The Samaritan Hebrew Sources of the Arabic Book of Joshua

Abstract

In 1848 Juynboll published the Arabic text with a Latin translation and elaborate introduction of a Samaritan work, which he called the Samaritan Chronicle. He printed it from a MS. in the Leyden library deposited there by Scaliger; this MS. belonged to the fourteenth century. It was written by two hands, the second part being of a somewhat later date. Juynboll was quite justified in callingit a chronicle, although the largest part of the MS. consists of the book of Joshua. It is a paraphrase of the book of Joshua of the Jewish Bible, containing chiefly the first chapters to which various legendary stories had been added. But the MS. contains much more. It starts with the appointment of Joshua as successor to Moses, in the latter's lifetime, then the history of Bileam, slightly differing from the record in the Bible, then also two different recensions of the death of Moses are given, after which, with a special heading, the book of Joshua begins. At the end of it the history is continued; it is very fragmentary. Within a very brief space the story of the Exile, under Bokht Nasar—the Arabic form for Nebuchadnezzer—is told, and then it is continued in the same brief form down to the time of Baba Rabba—second or third century—the great hero of Samaritan history. The Samaritans considered him as the one who had been able to throw off the yoke of the foreign rulers and to obtain for them a certain amount of political liberty.