A negative view of Samaritans is found in many sources. These include the Hebrew scriptures, the New Testament, first century historian Josephus, and rabbinic writings. Learn more about the history of the Samaritans.
The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.29–37 plays upon, and reverses, the typically negative assessment of Samaritans that is attested in a number of the references to Samaritans in the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures), the New Testament, Josephus, and rabbinic literature. In the postexilic books of Ezra and Nehemiah, for example, the Samaritans are portrayed as obstructing the returning Jews’ attempts to rebuild the temple and the wall around Jerusalem (Ezra 4.7-11; Neh 4.1-5). The historical controversy between Jews and Samaritans over the centrality of Jerusalem may be reflected in Luke 9.51–56, which describes a situation in which the Samaritans did not receive Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. In John 8.48 the Johannine Jews contemptuously accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan and having a demon. On the other hand, Luke 17.11–19, like the Good Samaritan parable, suggests that one should look beyond the negative stereotypes to consider the fundamental ethical and spiritual stance of the individual. In this story the Samaritan leper was the only one of ten healed by Jesus who came to him to give praise for his healing.
The New Testament evidence suggests that the early Christian community may have looked upon the Samaritans as being more like the Gentiles than like the Jews, as postbiblical Judaism also came to do. In Matthew 10.5–6, Jesus instructs his apostles to go out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but to avoid the Gentiles and the towns of the Samaritans. Perhaps the directions in Matthew 10.5–6 were not taken as determinative of Christian mission after the death of Jesus. In both John and Acts there is explicit evidence of a mission to the Samaritans. In John 4, Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman, which gives evidence of the Jewish views of Samaritan women as being in a state of ritual impurity, results in the coming to faith of the woman’s community. The proclamation of the gospel to the Samaritans is described in Acts 8.1–24, while Acts 1.8; 9.31; and 15.3 refer to a Samaritan church.
Name
In the Hebrew Bible the term “Samaritan” (hašš mer nîm) appears only in 2 Kings 17.29, but in that context it may refer simply to residents of the region of Samaria rather than to a particular religious group. As used specifically for the latter group, the name is derived not from the geographical designation but from the term s merîm, meaning “keepers of the law.”
Origins and Early History
The primary sources about the origins and early history of the Samaritans reflect the perspective of their authors as well as the tensions between the Samaritan and Jewish communities.1 The Samaritans consider themselves to be the descendants of the ancient Joseph tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and the levitical priests who have lived in Shechem (Nablus) since the Israelite conquest of Canaan. They have remained true to historic Mosaic faith, viewing Judaism as an Israelite heresy derived from the schismatic action of the priest Eli when he established a rival sanctuary at Shiloh.2 The Samaritans therefore divide human history into two periods: “the Era of Divine Favor,” which is the period from Moses to Eli, and “the Era of Disfavor,” the period from Eli onwards that will exist until the coming of the Taheb or Savior. Samaritans consider the Jewish focus on Jerusalem as a cultic center to be heresy, and they claim that the Masoretic (normative Hebrew) version of the Torah deliberately obscures the importance of their central city Shechem and their sanctuary on Mount Gerizim. Some scholars, such as Moses Gaster, adopted the Samaritan perspective and have argued that Samaritanism is in fact the surviving non-Judean branch of the ancient Israelite faith.3
A second line of interpretation is based on the anti-Samaritan position of Josephus and other postbiblical Jewish writers. According to this view, the Samaritans are descended from the mixed Yahwistic and pagan population that existed in Samaria following the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) in 722 B.C., a mix that was due to an aggressive colonization policy on the part of Assyria. Influential for this theory is the characterization in 2 Kings 17.24–41, which attributes the Assyrian conquest to the pagan practices and shrines of the local population of Samaria.4 This negative understanding was perpetuated in postbiblical and rabbinic Judaism through the use of the term kutim as a synonym for Samaritan, which stems from the reference in 2 Kings 17.24 to the Cutheans as being among the people brought in by the king of Assyria to settle the land after the conquest. Josephus may also be read, however, to support the idea of a postexilic or early Hellenistic Samaritan schism rather than one that stems from the time of the Assyrian conquest.5
