Boid's Soon to be Published Reference to Shilo = Chrestos

[Secret Alias]

So to use the analogy of my philandering employee if Bob coveted my wife and moved into my house and tried to "make it with" her he would be showing me more respect than if he stayed at a distance and said "that's my bosses wife, that's off limits." The real problem is that traditional Christian scholars for the most part have this "on off switch" in their head. They know there is this "Samaritan system" which likely was connected with the Sadducees and Alexandrian Judaism because these were all the oldest Jewish systems. But then they "switch off" and start speaking about "the Jews" by means of the Acts of the Apostles where "the Church" had "Pharisaic allies" or a connection with the Pharisees through Paul. This story is complete bullshit but it serves to cut off the obvious connection between earliest Christianity and its supernatural Savior, the divine being who glorified Moses, and "Jesus Christ." I will say once again that not all Jews held that "the Writings" were all about foretelling the coming of THE Messiah. What had happened of course was that AFTER many generations of messianic failures Christianity felt vindicated enough to declare the start of the reign of Antoninus Pius as a new age which was entirely compatible with the "defeat of the religion of the Jews." This doesn't mean that "all Jews" bought into the popular messianic religion that swept through the region starting in the 60s and ended with the Samaritan Jubilee of 137 CE. But clearly the opening lines of Adversus Marcionem ties Marcionite Christianity to the realization of a new age coinciding with the Jubilee.

[Secret Alias]

ṣlm[t - - -] | ’ḥt’ ’tt | zb[d]bwl ṭbt’ |ḥbl

“Image of - - - Aḥta, wife of Zabdibol, the good one, alas!”

28L. 2: alternatively, one could read ’dt’. It is a feminine name, as shown by the adjective ṭbt’ in the following line.

29L. 3: epithets pertaining to the qualities of the deceased are rare, although they are very common in Greek (χρηστός, χρήσιμος, ἄλυπος). https://journals.openedition.org/syria/1478

ṭbh, ṭbtˀ (ṭāḇā, ṭāḇṯā) n.f. goodness, good thing
as a substantive, only plural in Syriac: ܛܵܒ̈ܵܬܵܐ‏; in JLA, LJLA the pls. of טבתא‏ and טבותא‏ are often confused


1 goodness, the Good Com. TAD C1.1(Ahiqar) .24 : הו טבתא יבעה֗‏ he is seeking the good. H 1039:5 : ʾtʾ tyrdt krnytʾ lḥṭrʾ qm wʿbd ṭbtʾ lmth general PN came to Hatra and arose and did the Good for his land. 11QtgJob 16.4=30:15 : כ]ר֗וח טבתי ו^ר^ב^ו^ת֗י‏ [MT: כָּרוּחַ נְדִבָתִי]. TgO Gen44:4 : לְמָא שַלֵמיתוּן בִשתָא חֲלָף טָבְתָא‏ why did you repay good with evil?. TN Gen44:4 .

