Samaritanism


Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Samaritan people, who often prefer to be called Israelite Samaritans. Samaritans originated from the Hebrews and Israelites and began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. Keeping the Patriarchal and Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah is central to the Samaritans' continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land. The Abisha scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha son of Aaron the Priest.
Samaritanism asserts itself as the truly preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites' original holy site was Mount Gerizim, and that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli to the city of Shiloh; the Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Israel, whereas the Israelites who departed would become the Jews in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is likewise revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac took place; this belief contrasts with the Jewish belief that the Binding occurred at Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
As of 2025, there are approximately 900 registered communal Samaritans. Samaritans believe that this small population is a prophecy fulfilled from a scriptural passage that says, "You will be left few in number." Samaritans hope for a future time when a prophet known as the "Taheb" will perform three signs, an era of Divine favour will return, the hidden tabernacle of Moses will be miraculously revealed, and Mount Gerizim will be restored to its former glory.

History

Traditional accounts

Samaritanism holds that the summit of Mount Gerizim is the true location of God's Holy Place. Samaritans trace their history as a separate entity to a period soon after the Israelites' entry into the Promised Land. Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the first Israelite altar in Canaan, and building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh. The dissenting group of Israelites who had followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who in later years would head south to settle Jerusalem, whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.
Abu l-Fath, who wrote a major work of Samaritan history in the 14th century, comments on Samaritan origins as follows:
Further, the Samaritan New Chronicle or Adler, named after its editor Elkan Nathan Adler, which is believed to have been composed in the 18th century using earlier chronicles as sources, states:

Scholarly perspective

Modern genetic studies suggest that Samaritans' lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood temporally proximate to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel, and are probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The religion of the proto-Samaritans at this time was probably no different than that of their southern counterparts in Judea. This likely remained the case for several centuries after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, as Judean cultic reforms instituted by the kings Hezekiah and Josiah experience little opposition extending to the Samaritan people in the north, according to the biblical text.
Though Samaritans certainly were culturally unique, they were closely intertwined with the Jews to the south. As such, Samaritanism likely did not emerge as a distinct tradition until the Hasmonean and Roman era, by which point Yahwism had coalesced into Second Temple Judaism. The temple on Mount Gerizim, the central place of worship in Samaritanism, was built in the 5th century BCE, as one of many Yahwistic temples in Samaria. However, the temple precinct experienced a centuries-long period of large-scale construction beginning around the 4th century BCE, which indicates that its status as the pre-eminent place of worship among Samaritans had only just been established. Likewise, theological debates between Jews and Samaritans are attested as early as the 2nd century BCE, indicating that the Samaritan Pentateuch had already taken shape, in some form.
The Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus destroyed the Mount Gerizim temple and brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE, which led to a longlasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews and Samaritans. From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren, and both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism.
The relationship between Jews and Samaritans only further deteriorated with time. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans and Jews deeply disparaged one another, as evinced by Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Beliefs

The principal beliefs of Samaritanism are as follows:
File:Shma yisrael.png|thumb|"Shema Yisrael " written in Samaritan Hebrew calligraphy is the official symbol of the Samaritans.
  • There is one God called YHWH, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
  • The Torah is the only true holy book and was given by God to Moses. They have a variation of the Book of Joshua, but don't regard it as scripture.
  • Moses is considered to be the final Prophet, and the only authority after him is the successive Samaritan Priesthood, from the line of Aaron.
  • Shechem, not Jerusalem, is the one true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans do not recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem and do not recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the binding of Isaac took place.
  • There will be an apocalypse, called "the day of vengeance", which will be the end of days.
  • On the end of days, a figure called the Taheb from the Tribe of Joseph rather than davidic line of the Tribe of Judah will emerge, to be a prophet like Moses for 40 years, bringing about the return of the Kingdom of Israel, following which the dead will be resurrected, and he will discover the Tabernacle, which he will bring to Mount Gerizim, after which he will be buried next to Joseph.

    Festivals and observances

The Samaritans have conserved the institution of a high priesthood and the practice of slaughtering and eating lambs on Passover eve. They celebrate Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, but use a different mode from that employed in Judaism in order to determine the dates annually. Yom Teru'ah, at the beginning of Tishrei, is not considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.
The sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday beginning and ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting in the house is disconnected, no work is done, and neither cooking nor driving is allowed. The time is devoted to worship which consists of seven prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest and sleep, and visiting other members of the community.
Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep. The Counting of the Omer remains largely unchanged; however, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses. Shavuot is characterized by nearly day-long services of continuous prayer, especially over the stones on Gerizim traditionally attributed to Joshua.
During Sukkot, the sukkah is built inside houses, as opposed to outdoor settings that are traditional among Jews. Samaritan historian Benyamim Tsedaka traces the indoor-sukkah tradition to persecution of Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire. The roof of the Samaritan sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits and the branches of palm, myrtle, and willow trees, according to the Samaritan interpretation of the four species designated in the Torah for the holiday.
A peculiarity in Samaritanism, is that during Holidays, they recite the liturgy with an audible, fully preserved Samaritan Hebrew pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, being something akin to *Yahúwēh.

Religious texts

Samaritan law differs from Halakha and other Jewish movements. The Samaritans have several groups of religious texts, which correspond to Jewish Halakha. A few examples of such texts are:
File:Samaritan High Priest and Old Pentateuch, 1905.png|thumb|Samaritan High Priest Yaakov ben Aharon and the Abisha Scroll, 1905
  • Samaritan Pentateuch: There are some 6,000 differences between the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic Jewish Pentateuch text; and, according to one estimate, 1,900 points of agreement between it and the Greek LXX version. Several passages in the New Testament would also appear to echo a Torah textual tradition not dissimilar to that conserved in the Samaritan text. There are several theories regarding the similarities. The variations, some corroborated by readings in the Old Latin, Syriac and Ethiopian translations, attest to the antiquity of the Samaritan text, although the exact date of composition is still largely unclear. Granted special attention is the so-called "Abisha Scroll", a manuscript of the Pentateuch tradition attributed to Abishua, grandson of Aaron, traditionally compiled during the Bronze Age.
  • Historical writings
  • * Samaritan Chronicle, The Tolidah
  • * Samaritan Chronicle, The Chronicle of Joshua
  • * Samaritan Chronicle, Adler
  • * Samaritan Chronicle, The Kitab al-Tarikh of Abu 'l-Fath
  • Halakhic texts
  • * Samaritan Halakhic Text, The Hillukh
  • * Samaritan Halakhic Text, the Kitab at-Tabbah
  • * Samaritan Halakhic Text, the Kitab al-Kafi
  • Haggadic Midrash texts
  • * Al-Asatir—legendary Aramaic texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, containing:
  • ** Haggadic Midrash, Abu'l Hasan al-Suri
  • ** Haggadic Midrash, Memar Markah—3rd or 4th century theological treatises attributed to Hakkam Markha
  • ** Haggadic Midrash, Pinkhas on the Taheb
  • ** Haggadic Midrash, Molad Maseh
  • Liturgical texts
  • * Defter, prayer book of psalms and hymns.
  • * ''Samaritan Haggadah''