With the discovery of biblical fragments from Qumran, Samarian papyri in Wadi Daliyeh, and archaeological remains of the biblical Shechem, a more complex picture is emerging. Some scholars now believe that the community was begun in the early Hellenistic period (fourth century B.C.) by the ruling family and nobility of Samaria, who had been deprived of political leadership by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, had resettled at the ancient site of Shechem, and rebuilt it. Tensions between the residents of Samaria and Jerusalem had already existed over the issue of the rebuilding of the walls and temple of Jerusalem (see Ezra 4; Neh 4) and possibly also because of the Samarians’ association with syncretistic worship in the Northern Kingdom. Upon resettling in Shechem, the group built a sanctuary at Mount Gerizim, presided over by its own priesthood. By building the sanctuary at Gerizim, the group consolidated itself as a distinct religious entity, which made a statement concerning its own legitimacy in the face of Jewish claims concerning the centrality of Jerusalem. Relations with the Jewish community continued to deterioriate over the succeeding centuries, due to political tensions such as the Jewish resentment of the Samaritans’ lack of resistance to Antiochus IV (175 B.C.) and the expansionist policies of the Hasmonean kings, particularly John Hyrcanus (135‑104 B.C.). During this period the Samaritans produced an edition of the Pentateuch with emendations that declared the divinely ordained centrality and sanctity of Shechem and the Gerizim temple in the cultic and spiritual life of Israel. Hence the religious tensions between the Samaritans and the Jews were fueled not by the mere existence of the temple at Gerizim, but by the Samaritan rejection of the centrality of Jerusalem. The temple and the town of Shechem itself were destroyed in 128 B.C. by John Hyrcanus, who may have been inspired by the anti-Samarian stories in the Bible (for example, Gen 34) and their postbiblical retellings, as in Jubilees 30, Judith 9, and Testament of Levi 5–7.
Subsequent History
During the Roman period, the Samaritans struggled with their own schisms and inner controversies, as did the Jewish community as a whole, and they experienced similar ups and downs in their fortunes. Acts 8.9-13 tells of Simon Magus, who may have been the leader of a heterodox Samaritan group, while the Dositheans, whom some of the church fathers associated with Simon Magus, were probably an alternate contemporary sect. With the advent of Roman rule, persecution of the Samaritans abated and they benefited from the architectural program of Herod the Great (37–4 B.C.), who did some building in Samaria. This period of consolidation was interrupted by the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117–138), who usurped the area of Gerizim where he constructed a temple to Zeus Hypsisto. Subsequently, waning Roman control allowed for the development of Samaritan theology and the spread of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Similar variations in the fortunes of the community existed throughout its history, during which the Samaritans absorbed and interacted with ideas from the various communities with which they were in contact. Particularly influential were the Arabic language and Muslim theology. A peak in theological and literary activity was reached in the fourteenth century A.D., when many important texts were written and disseminated.
The modern period saw an overall decline in the size of the community,6 but their numbers may be increasing. As of September 1995, the Samaritans numbered 574, up from 146 in 1917. Many Samaritans consider the position of their community to have improved greatly since 1967, when Samaria passed from Jordanian to Israeli hands. Approximately half of the community lives in Nablus (Shechem), at or near Mount Gerizim, while the rest live in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. This demographic distribution is causing some concern now in the context of the current peace process. The fear is that the transfer of Nablus and Mount Gerizim to Palestinian control may make it difficult for the Holon community that remains in Israel to come to Mount Gerizim on festivals and other occasions. This fear is based on the situation that existed during the Jordanian occupation of the West Bank, when Holon Samaritans were permitted to come to Gerizion only on Passover. Even this yearly visit was not always permitted. Samaritans recall that once in Nablus, they were treated as virtual prisoners and subjected to roll calls and interrogations. Currently, however, Samaritans maintain good social contacts with both Palestinians and Israelis and have received assurances from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders concerning free passage from Israel to the territory governed by the Palestinian authority and vice versa.