2 plural tant. : (a) good food, wholesome fruits Qumran, Syr. 4Q537 5:1 : ותכלון פריה וכל טבתה‏ . P Ezra9:12 : ܕܬܬܥܫܢܘܢ ܘܬܐܟܠܘܢ ܛܒ̈ܬܗܿ ܕܐܪܥܐ‏ . (b) virtues, benignity JLAtg, Syr. TgJ Is63:7 : טָבוָתָא דַיוי אְנָא מַדכַר‏ . (b.1) charity Syr. LG 3:10(1) : ܕܥܵܒܕܼܝܢ ܛܵܒ̈ܵܬܵܐ ܡܸܢ ܢܸܟ̈ܣܲܝܗܘܼܢ‏ who perform charitable acts from their property. (c) good things, good acts OA, JLAtg, LJLA. Sf.1.c5 : lṭbt[ʾ] yʿbd[ ....] šmšʾ [lb]yt m[.. so that he might do good things (under?/before?) the Sun for the house of RN. TgO Deut7:10var. : וֻמשַלֵים לְסָנְאוֹהִי טָבוָן/טבן/ דִאִינוּן עָבְדִין קְדָמוֹהִי בְחַיֵיהוֹן‏ . PJ Gen26:28 : בזכותך הוות לן כל טבתא‏ all the good things happened to us through your merit. (c.1) covenant stipulations or relations OA, OfAMesop, JLAtg. Sf.1.c19 : ʾhld mn mlwh ʾw ʾhpk ṭbtʾ wʾšṁ [l]lḥyt I shall remove some of his words or I shall change the proper treaty stipulations into improper ones. Sf.2.b2 : ʿdyʾ wṭbtʾ z[y] ʿbdw ʾlhn the treaty and stipulations that the gods made. TAD A1.1.8 : וטבתה עבדך נצר‏ your servant is maintaining his stipulations. TgO Deut23:7 : לָא תִתבַע שְלָמְהוֹן וְטָבָתְהוֹן כֹל יוֹמָך לְעָלַם‏ you shall not seek their wellbeing and their alliances all you days forever. (c.2) ܛܵܒ̈ܵܬܵܐ ܕܠܸܒܿܵܐ‏ : happiness Syr. P Is65:14 . (d) goods OA, Qumran. BarRak.1.15 : whtnʾbw | ʾḥy | mlky ʾ | lkl | mh | ṭbt | byty my fellow kings lusted after all the good things of my palace. 1QapGen 21.3 : כול נכסיא וטבתא‏ . 1QapGen 22.11 : כול די שבוא וכול די בזו וכול טבתהון‏ .

3 לְטָבָא‏ : for good, positively (=MT OfAEg, JLAtg, LJLA. TgJ Jer21:10 : אֲרֵי חָל רוּגזִי בְקַרתָא הָדָא לְבִישָא וְלָא לְטָבָא‏ . TN Deut28:11 : וישייר יתכון ייי אלהכון לטבתה/לטב/<לט>בה/ בפירי וולד מיעיכון‏ . PJ Num10:9 : ויעול דוכרנכון לטבא קדם ייי אלקכון‏ . (a) לטבתא‏ JLAtg, PTA, LJLA. TgJ Jer24:5var. . TN Deut28:11 . PJ Gen44:21 : ואשוי עינוי לטבתא עלוי‏ that I might place my! eyes upon him beneficially.

[Secret Alias]

Some observations about the Hebrew word "good" in Aramaic.

טוב (Hebrew) = good
טוב (Aramaic) = to be(come) good.

ṭb (ṭāḇ) adj. good
See also s.v. ṭbh.


1 good, proper, appropriate Com. Fakh.5 : tṣlwth | ṭbh prayer to him [Hadad] is good. BarRak.1.16 : by | ṭb a proper house [i.e., a worthy royal palace]. Sf.3 a3 : mh ṭb bʿyny ʾʿbd lhm I shall do to them whatever seems proper to me. P Ju11:25 : ܡܛܒ ܛܒ ܐܢܬ ܡܢ ܒܠܩ‏ . BT Yev 118b(38) : טב למיתב טן דו מלמיתב ארמלו‏ it is preferable (for a woman) to dwell in matrimony than to dwell in an unmarried state. (a) as a substantive: Com. (a.1) the Good Com. BT Ber 60b(58) : כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב‏ everything which the Merciful One does is for good. (a.2) good thing Com. SamTgJ Gen24:10 : וכל טב רבה‏ . (a.3) good person Com. OS MtCur5:45 : ܗܘ ܕܡܕܢܚ ܫܡܫܗ ܥܠ ܛ̈ܒܐ ܘܥܠ ܒܝ̈ܫܐ܂ ܘܡܚܬ ܡܛܪܗ ܥܠ ܟܐ̈ܢܐ ܘܥܠ ܥ̈ܘܠܐ‏ the one who makes the sun shine upon good people and on bad people and the rain fall upon the just and the unjust. BT Ber 29a(7) : טבא לא הוי בישא‏ a good person does not become a bad one. (b) bṭb, lṭb : (to be remembered) for good deeds(?) Palmyrene, Nabatean, Hatran, ParthianMidAr. PAT1712:1.1 : dkyr -ʿwydʾ bṭb . Semitica, 47, 1997, p. 87; fig. 6-8.')" onmouseout="toolTip()">Biˀr al-Ḥammamat : šlm -ʾwšʾlbʿly br -zydw bṭb . H 303:.1 : dkyr -ymlẏk lṭb . Assour20..2 : dkyr -mṭly ... br -ʾsrd[yn] bṭb . Assour29.k.1 : dkyr -bsry lṭb .

