The Torah

The Samaritan community's culture and religion is unique in the world. The Samaritans share an origin with Jews, but the two peoples diverged thousands of years ago, already in Biblical times. The Samaritans consider only the Pentateuch to be a holy book; the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures are no more a part of the Samaritan Bible than the Christian New Testament is a part of the Jewish Bible. The Samaritan version of the Torah differs in several ways from the Jewish Masoretic version, and those differences are the purpose of this book. Both texts are given, in modern Square Hebrew script, on facing pages. Minor variations between the two texts are printed in boldface type slightly larger than the ordinary text, while major variations are printed not only in boldface but also slightly larger than the minor variations. Readers will find this text to be an intriguing window on ancient Israelite society, from which came both the Jews and the Samaritans.