The Shared Tradition of the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch

Abstract

From the earliest days of the critical study of the SP it was known that this text often agrees with the LXX against MT, a situation that the early theological discussions comparing the value of the MT and LXX often exploited. Traditionally the Catholic scholars upheld the value of the LXX against MT, finding support in the frequent agreement of the LXX with the SP. They also considered the ancient Hebrew script of the SP more trustworthy than the square script of MT. These issues were discussed in the seventeenth century not long after the SP had become known in the West. The Catholic scholar Jean Morin (Johannes Morinus) initiated the discussion on the value of SP when he opined that the combined evidence of the SP and LXX weighed heavier than that of MT alone. He also based himself much on the ancient origin of the Samaritan script compared with that of MT. A few years later he published another philological work that discredited the MT.