2 precious, valuable, of worth Gal, PTA, Syr. VR 813:1(1) : וטבה היא כלום‏ so is it worth anything?. TN Gen2:12 : ואבניא טבתה ומרגליתא‏ the precious stones and gems. BHNom 257:9 : ܐܢ ܚܕ ܡܢܗܘܢ ܚܕ ܙܘܙܐ ܛܵܒ ܗܘܐ‏ if one of them was worth one zuz. (a) ranking individual : see s.v. ṭb qrtˀ Gal, Syr.

3 (heart, mind) happy, feeling good Syr. Sirach 30:16 : ܘܠܝܬ ܚܕܘܬܐ ܐܝܟ ܠܒܐ ܛܒܐ‏ there is no happiness like a happy heart (or: good mood?).

4 adv.: very, much CPA, Syr, JBA, Man. Lag(374) John8:55 : ܐܠܐ ܡܟܪ ܐܢܐ ܠܗ ܘܡܠܬܿܗ ܐܢܐ ܛܒ ܢܛܪ‏ but I know Him and keep His word very well. Rechts2 56:12 : ܣܓ̈ܝܐܐ ܕܝܢ ܘܛܒ ܣܓܝ̈ܐܝܢ ܗܢܿܘܢ ܐܪ̈ܥܢܝܐ‏ those earthly things, however, are many, very many. P Gn12:14 : ܕܫܦܝܪܐ ܗܝ ܛܒ‏ that she was very beautiful. P Mt4:8 : ܛܘܼܪܵܐ ܕܿܛܵܒܼ ܪܵܡ‏ a very high mountain. BT Git 14b(7) : טב רמו ל׳‏ strike him very much. GY 197:14 : ham ṭaba lahimlia urgaz ṭaba ḏlargizlẖ he became much hotter than ever and became much more angry than ever. (a) most, maximally Syr. HippAp 5(1) : ܟܪ̈ܣܬܐ ܒܣܬܘܐ ܘܒܬܐܕܐܐ ܛܒ ܚܡܝ̈ܡܢ ܟܝܢܐܝܬ܂ ܘܫܢܬܐ ܛܒ ܐܪܝܟܐ‏ in the winter and spring bowels are most warm and sleep is most long. (b) for kd ṭb, see s.v. kd Syr. (c) ܛܒ ܡܢ‏ : more than, better Com. TgO Gen29:19 : טָב דְאִיתֵין יָתַה לָך מִדְאַתֵין יָתַה לִגבַר אוּחרָן‏ better that I give her to you than I give her to another man. LG 1:5(2) : ܕܢܸܪܚܡܸܗ ܠܲܐܠܵܗܵܐ ܛܵܒ ܡܸܢ ܒܪܸܗ‏ that he love God more than his son. 1Esdras(3 Ezra) 4:35 : ܘܗܘ ܫܪܪܐ ܪܒ ܘܚܝܠܬܢ ܛܒ ܡܢ ܟܠ‏ but the Truth is much greater and stronger than everything. SinnerSatan1 55 : ܕܲܚܛܲܝܢܲܢ ܠܵܟ ܛܵܒ ܡܸܢ ܗܵܝ‏ for we have sinned against You much more than that woman did. (d) ܛܒ ܛܒ‏ : especially Syr. Ps-Clem Hom 10.252:7 : ܘܛܒ ܛܒ ܕܝܢ ܐܝܠܝܢ ܕܡܝܬܪܝܢ‏ and especially then those that are excellent.

