Robert Jeffery

Book Review: Part of a Pilgrimage: Andrew Atherstone, Archbishop Justin Welby: The Road to Canterbury

This book presents a rather complete discussion of all aspects of the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) including ‘its origin, history, and significance for biblical studies’ (taken from the subtitle of the book). The antecedents of this sectarian text, the so-called pre-Samaritan scrolls from Qumran, are analyzed in depth as is the process of change that the early texts underwent to become the somewhat later text, now known as the SP. The choosing of the pre-Samaritan texts (or one of them) for this purpose is not discussed in this book. All aspects of the contents of the SP are analyzed, although its different types of special features should have been treated at greater length. The place of the SP in biblical scholarship receives much attention, and here the authors quote a wide gamut of opinions. They are particularly preoccupied with the question of whether a scholar has a positive or negative view of SP. I gleaned much from this learned analysis, which is indeed relevant to the theological discussions on the relationship between this version and the others in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. However, I am not certain that this angle of discussion is also relevant for modern scholarship, which is treated in the same way. Attention is given to evidence for the SP throughout the centuries, its translations and modern editions. The discussion is structured around the views expressed by specialists in the various fields, and the authors indeed state in their introduction ‘that we are representing the work of our colleagues to a wider audience’ (p. 2). At times, the reader would have liked to have known more about their own views, and the fact that so many opinions are presented is at times disturbing, especially when the view presented is unusual. There is a certain logic to the sequence of the discussion: (chapter 1) Samaritan origins; (2–4) the background of the SP (textual pluriformity, Qumran and the pre-Samaritan texts); (5–9) the SP. However, the abstractions presented in chapters 2–4 are often too difficult for the average reader, and this section probably should have followed chapter 7 or chapter 9. This is an interesting and instructive work involving much scholarship of the SP and it also includes much bibliography. Highly recommended.