When were Samaritan Bible words fixed, and is the Abisha Scroll really Bronze Age?
Research question: What do dated Samaritan manuscripts, using palaeographic or radiocarbon methods, show about when the SP's readings were fixed, and do they test the Bronze Age attribution of the Abisha Scroll?
The records show that the Samaritan Pentateuch was created at the latest around 127 BC 4, but the verified facts do not link that date to dated manuscripts or to palaeographic or radiocarbon methods. A dated Samaritan Torah scroll in the Aktaba Kadisha group, whose tashkil colophon names its scribe, is dated to 1166 CE 7. For the Abisha Scroll, its majority is no older than the fourteenth century, while one section was dated by Alan David Crown to within a short time after 1150 5, and modern scholars note its oldest texts date to the 12th century AD, which contradicts the claimed ancient origin 8. The Bronze Age attribution is a traditional claim rather than a dating result 3, and the 2025 Textus article attributes the scribe of the most important component to a fourteenth-century figure 1.
Sources
"it is possible to identify the compiler of the scroll who was most likely also the scribe of its most important component: Ā̊bīša ban Fī'nās ban Yūsəf, a scribe and author of piyyutim in the fourteenth century."The Abisha Scroll Revisited in: Textus Volume 34 Issue 1 (2025)
"held in the highest esteem by the Samaritan community because of its allegedly biblical age"The Abisha Scroll Revisited in: Textus Volume 34 Issue 1 (2025)
"It was written, they say, by Abisha"The Abisha Scroll—3,000 Years Old? - The BAS Library
"This version was created at the latest 127"Samaritan Pentateuch
"though the majority of the Abisha scroll is no younger than the fourteenth century, there is a section which has been determined by Alan David Crown to have been written “within a short time after 1150.”"(#1) Samaritan Torah Scroll (Aktaba Kadisha), Land of Israel [ca. 1166, Scribe: Shalmah ben Abraham bar Yosef of Sarepta]
"The Samaritans claim it was penned by Abishua"Samaritan Pentateuch
"The tashkil of that scroll indicates that it was written by Shalmah ben Abraham in 1166 CE."(#1) Samaritan Torah Scroll (Aktaba Kadisha), Land of Israel [ca. 1166, Scribe: Shalmah ben Abraham bar Yosef of Sarepta]
"But modern scholars have observed that the scroll appears to include work by different scribes from different centuries, with the oldest texts dating to the 12th century A.D."Samaritan Pentateuch