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This study reexamines the role of the Spirit of God in trauma recovery in the Book of Ezekiel in order to clarify the theological structure of Ezekiel's restoration theology. It argues that salvation is not merely an event of external restoration or the gift of new life, but a process in which a traumatized community is reconstituted in its identity and relationship with God through the Spirit of God. By comparing the Masoretic Text (MT) with Papyrus 967 and analyzing Ezekiel 36–39, this study shows that the MT presents salvation as a theological process encompassing purification, inner transformation, the gift of new life, communal restoration, and covenant renewal. Within this theological framework, the Spirit of God functions as the central divine agency that initiates, sustains, and completes salvation. The exile is interpreted not simply as a historical catastrophe but as an act of divine judgment, providing a theological framework through which the community can reinterpret its traumatic experience. An analysis of Ezekiel 36–39 demonstrates that the Spirit of God brings about inner re-creation (Ezek 36), reunites the fractured community through the covenant of peace (Ezek 37), and transforms judgment into restoration for the sake of Yahweh's holy name (Ezek 39). Accordingly, the Spirit is not a supplementary element of salvation but the divine agency through which God recreates individuals and the covenant community. This study contributes to Ezekiel scholarship by demonstrating that the Spirit of God provides the theological coherence for Ezekiel's restoration texts and by highlighting the theological role of the Masoretic Text in shaping Ezekiel's theology of salvation.

This study reexamines the traditional assessment of the Samaritan Pentateuch as merely a sectarian recension of the Masoretic Text and seeks to demonstrate the antiquity and transmission-historical value of the text preserved in the Samaritan Pentateuch by analyzing major textual variants in Deuteronomy 32. To this end, the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Qumran manuscripts, and the Septuagint were compared on the basis of the textual variants presented in Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ). The analysis indicates that some readings in verses 8 and 43, in which the Masoretic Text and the Samaritan Pentateuch agree, reflect a shared textual stratum formed before the two traditions diverged. The verbal form in verse 43 may be regarded as an instance in which these two traditions preserve a more classical form with a future function than that found at Qumran, whereas 4QDeutq appears to regularize it into a more common expression characteristic of later usage. Among the readings in which the Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Masoretic Text, the reading in verse 5 appears to be a secondary revision intended to simplify a difficult sentence, while the reading in verse 15 is more likely to preserve an earlier form. In verse 35, the Masoretic reading is more likely to preserve the earlier form because it retains the more difficult expression and is supported by several ancient versions and New Testament quotations. Nevertheless, the agreement between the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint indicates that the reading “the day of vengeance” is also an ancient variant that had already circulated in the pre-Christian period. The variants in verse 43 show that the Samaritan Pentateuch transmits a form closely related to the Qumran evidence and the Septuagint, while also leaving open the possibility that the Masoretic Text preserves a difficult syntactic structure characteristic of ancient Hebrew poetry. The Samaritan Pentateuch thus contains overlapping textual layers, including an ancient shared editorial stratum, early textual variants, and readings produced through simplification and harmonization. The antiquity of a particular reading, therefore, cannot be directly equated with its originality. In this respect, the Samaritan Pentateuch should not be regarded as merely secondary evidence peripheral to the Masoretic Text, but as an independent textual witness that must be considered in reconstructing the formation and transmission of the Pentateuch.

This study aims to clarify the morpho-syntactic features, narrative linkages, and LXX translation equivalents of selected uses of the Hebrew verb פקד in the Pentateuch through a comprehensive survey and functional classification of its occurrences. A survey of all verbal occurrences shows that the usages classified here as “salvific visitation” are concentrated in Genesis and Exodus, providing an inductive basis for focusing on these two books. Read synchronically in their final form, the relevant texts display recurring lexical and morphological correspondences: Genesis 21:1 presents פקד in connection with the fulfillment of prior divine speech; Genesis 50:24–25 employs the infinitive absolute construction פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד to affirm future divine action; Exodus 3:16 reuses the same root in פָּקֹד פָּקַדְתִּי; and Exodus 13:19 explicitly recalls Joseph’s earlier declaration. Exodus 32:34 provides a contrasting judicial usage. Here פקד occurs in a different morpho-syntactic environment, including an עַל construction and the noun חַטָּאתָם, corresponding to its function of judicial recompense rather than salvific care. The LXX likewise displays a notable translation pattern: ἐπισκέπτομαι repeatedly renders פקד in the salvific usages, though it is not restricted to salvific contexts. The Hebrew infinitive absolute constructions are consistently represented by a cognate construction involving ἐπισκοπῇ + ἐπισκέπτομαι. This pattern therefore reflects a recurring contextual correspondence rather than a fixed one-to-one lexical equivalence. This study clarifies how the meaning and function of פקד are realized in specific contexts and how selected Genesis-Exodus occurrences are related within the Hebrew text and reflected in the Greek translation. It also provides a philological basis for extending the analysis to other Pentateuchal and biblical corpora.