I am particularly interested in Jastrow's observation of a title "the Greatest" in Aramaic:

3) best man, elder, officer. Y. Taan. IV, 68ᵈ top טב קרתא an officer of the town.—Pl. טָבִין, טָבַיָּיא, טָבֵי; fem. טָבָתָא, טָבָאתָא, טָבָן. Targ. Mic. VII, 1. Targ. Ps. CXXV, 4; a. fr.—B. Mets. 44ᵇ שלים לה ט׳ וכ׳ pay her in good and full-weight coin. Y. Snh. X, 28ᵇ bot. כל טָבָן וכ׳, v. נֶחֶמְתָּא. Lam. R. to I, 1 רבתי (חד מאת׳ 1) טבאתא the good fruits; a. fr. —

The passage in Yerushalmi reads:

אמר להן הקדוש ברוך הוא בטובה שעשיתי לכם אמרתם ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא. כל קירייא דהוון עלן בה הוה טב קרתא מיית עד דהוון מיטפלין ביה הוון מיללין קרתא ונפקין לון ובר נש לא ידע בהון.

1.
[Hash-m] said [about] them, with the good that I did for you, you said "Eretz Ocheles Yoshveha Hi''?! Every city that they entered, the greatest of the city died. While they were engaged with him, the city wailed him, and [the Meraglim] left, and no one knew about them.

This might be the meaning of Chrestos = "the greatest."

[Secret Alias]

In the Targum Yerushalmi on Genesis 35 there is a curious almost supernatural use of

(ח) ומיתת דבורה מרבייתא דרבקה ואתקברת מלרע לבית אל תחות בלוטה וקרא שמיה בלוט בכותא.
(ט) אלהא דעלמא יהי שמיה מברך לעלמי עלמא אליפת יתן פיקודין יאין וקיימין שפירין אליפת יתן ברכת חתנא מן אדם וזוגיה דכן כתבא מפרש ובריך יתהון מימריה דיי ואמר להון מימריה דיי תקופו וסגון ומלון ית ארעא וכבושו יתה. אליפת יתן למבקרא ית בישייא מן אבונן אברהם צדיקא כד אתגלית עלוי במישרי חזוזא ופקידת יתיה למיגזר עורלתיה ויתיב ליה בתרע משכניה כמיחום יומא דכן כתבא מפרש ואמר ואתגלי עלוי מימריה דיי במישריה חזוזא. ועוד אליפת לן למברכא ית אביליא מן אבונן יעקב צדיקיא כד אתגלית עלוי במייתיה מן פדן דארם כד ארעית לדבורה מרבייתה דרבקה אמיה אורחא דעלמא ומיתת עלוי רחל באורחא ויתיב ליה יעקב אבונן צוח ומיליל לה ומספד ובכי. ואנת רבון כל עלמיא יי במכילת רחמיך טביא איתגליתא עלוי ונחימת יתיה וברכת אביליא ברכת יתיה על אמיה בגין כדין כתבא מפרש ואמר ואתגלי מימריה דיי על יעקב זמן תנינות במייתיה מפדן ארם ובריך יתיה.
(טז) והוה אישון כרוב ארעא למיעל לאפרת וילידת רחל ואתקשיאת במילדה.
(יח) ואבוי הוה קרי ליה בלשן בית קודשא בנימין.

(ח) The death of Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, and she was buried from the road of Bethel, under the oak, and her name was called Allon-bacuth.

(ט) O God of the universe, may Your name be blessed from eternity to eternity. You are the One who bestows abundant goodness and sustains the perfect arrangements. May You bestow blessings upon the groom, from man and his spouse, as it is written. May You bless them with Your words, O Lord, and say to them, "May Your dwelling, protection, and habitation be established on the earth, and may it be conquered by You." He bestows upon the examiner from his fathers, from the righteous Abraham, as it was revealed to me in a clear vision, and his guidance to circumcise his son, and he dwelt under his tent like the warmth of a day, as it is written. And furthermore, may He bestow upon us blessings for the mourning of our father Jacob, the righteous, as it was revealed to me in his mourning from Padan-aram, as it was said regarding the mourning of his mother Rebekah. The way of the world is the death of Rachel in childbirth, and Jacob, our father, sat and cried out and lamented and wept. And You, the Lord of all worlds, in the abundance of Your mercy, You have revealed Your goodness upon him, comforting him, and blessing the mourning of his mother, for this reason it is written, and He said, "And You, the Master of all worlds, O Lord, with the abundance of Your mercy, You have revealed Your goodness (טביא) upon him, comforting him and blessing the mourning of his father, blessing his mother's mourning, as it is written."

