Contributions of textual criticism in Numbers 13–14 and Numbers 16

Abstract

Textual criticism, as part of scientific exegesis, contributes to the understanding of the composition of the Hebrew text, its textual tradition, aiming to get as close as possible to the original text. The aim of this article is to carry out a critical investigation of Numbers 13–14 and Numbers 16, based on textual variants and significant proposals for their translation and understanding. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint, as well as the Qumran manuscripts are older documents than Massoretic Text, among others cited in the critical apparatus of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. It results from this study that some Samaritan insertions (followed closely by the Syro-Hexapla) have structural and theological incidences, which denote the fluidity of the text of Numbers 13--14 and the development of textual traditions in a period that extends from of the III century b.C. The Septuagint, in its complements in Numbers, follows a textual tradition, the same as that used at Qumram. It is observed that the Septuagint tends to make the Masoretic text more coherent and eliminate some difficulties.