Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

YS: Before we explore this amazing agreement, it is important to point out
that
the spelling of the Pentateuch definitely does not predate the 6th century
BCE.
Furthermore the Samaritan Pentateuch agrees with the Jewish Pentateuch
on issues of spelling (the spelling is actually more developed in the
Samaritan,
generally speaking), so we would have to conclude that the agreement and
mutual confirmation of the Pentateuch by both communities happened
sometime not before the 6th century BCE.  A likely time would be the 3rd
century BCE, for various reasons.

JC: This is all pretty standard minimalist stuff but full marks for your
ability to regurgitate views you have read in a minimalist book. I guess
we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one as we've already been
through this perhaps more times than Jim has presented his conspiracy
theories on the location of the Salt Sea.

However, the shape of the Samaritan canon in general would suggest that your
minimalist view is extremely misguided. The split in the canon follows the
timeline of the split of the kingdoms and the Samaritan pentateuch is
evidently older than the split. The nationalistic differences can be argued
to be later for obvious reasons. But it is these very differences which give
the agreements their age.

James Christian