(טז) And there was a journey from Bethel to Ephrath, and Rachel gave birth, and it was hard in her labor.

(יח) And she named him in the holy language, Benjamin.

[Peter Kirby]

I will get Boid to come here and hopefully develop his theory. Should be this weekend.

Sounds great!

[Secret Alias]

Psalm 77:13 Targum:

ורננית בכל עובדך טביא ובתסקופי ניסייך אמליל׃

"And I will rejoice in all Your works, for You are good, and I will sing joyfully of Your miracles."

[StephenGoranson]

SA, above, in part:
"The real problem is that traditional Christian scholars for the most part have this "on off switch" in their head."
strawman dismissal?

next SA sentence:
"They know there is this "Samaritan system" which likely was connected with the Sadducees and Alexandrian Judaism because these were all the oldest Jewish systems."
Who, besides you, thinks "they" know this?
For example, Sadducees and Samaritans apparently disagreed on temple location, and neither, afaik, appealed to Alexandria as oldest Jewish anything.

If you have, off the top your your head, something worth, or on reflection, writing, why clutter it up with such?

[davidmartin]

In Syriac and probably Aramaic 'goodness/blessed' and 'grace' are same root almost same word. one get's translated Agathos (I think? or Makarios) the other Charis (for sure)
i mean in Greek they seem unrelated they don't in Aramaic they are very close. Something like TWBA/TWBTA/Towba (msc) vs Taybuta (fem)
if there's an Aramaic background you'd expect to see these 2 being related closely together or paired in the early Greek NT texts.
If there's a further connection to 'goodness' and Chrestos, which is the word 'sweetness' in Syriac, that might get paired with these 2 as well
Are they? I don't know that kind of statistical analysis seems fiendishly difficult to extract

[Secret Alias]

"They know there is this "Samaritan system" which likely was connected with the Sadducees and Alexandrian Judaism because these were all the oldest Jewish systems."
Who, besides you, thinks "they" know this?

Some people are aware of Hippolytus says about the Sadducees. But my short-hand sentence can be parsed this way.

1. They know there is this "Samaritan system"

Yes they are aware that there is Samaritanism.

2. which likely was connected with the Sadducees and Alexandrian Judaism

Surely the Samaritan system is older than Pharisaism. This is controversial? Pharisaism means "separatist" or sectarian. There is an acknowledgement of Gerizim's sanctity among the authentic documents at Qumran (ignoring the fake ones). What do you imagine? That the Samaritan sect came after the Pharisees? Really? That Philo was a descendant of the oldest Sadducaic traditions and that Alexandrian Judaism had an affinity for Samaritanism. This is controversial too?

3. because these were all the oldest Jewish systems.

I use "Jewish systems" in the way scholars call the Israelite tradition "Judaism." I don't agree with it. It is the unfortunate by product of centuries of habit. The Pharisees were active from the middle of the second century BCE until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Josephus first mentions them in connection with Jonathan, the successor of Judas Maccabeus. The Samaritans are older than the Pharisees. Surely this is not controversial.

