The Samaritans

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The best-known incident in the Bible regarding the Samaritans is of course the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37: A priest and a Levite both pass by a man who has been robbed and beaten. The Samaritan, however, stops and takes care of him. Then, as now, Samaritans were not at the top of the social pecking order, and that is precisely the point of the story.

The Gospel of John contains another well-known account involving Samaritans. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well near Shechem and asks her for a drink. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” she asks (John 4:9). Eventually, Jesus reveals himself to her as the Messiah (John 4:25–26). In the course of their conversation, the woman points to Mt. Gerizim and tells Jesus that her forebears “worshipped on this mountain,” whereas the “Jews say that the Temple where God should be worshipped is in Jerusalem” (John 4:20).

A Samaritan temple indeed once stood on Mt. Gerizim, the Samaritan’s holy mountain. But by the time of Jesus it was in ruins, destroyed by John Hyrcanus, the second-century B.C.E.^a Jewish ruler of Judea, a member of the Hasmonean^b dynasty.

Since 1984, archaeologists have been excavating on Mt. Gerizim, seeking to uncover Samaritan history. As many as 10,000 people may have lived here before Hyrcanus destroyed the site.¹

The enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews at the time the Gospels were written is clearly reflected in the two New Testament references recounted above. Yet both groups held as sacred the five books of Moses, although their texts varied somewhat, especially regarding the identity of the holy mountain. (See the accompanying article, “The Abisha Scroll—3,000 Years Old?” by Alan Crown) As the passage in John’s Gospel attests, for the Jews, it was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; for the Samaritans, it was Mt. Gerizim.

A passage in 2 Kings 17 implies that after the Assyrian conquest and destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C.E., the Assyrians brought foreigners into the land who intermarried with those Israelites who had not been deported; the progeny of these marriages between Israelites and foreigners mixed foreign ways and foreign gods with their allegiance to the Israelite God; these people became the Samaritans (see 2 Kings 17:6, 24, 29–41).

The view that the Samaritans emerged from this mixture of northern Israelites and foreign settlers brought into the country by the Assyrians was long the regnant understanding of Samaritan origins. Some hold it even today. But recent research makes it increasingly clear that such a picture does not account for the beliefs and practices of the Samaritans as we know them from ancient sources and modern observation. Nothing points to a pagan, non-Israelite background from which Samaritanism would have evolved. On the contrary, their sacred Scripture—the Pentateuch—their rituals and their customs all manifest a close affinity to Judaism.

In short, the Samaritans are not semipagans but rather an offshoot of ancient Judaism, probably from the second or first century B.C.E. (some authorities give an earlier date for the schism). The 024form of the Samaritan script, the orthography (spelling) and textual characteristics of the Samaritan Pentateuch and the religious festivals they celebrate all point to this as the period when the Jewish and Samaritan communities went their separate ways.

Perhaps the best illustration of this point is a description of Samaritan holy days as they are celebrated today. I have spent many holy days with the Samaritans in Shechem (modern Nablus), at the base of their holy mountain, and thus have had the opportunity to observe them and their customs firsthand.

The Samaritan Passover sacrifice is offered each year exactly as Exodus 12 describes it. On the 14th day of the first month of the Samaritan calendar,^c the Samaritans bring the sheep selected for the sacrifice to the area of the altar, located about 2,500 feet below the highest peak of Mt. Gerizim. The number of sheep depends on the size of the community. The Bible prescribes “a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it” (Exodus 12:3–4). When I observed the ceremony, 21 sheep were sacrificed.

All afternoon, ovens, or tannurim (stone-lined pits about 6 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter), are heated so as to be ready for the roasting of the sheep in the evening.

Shortly before sunset, the high priest and other community dignitaries arrive, and the prayers begin. At sunset, the sheep are slaughtered around the altar, a rather shallow pit in the ground lined with stones, and then are shorn. Samaritan records indicate that in earlier times the commandment of Exodus 12:7 (“They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat”) was carried out as prescribed, but today, the blood is smeared on the foreheads of children.

