De Wette, Beiträge, vol. i. p. 188. See the remarks of Paulus, on the origin and increase of this hatred, Com. über d. N. T. vol. iv. p. 227.

Einleit. p. 236, 817, 864.

not only contains ritual, but civil laws, the citizens of the Samaritan kingdom, burning with hatred against the parent state, would allow themselves to receive a civil code from that kingdom, would seem to be voluntarily surrendering to the ancestral stat suffices us to have stated this. It is indeed evident...... that co ors, amongst other counsels they are wont to devise for exting the spirit of a conquered people, make use of this, namely, to fore own and new laws upon the province, in place of the old insti of the country. Nor is it to be denied that every people, so' for its liberty, does, with justice, adhere pertinaciously to its : institutions, but assiduously avoids all new ones, especially s are brought by a people desirous of ruling them. This would case in the present instance, if the question was about imposing on the Israelites a civil code, proceeding from a Jewish code, different from the sacred Laws of Moses. But the Samaritans, no less than the Jews, acknowledged Moses as their lawgiver, and observed his laws and institutions, whether written or oral. They dissented in a few things, particularly in admitting the worship of the calf, and priests who were not of Levitical descent. Now, admitting, as many do," that the Pentateuch was gradually collected from various fragments in the kingdom of Judah, a little after the time of Rehoboam, — in receiving that code, the Israelites did not receive new laws, but laws long known and kept, though then, for the first time, perfectly collected and arranged together. Then it is evident that this codex may have been issued and promulgated among certain learned and pious Israelites, though not publicly.

II. "They think it can only be explained by this hypothesis why the Samaritans acknowledge only the Pentateuch; for, doubtless, they would likewise acknowledge the other books if they had received this code from the Jews at any late period." If our statement be true, - and we will, by and by, demonstrate it,- that the Samaritans, some centuries after the exile, when certainly the greatest part of the sacred books was extant, received the Pentateuch, with the worship on Mount Gerizim, suitable reasons will not be wanting why they should abstain from receiving the other books; and in the history of religion, examples are not rare of sects, who acknowledge some portion of the sacred documents, and reject others equally well known to them. For this, indeed, was the heresy of the Samaritans, that they not only completely revolted from the worship at Jerusalem, but like

a Paulus, 1. c. 230, sqq.

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