[Secret Alias]

On the parallels between Philo and Samaritanism https://books.google.com/books?id=VI8cE ... ns&f=false

On the agreement between the Sadducees and Samaritans with regards to halakhah http://www.ericlevy.com/Revel/Boid%20-% ... dition.PDF

On the agreement between Sadducean, Samaritan, Karaite and Philonic halakhah https://books.google.com/books?id=d98a_ ... ns&f=false

On the existence of Samaritan Sadducees from Boid's new book:

There is a statement of something closer to the view of the Asâṭîr and the
presumed view of the Sebuaeans, though definitely not the same, in regard to a group
within Dositheanism with a name quoted by A.F. at 163:5 connecting them to the title
Sadducees. There is strong evidence for such usage. Epiphanios, in his book Against
Heresies says there are four Samaritan sects, Essenes, Sebuaeans, Gorothenians, and
Dositheans. See above pp. 99 – 101. Straight after this, at ch. XIV, he starts to
describe the Jewish sects, the first being the Sadducees. In befuddlement, he says the
Sadducees within Judaism derived from Dositheos. Before him Pseudo-Tertullian
about 200 A.D. Heresies 11 said the same. Hippolytus Philosophoumena IX:29 after
223 A.D. says the Sadducees mostly live in Samaria and their only scripture is the
Torah. The identification of the term Sadducees with Dositheans can be seen
indirectly in information given by al-Qirqisâni in Part I chapter 6, on the Sadducees.
This chapter comes straight after his chapter on the Samaritans, which might indicate
an ultimate common origin with the source used by Epiphanios. Al-Qirqisâni’s data
show the faction called Sadducees by him to be some variety of Dositheans. Not one
of the numerous known traits of the Jewish faction called Sadducees are mentioned by
him, and the two traits he does mention are not traits of theirs. It can be suggested that
the Jewish party called Sadducees claimed to follow somehow in the line of Ṣādoq
(using the Samaritan pronunciation). It will be shown below that the Dositheans
traced themselves back to someone by this name. It would not be the the same line of
descent. There might be a little bit of historical truth in the Jewish legend that the
sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim was started up by someone of this name. This could be the
name of a Samaritan reformer. The connection with the Jewish line with this name
would then be a wrong guess. There are three positive data. One is that he always uses
the present tense in describing them. The second is that he knows they have a calendar
with every month having thirty days. A.F. quotes the original formula accurately
when speaking about the Dositheans in his first notice at 82:14 – 15 (Stenhouse p.
110, but use Scanlon’s translation of the notice). He quotes it like this: یعملوا وكانوا
غیر لا یوما ثلاثین شھر كل بالعدد الایام) verb Stem IV) “They would give numbers to the
days as each month thirty days, not anything else”. [Stenhouse mistranslates]. Only
mss. SB (Stenhouse SC) of the first recension are correct (B with a minor mistake).
[My article The First Notice omits the explanation, which I did not know at the time].
Mss. DC (Stenhouse HP) of the first recension omit the third word by ignorance and
the second recension has worse misleading rewording. The words here in the first
notice as we have it leave out the information needed before this to understand this
gnomic formula. As A.F. would never have abbreviated his source to the point of
being meaningless unless you already knew, it seems a statement of the rule given by
A.F. in the second notice, but in the clearer form quoted by Qirqisâni with two
examples, has been lost very early. Another bit of evidence is that the old name
Sadducees was used in the time of Hyrcanus for what seems to be the faction later
renamed the Dositheans after the time of Dositheos, somewhat to the puzzlement of
A.F. as can be seen from his roundabout composition. See pp. 107 -- 108. At A.F.
163:3 – 10 (Stenhouse p. 228) the Dosithean group named after their founder יצדק
Yaṣdaq or צדוק Ṣẩdoq can be identified with the Dositheans called צדוקאי
Ṣaddûqẩ’i (definite plural) at 160:15 (Stenhouse p. 224). See Part VI. The last bit of
evidence is conclusive on its own. The third positive datum is a different wording of a
datum given by A.F. in his second notice of the Dositheans at 157:3 – 4 (Stenhouse p.
219 line 6 entirely corrupt) where A.F. says the Dositheans would only observe a
festival day on the Sabbath, even if that meant moving it from one day to another. The
datum is only in ms. A. On the differences between recensions in these lines and the
correct text just here, see my article Transmission part 4. Examples of the third datum
