THE SAMARITAN SCRIPT
The Samaritan script is the original ancient script of the Hebrews, unlike the modern Hebrew script of today that originated from Babylon. The Samaritan script is the Palaeo-Hebrew script. Still today the Samaritan script can be found on inscriptions, seals, coins, ancient manuscripts (even from Qumran), etc.
The two tablets of
testimony were written in the correct and original
Hebrew language, and containing all the Decalogue, against whomever may
transgress them or change them or garble them.
They were called so also,
probably, because the children of Israel testified unto themselves to accept
them and to act in accordance with all of what God spoke in Mount Sinai in their
hearing and presence. Compare Exodus: “Whatever God commanded us we will obey
and do.” And that is probably why they were called tablets of stone to indicate
that they were solid and of hard nature. The meaning, however, is deep, and God
only fathoms its secrets. The writing was engraved upon them like the engraving
of a signet ring, and was done by the hand of the Almighty. (Compare Ex. xxxi.
18, “written by the fingers of God.”) It is said that the two tablets were the
creation of God, and that their writings were the writings of the Divine
Essence.
(photo: Selection from the Samaritan Torah)
The Samaritans did
not invent their script but inherited it. Moses received the Torah that
was handwritten by our Creator. Ex. xxiv. 12, “Ascend unto me to the mountain,
and be there: and I will give thee the two tablets, and the law and the
commandments, which I have written down for their instruction.” The words “the
law” and “the commandments” refer to the roll of the Law, which is the Torah,
without the least doubt. We can prove that this one reference found in the same
book, chapter xxxii. 32, “otherwise bolt me out from thy roll which thou hast
written.” The word Sepher, means “roll” wherever it is
found, although some interpreters render it by the word “book.” Ex.
xxiv. 4, “Moses wrote down all the words of God." Let it be known unto
thee, O questioner, that the holy Torah was revealed in one roll by the supreme
righteous God, written in the handwriting of the Almighty, in characters that
are well known, containing all the verses and divisions and commands and
prohibitions and explanations and other knowledge from the very beginning to the
end. When the apostle Moses received
from God the holy roll, he placed it in his tent outside of the e
encampment, and
God used to speak to him after the fog had encompassed the tent and covered the place where the holy roll was deposited. This was done there when consultation
concerning the daily affairs of the people was needed. The commandments,
however, were given to him in the tabernacle, between the two cherubim. The roll
remained in its place for forty years. It was placed by the side of the chest
which Bezaleel had prepared for the two
tablets as soon as the tabernacle was
erected, as we have stated before. During the first of the eleventh month of the
fortieth year, Moses began to copy the holy law, and deposited two copies which
he finished in the first month, one with the Levites, the other with the elders.
Compare Duet. xxxi. 9: “And Moses wrote this law, and handed it to the priests,
the sons of Levi, and to all the elders of Israel.” And he taught them its
content, as we find in the same chapter, verse 19. Some say that that verse
refers to all the content of the law; for, at the end of these words, we read:
“And after Moses finished writing down the commandments of this law in the
roll,” etc., he commanded the Levites to take the roll that came from God, and
place it beside the chest of the two tablets. Compare Deut. xxxi. 26: “Take the
roll of the Torah, and place it by the side of the chest of the covenant of your
God, and let it be unto thee a witness.” And this original Torah will be a
witness in the end days.
As written, one the scrolls made my Moses was given to the Levites and each Levite copied his own scroll. The famous Abisha scroll (Sefer) of the Torah was written by Abisha, son of Phinhas, son of Eleazer, son of Aaron, brother of Moses, in the 13th year after the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan. The Samaritan script is used today by the Samaritans when writing the Torah (Pentateuch), prayer books, and for other religious purposes. Today the Samaritans in their everyday use write in Arabic or modern Hebrew or as this website displays some English.