Literature
The most important text is the Samaritan Pentateuch. All other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, including the prophetic literature, psalms, proverbs, and historical works, are not considered canonical. Particular reverence is attached to the Abisha Scroll, a copy of the Pentateuch that is housed in synagogue at Nablus and attributed to Abisha, great grandson of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Also important is a text known as the Memar Marzah, a series of sermons expressing Samaritan theological beliefs and attributed to the third or fourth century theologian Marzah. The Samaritan prayer book is the Defter, a collection of hymns also attributed to Marzah, as well as to Marzah’s father and Marzah’s son. It also contains subsequent additions by other Samaritan authorities. Other works include Al-Asatir, an Aramaic work of the 11th or 12th century A.D. focusing on Moses (and preserving a number of ancient stories paralleled in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha), the Samaritan Book of Joshua, an Arabic text independent of the biblical book and containing legendary material to the fourth century A.D., and the Chronicles, a series of texts probably from the Middle Ages that contain a broad range of materials including genealogies and historical narrative.
Beliefs and Practices
In their beliefs and practices, the Samaritans share many features of Judaism, but these are expressed and amplified in a distinctive manner reflecting their basis in the Torah alone as well as the history of the Samaritan community. The basic tenet is monotheism, with an insistence on the absolute oneness and otherness of God, whose intentions for humankind were communicated to the world through Moses. The Torah is considered to have come from the divine fire as part of the covenant, and Moses, as mediator of the Torah, is thought to be God’s “Man,” who penned the Torah and conveyed the divine choice of Mount Gerizim as God’s chosen place. So central is Moses that it is thought that the Taheb or Savior would be a “prophet like Moses,” as predicted in Deuteronomy 18.18. The Samaritans believe in a period of vengeance and recompense that would be ushered in by the Taheb and characterized by a long period of peace and security before the final end.
The Samaritan festivals parallel biblical festivals such as Passover, Feast of Weeks, Taberncles, and Yom Kippur. Passover is distinct from the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as was apparently the case in the biblical period, but the Samaritans remain on the mountain for both. In addition, there are regular Sabbath services in synagogue.
The Passover celebration merits special note. Unlike postbiblical Jewish communities, the Samaritans retained the practice of sacrificing a paschal lamb. The ceremony is held 800 meters below the summit of Mount Gerizim. At twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month, all members of the community gather in two groups at the site of the altar. The first group is responsible for the sacrifice, while the second, composed of dignitaries and priests, focuses on prayer. The high priest climbs upon a large stone and gives the signal for slaughtering the sheep, one for each family. While the slaughter takes place, he reads from Exodus 12 in which the first Passover sacrifice is described. The slaughtered sheep are checked, plucked, cleaned, salted, and roasted, in accordance with biblical dietary injunctions.
Like the Jews, Samaritans circumcize their male children on the eighth day, and they celebrate a ritual coming of age as well. The latter is similar to the Jewish bar mitzvah, but with some fundamental differences. Whereas the Jewish bar mitzvah is celebrated at age 13, the Samaritan celebration is not related to attaining a certain age but to mastering a skill, namely, completing the reading of the Pentateuch. At the age of four or five the child is taken to the hakham (scholar) or to a priest to be taught Samaritan traditions, practices, and beliefs, as well as to read and to write. Most importantly, the child is taught to read the Pentateuch in ancient Hebrew script and with special Samaritan pronunciation. While some children might complete the reading at age six, others might take until age 10 or later. The completion is celebrated with a special ceremony. The child stands on a chair and recites the blessing of Moses (Deut 33–34) by heart as well as a speech prepared by the teacher. He (or she?7) then comes down from chair, kisses the hands of the priests and other dignitaries, and receives gifts. He is now part of the prayer quorum. The following Sabbath he reads from the Pentateuch after the high priest, and then the community enjoys a feast.
Two essentials of Samaritan practice, the focus on the Torah, including the rejection of all post-Torah practices, and the centrality of Mount Gerizim, go a long way towards accounting for the historical tensions between Samaritans and Jews, as well as Jewish perceptions of Samaritans as being ritually impure (see John 4). Nevertheless, even this brief overview of Samaritan origins, history, and religion underscores the many similarities between these two religious groups.