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Journey of a Passage

Deuteronomy 27:4

Ebal or Gerizim?

Where were the stones and the altar to be set up? The Masoretic Text and most Greek manuscripts say Mount Ebal, the mountain of the curse. The Samaritan Pentateuch says Mount Gerizim, the mountain of the blessing, and the Old Latin is reported to agree. Many scholars think Gerizim is older; the question is not settled.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original DeuteronomyUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy
Samaritan
  1. Samaritan PentateuchAncient tradition; medieval copiesDescends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy
Greek
  1. SeptuagintTranslated c. 3rd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd century BC
Latin
  1. Old Latin (Vetus Latina, Lyon manuscript)Translated 2nd–4th c. AD; manuscript c. 6th c.Translated from Septuagint
  2. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

The arguments

For Gerizim
An altar of blessing belongs on the mountain of blessing (11:29); the Old Latin, translated from Greek, independently supports it; "Ebal" could be an anti-Samaritan change.
For Ebal
The Masoretic Text, most Greek manuscripts and Joshua 8:30 agree; "Gerizim" fits the Samaritans' interest in their temple.
Other views
Both readings may have developed from an earlier text, perhaps without a mountain's name (Segal 2025).

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Deuteronomy

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 3rd century BC

    Septuagint

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd century BC

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    on Mount Ebal

    Giguet's French: "sur le mont Hébal." A Greek papyrus and the Old Latin are reported to read Gerizim; not checked here.

  3. Translated 2nd–4th c. AD; manuscript c. 6th c.

    Old Latin (Vetus Latina, Lyon manuscript)

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedTranslated from Septuagint

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported in scholarship to read "Garizim." Not checked against the edition here.

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    in monte Hebal

    Ebal.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בְּהַר עֵיבָל וְשַׂדְתָּ אוֹתָם בַּשִּׂיד

    on Mount Ebal, and plaster them with plaster

    Ebal.

  6. Ancient tradition; medieval copies

    Samaritan Pentateuch

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Samaritan Pentateuch, Kennicott's 1780 text digitized by A. Sigalov.

    בהר גריזים ושדת אתם בשיד

    on Mount Gerizim, and plaster them with plaster

    Gerizim.

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    in mount Ebal

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

An unprovenanced Hebrew fragment reading "Gerizim" appeared on the antiquities market in the 2000s; because its authenticity is disputed, it is not shown as a witness. Archaeology on both mountains is discussed in the lesson and the Gerizim and Ebal investigation.

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • An Altar on Ebal, or Gerizim? →After crossing the Jordan, Israel is to set up great plastered stones with the law written on them and build an altar. Six tribes stand on Gerizim to bless, six on Ebal to curse, and the Levites pronounce twelve curses, each answered "Amen." Which mountain gets the altar? The Hebrew says Ebal; the Samaritan Torah says Gerizim. Archaeology has sanctuaries, an altar claim and a disputed lead tablet.
  • Blessing and Curse Across the Land →Egypt was watered by the Nile; the land of Canaan "drinketh water of the rain of heaven," so its people depend on God for the seasons. Moses sets before Israel a blessing and a curse, to be proclaimed on two mountains at Shechem: Gerizim and Ebal.
  • How Deuteronomy Came to Us →Moses on the plains of Moab; a scroll found in Josiah's Temple; an Assyrian loyalty oath; thirty-odd Dead Sea Scrolls, some with readings no modern Hebrew Bible has; a Samaritan Torah that names a different mountain; a Greek name taken from one verse; and a nineteenth-century "manuscript" that vanished. How Deuteronomy reached us, and what is still debated.