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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
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.
page 569 note 1 I discovered it to be the parallel to the Apocryphal story of Susanna, an English translation of which appears in my Studies and Text, chap, x, pp. 284 ff.
page 569 note 2 This is an essential feature of the Samaritan creed, it is the very corner-stone upon which their dissent from the Jews is built, and to this very day Garizim is to them the Sacred Mount.
page 574 note 1 The Samaritan Chronicle of the Book of Joshua, the Son of Nun, translated from the Arabic, with notes, by Crane, Oliver. New York: John Alden, 1898Google Scholar.
page 590 note 1 Probably “our father,” but abbreviated, without a sign of abbreviation, but no other word is abbreviated in this document. And so the next two.
page 590 note 2 Text is corrupt, read three.
page 590 note 3 In the text “he said to them”. Scribe's mistake.
page 591 note 1 Rather a quaint remark by the Scribe, who evidently had forgotten that Moses was alive then, and he being accustomed to always use this phrase, put it in.
page 592 note 1 This passage is evidently corrupt. For mishem elohim read perhaps Mosheh (ish-ha) elohim, “Moses, the man of God.” The corruption obtains also in MS. Ab-Sakhua.
page 593 note 1 Photograph from here tp v. 82a Jos., ch. 6.
page 593 note 2 This is the way in which Joshua is always spoken of in the Samaritan Book of Joshua, and so in the Arabic text.
page 594 note 1 Transference of the well-known incident in Joshua to the war against Amalek, where, on the contrary, the sun is described as veering towards the south.
page 594 note 2 Evidently referring to Jericho.
page 594 note 3 This may be a corruption from “haam”, the “people”, for the word 'Olam, with the meaning of the “world”, is not found in the Pentateuch. In the Arabic it ia also Olom “world”. Evident proof that the translation has been made from a text like this, if not the very same.
A very extraordinary passage, which reminds one of Ezekiel the poet.
page 594 note 4 The unintelligible yiṭḥawu(!) should be read yiṭḥanu (grind).
page 595 note 1 Corrupt. Perhaps a word like niḳra' has dropped out.
page 595 note 2 Anachronystic.
page 595 note 3 A very remarkable statement. Moses is here the master of the great mysterious, the wonder-working Name of God.
page 596 note 1 Moses who fasted 40 days on Mount Sinai.
page 596 note 2 The reading of this word is doubtful. Perhaps for mekorechem read mekomechem in the sense “your high-places”.
page 596 note 3 A very remarkable passage. It is here for the first time one finds instead of the “10 words” the “10 commandments”.
page 597 note 1 Or a few words have dropped out here and so in the Arabic.
