Bible Review

See Benjamin Z. Kedar, “The Frankish Period,” in The Samaritans, ed. Crown (Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1989), pp. 82–94, for a discussion of these events.

Ben Zvi, “Sepher Abisha,” pp. 240–252.

Von Gall, Der hebraische Pentateuch der Samaritaner

Likewise, the disputed word “dominion” (read either as malikhut or mamlechet) represents part of the formulary used by the Samaritans for expressing dates after the Hegira.

Given the difference in size of the scripts between a codex and a scroll, and the freedom that the scribe of the codex had to use ligatures, the script of the main part of the Abisha scroll may even be the same hand as that of Cambridge Add. MS 1846, which dates from close to 1149 C.E. See Alan D. Crown, “Samaritan Majuscule Palaeography,” BJRL 60:2 and 61:1 (1978), pp. 1–55, esp. p. 30 and pl. 1A, 1B.

Robertson, in his review of Sefer Abisa, however, argues hand A is later than the hand of columns 21–43 and 88–92.

The standard edition of the tashqil cryptogram is probably that published by Castro in Sefer Abisa, p. XL. He indicates the text to be “I am Abisha the son of Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron, the High Priest, upon them be the favor of the Lord and His glory. I wrote this sacred book at the entry to the Tent of Assembly on Mount Gerizim, Bethel, in the thirteenth year of the rule of the Israelites in the land of Canaan and all its surrounding borders. Thanks to God. Amen.”

Robertson, review of Sefer Abisa.

Gaster, The Samaritans, Their History, Doctrines and Literature, Schweich Lectures for 1923 (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1925; repr. 1976, 1980).

Castro, Sefer Abisa.