The Transmission of the Samaritan Pentateuch Group: A New Perspective

Abstract This paper explores the transmission process of SP and the texts from which it developed. It evaluates the reliability of the transmission by means of an examination of variants attested in MT and SP attributable to graphic similarity between letters. The paper shows that if one focuses on variants that originated solely in graphic similarity between letters, SP contains primary readings in an equal number of instances as MT. These findings are consistent with the lack of evidence for scribal errors in the pre-Samaritan scrolls. Both indicate that the texts in the Samaritan and pre-Samaritan traditions were carefully transmitted.