Consideration of Variants from Primary Witnesses

After attempting to determine the original text of each of the secondary witnesses and sorting through the hundreds of variants to determine those that are significant, all that remains to do in compiling the significant variants is to list the variants from the primary witnesses. Once these are obtained, they may be set alongside the significant variants from the secondary witnesses for further consideration in determining the oldest form of the Hebrew text possible. The primary witnesses for the text of 1 Samuel 3 fall into two main categories: Masoretic variants and non-Masoretic variants, that is, variants from 4QSama.1 The Masoretic variants can be further divided into three groups. The first group consists of those mss identified by Goshen-Gottstein as those whose readings diverge enough from the mass of Masoretic mss to warrant further investigation (mss 70, 89, 174, and 187).2 The second group is the qere readings found in the margins of the mss. The third group is the tiqqune sopherim, or scribal corrections, listed in the rabbinic literature.3 The variants listed in this chapter may be divided into two groups: purely orthographic variants, and those that are more substantial, the latter of which are treated as significant. In each section, the orthographic variants, where present, will be listed before the substantial variants.4 All variants are collated against MT (ms L, as reflected in BHS) as the base text.