Next, the internal organs of the sheep are inspected for possible blemishes. If none is found, some of the innards are cleansed and others are burned. The carcasses are then put on spits and salted to draw out the blood. After two hours the lambs are put into the tannurim, which are then sealed with grass and moist earth. At midnight, after roasting for several hours, the sheep are taken out and eaten in the houses of the Samaritans close to the sacrificial area. Unleavened bread and bitter herbs are eaten with them. Everything that is left over is burned: “You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn” (Exodus 12:10). Unlike the Jews, the Samaritans do not have a seder (the prescribed order of the Passover meal) with a fixed Haggadah (the text containing prayers and stories related to the Exodus).

In one section of a Hellenistic building on the northern slope of Mt. Gerizim, a tannur, or oven, from the Middle Ages was found during excavations in the late 1980s. It is 5.8 feet deep and 6.5 feet in diameter. Charred animal bones and pieces of wood were inside. It is just like the tannurim used today to roast the Passover lambs.

So far, however, no trace of the Samaritan temple has been found on Mt. Gerizim. Although the first-century Jewish historian Josephus describes the temple and the circumstances that led to its destruction,² not all scholars are convinced that there really was such a temple. Some once thought that a 026monumental stone podium underneath the Zeus temple on the lower peak of Mt. Gerizim, called Tell er-Ras, represented the remains of the Samaritan temple.³

Yitzhak Magen, the director of the current excavations, is convinced that the Samaritan temple stood underneath the Theotokos church, which was built by Emperor Zeno (474–491 C.E.), destroyed by the Samaritans and rebuilt and fortified by Emperor Justinian I (527–565 C.E.).⁴ The numerous inscriptions found in the area of this church testify, in Magen’s opinion, to the existence of a pre-Christian Samaritan sanctuary.⁵ Hopefully, further excavations will bring us closer to a solution.

In the Samaritans’ other holidays and in their rites of passage, my observation and study highlights their common Jewish heritage and the absence of any pagan influence.

The Samaritans, like the Jews, worship in a synagogue. The Samaritan synagogue has an air of dignified simplicity. Before entering, one removes one’s shoes, as in a mosque. Inside there are no pews or seats. the floor is covered with colorful carpets, again like a mosque. Certain prayer gestures also remind the visitor of Muslim prayers. The Samaritans have, after all, lived among Muslims for centuries.

The orientation of the synagogue, and with this the direction of prayer, is toward Mt. Gerizim.

As prescribed in the Bible (Leviticus 23:24), the High Holy Days begin on the eve of the 027first day of the seventh month. This marks the beginning of the new year in the traditional Samaritan calendar.

At one point in the synagogue service for the Festival of the Seventh Month the priest puts on a special prayer shawl, goes behind a curtain and brings out the Torah scroll in a silver case that consists of three parts, unlike that of the Jews, which has two parts.

The Torah scroll is not used to read the Scripture but to bless those assembled. For this purpose the priest lifts it, either closed or opened, several times above his head and waves it in all directions. The worshippers bless themselves by “wiping” with their right hand over their faces.

As I sat on the floor observing the ceremony on the Festival of the Seventh Month, I could not help but think that the service in biblical times must have looked something like this—the loud chanting, the prostrations, the lifting of the Torah scroll, the absence of pews and the mixture of formal and very informal behavior—chatting and joking are also part of the scene in the synagogue.

Unlike Jewish observance of the Festival of the 028Seventh Month (which the Jews call Rosh Hashanah, literally the “Head of the Year,” and Yom Kippur [the Day of Atonement]), the Samaritans do not blow the ram’s horn, the shofar. For the Samaritans, this was reserved to the temple service and ceased with the destruction of their temple.

The ten days between the Festival of the Seventh Month and Yom Kippur are known, as with the Jews, as the days of repentance. The days of repentance culminate in the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. This is certainly the most solemn day in the Samaritan year, as it is with the Jews. It is also the most demanding. Fasting and prayer last for 24 hours, but not everyone stays in the synagogue for 24 hours; those who do stay take short naps between periods of prayer. Others go to their homes to sleep for a few hours.

This is also the only day in the year when women come to the synagogue. Some participate in the prayers, but most do not.

Immediately after Yom Kippur, preparations begin for Sukkoth, the Feast of Tabernacles. A structure known as a sukkah (plural, sukkot) is installed in the largest room of the house. For the last 100 years or so, the Samaritans have built their sukkot inside their houses in order to avoid persecution from their overlords. Today, they could of course build them outside, as the Jews do, but the tradition is firmly established, and thus it continues. Palm branches and fruits decorate the sukkah, as prescribed in Leviticus 23:39–43. A beautiful sukkah is the pride of the family.