given by al-Qirqisâni are that the Sabbath during the Passover week or during the
eight days of Booths would not be counted as one of the seven days of Passover or
eight days of Booths, so that in fact one real day would be added to the length of
Passover and one real day to the length of the period of Booths. It could have been
seen as incongruous to make a Sabbath a day of מועד חול , and the words of the Torah
could be read as fixing the number of such days. The calculation seems to have been
over-simplified by al-Qirqisâni or his source. There are three days of special
observance of Festivals in the seventh month, the first, fifteenth, and twenty-first. If
they did not fall on a sabbath, there were three unnumbered days in the seventh month
and it must have had thirty-three real days. The Passover month, the first, has two
special days, on the fifteenth and the twenty-first. If each of these was observed on the
following unnumbered sabbath, the month would have had thirty-two real days. The
week of Unleavened Bread would have become nine days long. The five unnumbered
days added to the twelve months of thirty days each give a year of 365 days. This
calendar would have been easier to use than the one used by the other party. The
consequences would have been that not every month started on a new moon, and the
first of the first and the first of the seventh could not have been exactly half a year
apart. Neither of these consequences need have mattered. The first of the first, as the
first day of the religious year, must have had to be on a new moon, but not necessarily
the start of any other month. It could have been on any day of the week. If the first of
the first were on the sixth day of the week, for example, then the fifteenth, the day of
Passover, would be on the sixth day of the week, but would be observed on the
sabbath. There would be 180 plus two days or 182 days or twenty-six weeks from the
first of the first till the first of the seventh, so the first, fifteenth, and twenty-first of the
seventh would be on the sixth day of the week. The first of the seventh would be a
day after the new moon most years, because a lunar month is about half a day short of
thirty days. There would be 30 times 6 plus 4 or 184 real days from the first of the
seventh till the first of the first of the next year, which is twenty-six weeks and two
days. This would put the first of the first on the first day of the week, so Passover
would be on the first day of the week, but observed on the following sabbath, the
twentieth of the month. This would be the start of the week of Unleavened Bread. The
sabbath following would have to be counted as observance of the seventh and last day
of the week of Unleavened Bread the day before that sabbath. If Pentecost was
counted from the sabbath of the Week of Unleavened Bread, it would always be on
the first day of the week. The four previously known ways of calculating Pentecost
are set out in my book Principles of Samaritan Halachah, pp. 322 – 323. In that place
I said the Dositheans agreed with the Pharisees by counting from the day after the day
of Passover. I was wrong. The apparent agreement in the simple statement by A.F. in
the first notice of the Dositheans hides a sharp disagreement and a fifth way of
caculating. The Pharisaic calculation depends on artificially taking the word shabbat
to mean the Festival day. The Dositheans must have counted from the sabbath after
the fifteenth, in agreement with the modern Samaritan practice. The difference
between them and the Pharisees and Rabbanite Judaism, and just as much between
them and the modern practice, is that they made this sabbath the day of special
observance of Passover on the Mountain, not just the usual observance of any sabbath
or the Great Day of the sabbath of the Week of Unleavened Bread on the Mountain.
They must have had some kind of special synagogue services on the dates mentioned
in the Torah, such as the fifteenth of the first for Passover. Having special services on
the Mountain (and without sacrifices in the daytime) seems likely. The difference
between them and other Samaritans might have been hard to describe. One
misconception now has to be warned against. This is is not the calendar with months
of thirty days used by the Qumran sect. First, the unnumbered days are in different
places. Second, this is not the way the Qumran sect calculated Pentecost. Now we
have the solution to the puzzle nearly two thousand years old of how the gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke set Passover on a Thursday night and John on a Friday
night, so that there is no Last Supper in John. No other known calendar would allow
