Endnote 15 – The Abisha Scroll—3,000 Years Old?

Kahle (“The Abisha Scroll of the Samaritans” and The Cairo Geniza [Oxford: Blackwell, 1959]) and John Bowman (Transcript of the Original Text of the Samaritan Chronicle Tolidah [Leeds, UK: Leeds Univ. Oriental Soc., 1954]) have argued the opposite, namely that the end part of the scroll is the only original part and that all the rest was lost and replaced. The actual text reads:

“This Abisha b. Pinhas has written the book of the Torah and it is found until the present day in the town of Shechem in the house of the high priests and its history is very surprising and is reported by those handing down daily events. The resting place of this holy book was in the Stone Synagogue situated in Elon Moreh and the community used to come round to see it on the Monday called Yom Awerta. And it happened on this day that the priest who had the duty to carry it had a nocturnal pollution early in the day. He washed himself in the morning secretly, carried [the scroll] from the synagogue up to Gilgal in Ephraim where they used to glorify it and were standing in file at Gilgal. And at the time when the scroll was opened there happened a great earthquake with thunder and lightnings and a mighty storm pulled out the scroll from the weak case in which it was housed; it was lifted up and whirled away into the air by the storm while the community saw it, trembling and crying, They strengthened their hearts and seized the end of the book which is preserved in the house of the priest in Shechem until this day. …”

A supergloss has been added that reads as follows: “A little was torn from it and that is from Numbers 35.2–Deuteronomy 34.10.”