Abstract: This article deals with several presumed scribal interventions which all concern
the sacred tree motif. One finds deliberate changes in the MT, in the Septuagint, in
Targum Onkelos and in the Vulgate. The Greek translators of Genesis and Samuel (1-2
Kingdoms) avoided rendering the word אשׁל "tamarisk" by its equivalent μυρίκη, chosing
instead the word ἄρουρα "field". Similarly, the Greek translator of Genesis, in the passage
of the death of Rebecca's nurse Deborah, passed over the motif of her burial under a
grand tree. According to the hypothesis of the present article, all four changes are related
to one other; they might be due to the translator's fear to connect the respective texts
with traditions and customs concerning the Egyptian god Osiris. On the other side, a
scribe of the proto-Massoretic tradition modified the readings mentioning the large tree
of Mamre close to Hebron. By changing the noun's number from singular to plural the
corrector tried to conceal the existence and importance of the sacred tree in the tradition
of Abraham. By contrast, the scribe did not modify texts related to the sacred tree of
Shechem. This disparity of treatment may be explained by the fact that, in the view of the
Judean scribe, the tree of Shechem would put the Samaritans in a bad light. Finally, the
authors of Targum Onkelos and of the Vulgate intervened almost systematically in
Pentateuchal texts having the terms אֵלוֹן) אלון or אַלּוֹן ), which always designate a holy
tree. The two expressions are rendered by terms referring to plains (Targum Onkelos) or a
valley (Vulgate).