1 Sam 10,27-11,1: Testo Masoretico e 4QSama . Le posizioni di alcuni autori e un tentativo di soluzione

Starting from the positions of four different authors, we have pointed out the presence of two opposite views of the reading of 4QSama: On one side, Cross and Eves believe that the reading is original, while Pisano and Rofé, on the other, defend the originality of the MT. After a close literary study of the passage, where 10,27–11,1 is enclosed, we have concluded that the problematic expression of 10, 27b depicts Saul's attitude in front of his enemies and is part of the tradition of Saul's opponents found in 10, 27; 11,12–13. The MT is not corrupted. The reading of 4QSama represents the editorial activity of a scribe that arranged his text according to other similar passages elsewhere in the Bible. The reading of the Septuagint originated from the confusion (at the level of its hebrew Vorlage) between the letters dalet and resh, resulting in its text. The scribe of Qumran had, under his eyes, this hebrew text in which he inserted the account of the first campaign of Nahas against the tribes of Reuben and Gad. This account is present, slightly modified and without the mention of the seven thousand men that escaped from Gad and Reuben, in Josephus. His Antiquities was probably based on a text similar to that of the Septuagint.