Book of Joshua (Samaritan) - The Manuscript

The Manuscript

The manuscript from which Juynboll prepared his edition was the property of Joseph Justus Scaliger, who, it is supposed, obtained it from the Egyptian Samaritans in 1584. Later, it was studied by Johann Heinrich Hottinger, who described it in his Exercitationes anti-Morinianæ (1644, pp. 109–116) and in his Smegma Orientale (1657). Two other manuscripts (in the British Museum and at Trinity College, Cambridge) have since come to Europe. An English translation of Juynboll's text has been made by O. T. Crane ("The Samaritan Chronicle or Book of Joshua," New York, 1890). Contrary to Reland, Juynboll (preface to his edition) concluded that the Samaritan Joshua was the work of one author, who did not live later than the thirteenth century, basing his conclusion on the fact that Abu al-Fath, who wrote in 1355, drew from it much material for his own chronicle. It is also quoted by Maqrizi (d. 1441). Juynboll further concluded that the author compiled the work from four sources—one Hebrew-Samaritan (the basis of the first twenty-four chapters) and three Arabic. The Hebrew-Samaritan source is based upon the Septuagint translation of Joshua. A Hebrew résumé of the story of Shaubak (ch. xxvi.-xxxvii.) was inserted in Abraham Zacuto's Sefer Yuhasin by Samuel Shullam, who declared that he found it in a Samaritan chronicle (Sefer Zikronot shel Kutim), where it is said to have been taken from a Jewish Midrash. It is evident that Shullam saw it in an Arabic work, probably the Samaritan Book of Joshua, for he reads "Yaniah" instead of "Nabih," a change possible only if the original was in Arabic characters. Samuel Shullam's résumé was copied afterward by ibn Yahya, in his "Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah," and by Reuben Hoshke, in his "Yalqut Re'ubeni" (section "Devarim").