The Descendants of Dedan: The Samaritan Arabic Renderings of Genesis 25:3b and their Place in the History of Biblical Interpretation

The reception history of the Hebrew Bible in Jewish circles has been the beneficiary of much recent scholarly activity. The same, however, cannot be said of the study of Samaritan exegetical and translational traditions. While several studies of Samaritan exegesis and translations have appeared in the last few years (e.g., those of S. Schorch, M. Morgenstern, and T. Zewi), the field of Samaritan biblical translation and exegesis -- and that of the Samaritan Arabic traditions, in particular -- remains largely unexplored. The present paper contributes to this still nascent field of inquiry by examining the various Samaritan Arabic translations (as preserved in the critical edition of H. Shehadeh) of one seemingly straightforward passage, viz., the list of Dedan`s descendants in Gen 25:3b. The paper opens with an analysis of the exegetical and philological considerations informing the Arabic renderings and, afterwards, addresses the relationship(s) obtaining between these formulations and those of the Jewish and Samaritan targums to Gen 25:3b. The paper concludes with a discussion of the factors responsible for both the similarities and differences obtaining among the various translational corpora.