making the night and following daytime of observance of Passover a day later than
the full moon. Here is more evidence of Samaritan outlook in John. A.F. says at the
start of the first notice of the Dositheans that the main cause of their separation was
abandoning the right Festivals, which means they had a different calendar.
Dositheans using a form of the ancient label of Ṣaddûqẩ’i are explicitly
contrasted with Såkte and his followers at 163:5 (Stenhouse p. 228), where it seems to
say they arose in opposition to a doctrine of Såkte’s that took the consequences of the
Fẩnûtå to intolerable extremes. [The verb wa-ghayyarû “they disagreed” has been
mistranslated by Stenhouse p. 228 as “they were jealous” as if in the first stem,
against the information in his thesis. It can be seen from note 1065a that the
translation here was written before the thesis. The notes to the apparatus in the thesis
p. 170 on the text at page 175 line 3 disagree with the translation on the meaning of
the verb]. A.F. writes “They disagreed with Såkte and his associates”. All mss. of the
second recension have a corrupt form of the name Såkte but Khaḍir and the Hebrew
translation have it correctly. (Khaḍir has the wording “They changed what Såkte and
his followers said”). The name Såkte is partly corrupt in all mss. of the first recension.
Vilmar made the wrong choice of form by printing ھیلش . In this place what is in the
mss. does look more like what was chosen by Vilmar, though the evidence of the
other instances of the name is compelling. For the exact forms see above note 20 p. 95. P29F 30
P [Stenhouse’s argument in the notes to the translation that the Arabic wa-aṣḥâbhu واصحابھ meaning “and his followers” (or associates) means enchantments
because there is a Hebrew word not cognate that means this is too illogical to
analyse]. The second recension has the name in corrupt form as ھ سیسن SYSNH
except for L1 which has سینسھ SYNSH. [The reading of L1 (Stenhouse E) is missing
in Stenhouse’s collations]. This is similar to the variants of the name in the mss. of the
first recension, but with lâm being misread as a big nûn. The form of the name must
have been too uncertain to recognise. The form سیسنھ is a wild guess starting with
ms. A (Stenhouse F). [Khaḍir definitely has סכתה in Hebrew letters, but Stenhouse
has not looked. Stenhouse in the translation accepts the inferior reading within the
second recension, ignoring the first recension, which makes perfect sense. He
translates it as “the scroll-handle”. The word “the” is not in the Arabic, so this must be
the name of a person, not a thing. Stenhouse inserts the word “the” without letting on.
As for the unbelievable manoeuvring of how he gets to this meaning, see below, note
34 pp. 143 – 144]. Here is the reading of the next sentence, on lines 5 – 6, as in the
first recension according to SDBP (Stenhouse SHCM). “They said Mt. Gerizim was
holy (مقدس muqaddas) as he said قال كما] i.e. as God said, meaning as in Scripture] as
if the House were on it علیھ والبیت“ .] Stenhouse mistranslates]. Mss. L1V of the
second recension (Stenhouse EVa) agree. [Stenhouse’s collation of L1 is wrong]. (It
would be possible to read the word مقدس not as the adjective muqaddas meaning
holy, but as the noun Maqdis equivalent to the Hebrew מקדש Maqdåsh, but without a
definite prefix). The reading of ms. A (Stenhouse F) of the second recension is the
same but more explicit and would have been enough to give Stenhouse the intended
meaning, except that he did not record it in the thesis. Instead of “as he said” it has “as
God said”. Ms. J (Stenhouse the same siglum) of the second recension is equally
explicit in reading “as he said in the book [i.e. the Torah] about it”. (The omission of
والبیت in J (Stenhouse same siglum) is probably scribal error. The ms. is consistently
unreliable). [Stenhouse did not collate this ms. here. Actually, he hardly ever uses it].
The reading of ms. C of the first recension (Stenhouse P) is shorter but means the
same. “They said Mt. Gerizim was as if the house were on it علیھ البیت كان كما“ .
Vilmar follows but changes slightly. “They said Mt. Gerizim was holy (muqaddas) as
if the House were on it’. All mss. of the second recension except AL1VJ (Stenhouse
FEVaJ) i.e. L2L3MNY along with Khaḍir (Stenhouse BaGRNY) are shorter but even
more explicit. “They said Mt. Gerizim was a Sanctuary’. The term here is مقدس بیت
Bayt Maqdis the equivalent of the Hebrew מקדש בית Bit Maqdåsh. Compare the
Annotations to XI:22, note d. This would have been hard to argue against, since it is
clearly stated in Scripture in Jacob’s own words, from before the giving of the Torah.