Perhaps the most impressive ceremony of Sukkoth is the pilgrim march up Mt. Gerizim. When we observed it, it began in the synagogue on the mountain at midnight. After prayers, we walked out of the synagogue up the mountain in procession on a narrow, stony path, bordered by dry thistles. There was no light. Only the Torah and a chair on which to set it were carried by the leaders of the procession. The procession stopped at eight stations. During the first three, it was completely dark. During prayers at the fourth station, the sun rose. It was a magnificent sight—the Samaritans in their long white prayer shawls (tallitot) and red tarbooshes; the Torah scroll in its silver case; the peaks of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal about us. The raising and waving of the Torah scroll that had taken place at every station seemed even more impressive in the soft light of dawn. At the fourth stop, mats were spread and everyone rested, ate and drank, and prayed.

The sixth station is the altar where, according to Samaritan tradition, Abraham offered to sacrifice his son Isaac (see Genesis 22). Here every participant climbed down into a trough-shaped formation 029in the rock, one of the most prominent sacred sites on the mountain, and kissed and stroked the rock surface as an expression of reverence.

The pilgrimage terminates at the Eternal Hill. When the last prayer was recited, it was nearly 9:00 a.m. The congregation had spent seven hours on the mountain.

On one occasion, we attended the circumcision ceremony of a newborn son—performed on the eighth day after he was born (see Genesis 17:10–14). The priests and other elders smoked water pipes while waiting for the mohel, a circumciser. He was a Jewish mohel, it is not feasible for the small Samaritan community to have its own mohel.

We also attended a Samaritan funeral. The coffin was made of raw wood and covered with a simple cloth.

As this account illustrates, Samaritanism unquestionably represents a variety of Judaism. The Samaritans have preserved many Jewish institutions as they existed around the second century B.C.E.—the priesthood, the Pentateuch, the Passover sacrifice and the celebration of other biblical festivals. All this has led scholars in recent years to date the origins of the Samaritans as a separate entity to the second or first century B.C.E.

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This is not to say that tensions did not exist earlier between Jews living in the north and in the south of the land of Israel. The tensions existed for a long time, but only gradually did the Samaritans and Jews emerge as two distinct religious groups. The process seems to have reached a critical point with the destruction of the Samaritan temple by John Hyrcanus in the late second century B.C.E. and with the redaction of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch.

The Samaritans have thus continued a form of Judaism that has its roots in the period before the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E. But Samaritanism itself also developed on its own. As a living body, it has undergone changes and adapted to new circumstances, although, for the most part, these are small and almost imperceptible.

Unfortunately, many aspects of Samaritan history are poorly documented. Persecution by Jews, Romans, Christians and Muslims has led to the destruction of many Samaritan literary creations, as well as to the dwindling of their numbers. In the early 1920s there were only 150 individuals left, living in Nablus, ancient Shechem,⁶ in the shadow of Mt. Gerizim. Since then they have grown to a community of over 500. About half still live in Nablus; the other half live in Holon, south of Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, tensions exist between the two Samaritan communities: The societies in which they live are very different from one another; in Nablus, the Samaritans live amidst a traditional Arab society in which the Samaritans are a tiny minority with different beliefs and customs; in Holon they live amidst a modern Israeli society that accepts them as “relatives” in religious matters,⁷ but distinguishes them from Jews.

Scholarly interest in the Samaritans has intensified in recent years. This has contributed to the pride they take in their traditions and motivates them to preserve them and hand them on. Although the imminent extinction of the group has been predicted many times in the past,⁸ the Samaritans have not only continued to live, but their numbers have increased. The problems of a modern industrial society undoubtedly present a challenge to this ancient community, but its vitality and dedication will no doubt enable it to cope successfully.

The best-known incident in the Bible regarding the Samaritans is of course the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37: A priest and a Levite both pass by a man who has been robbed and beaten. The Samaritan, however, stops and takes care of him. Then, as now, Samaritans were not at the top of the social pecking order, and that is precisely the point of the story. The Gospel of John contains another well-known account involving Samaritans. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well near Shechem and asks her for a drink. “How is it that […]