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SAMARITANS

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SAMARITANS . This See also:

term, which primarily means " in. habitants of Samaritis, or the region of See also:Samaria," is specially used, in the New Testament and by See also:Josephus, as the name of a See also:peculiar religious community which had its headquarters in the Samaritan See also:country, and is still represented by a few families at Nablus, the See also:ancient See also:Shechem. By the See also:Jews they are called Shomronim, a gentilic See also:form from Shomron = Samaria; among themselves they sometimes use the name Shemerem (= Heb. Shomerim) which is explained to mean " Keepers," sc. of the See also:Law, but they usually See also:style themselves " See also:Israel " or " See also:Children of Israel." They claim to be descendants of the ten tribes, and to possess the orthodox See also:religion of See also:Moses, accepting the See also:Pentateuch and transmitting it in a See also:Hebrew See also:text which for the most See also:part has only slight See also:variations from that of the Jews. But they regard the Jewish See also:temple and priesthood as schismatical, and declare that the true See also:sanctuary chosen by See also:God is not See also:Zion but See also:Mount See also:Gerizim, over against Shechem (St See also:John iv. 20). The sanctity of this site they prove from the Pentateuch, See also:reading Gerizim for Ebal in Deut. See also:xxvii. 4. With this See also:change the See also:chapter is interpreted as a command to select Gerizim as the legitimate sanctuary (cf. See also:verse 7). Moreover, in Exod. xx. 17 and Deut. V.

21 a commandment (taken from Deut. xxvii.) is found in the Samaritan text, at the See also:

close of the See also:decalogue, giving directions to build an See also:altar and do See also:sacrifice on Gerizim, from which of course it follows that not only the temple of Zion but the earlier See also:shrine at See also:Shiloh and the priesthood of See also:Eli were schismatical. Such at least is the See also:express statement of the later Samaritans: in earlier times, as they had no sacred books except the Pentateuch, they probably ignored the whole See also:history between See also:Joshua and the captivity, thus escaping many difficulties. According to See also:modern views the books of Moses were not reduced to their See also:present form till after the See also:exile, when their regulations were clearly intended to apply to the rebuilt temple of Zion. The Samaritans must in that See also:case have derived their Pentateuch from the Jews after See also:Ezra's reforms of 444 B.C. Before that See also:time Samaritanism cannot have existed in the form in which we know it, but there must have been a community ready to accept the Pentateuch. The See also:city of Samaria had been taken by See also:Assyria (2 See also:Kings xvii. 6 sqq. and xviii. 9-11) in 722 B.C., and the inhabitants deported, but in point of fact the See also:district of Mount See also:Ephraim was not entirely stripped of its old Hebrew See also:population by this means. In the See also:Annals of See also:Sargon the number of the exiles is put at 27,290, representing no doubt the more prominent of the inhabitants, for this number cannot include the whole of N. Israel. The poorer sort must have remained on the See also:land, and among them the See also:worship of See also:Jehovah went on as before - at the old shrines of N. Israel, but probably corrupted by the religious See also:rites of the new settlers.

The See also:

account of the country given in 2 Kings xvii. 25 seq. dwells only on the partial See also:adoption of Jehovah-worship by the foreigners settled in the land, and by no means implies that these constituted the whole population. See also:Josiah extended his reforms to See also:Bethel and other Samaritan cities (2 Kings See also:xxiii. 19), and the narrative shows that at that date things were going on at the N. sanctuaries much as they had done in the time of See also:Amos and See also:Hosea. To a considerable extent his efforts to make See also:Jerusalem the sanctuary of Samaria as well as of See also:Judah must have been successful, for in Jer. xli. 5 we find fourscore men from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria making a See also:pilgrimage to " the See also:house of Jehovah," after the See also:catastrophe of See also:Zedekiah. It is therefore not surprising that the See also:people of this district came to Zerubbabel and Jeshua after the restoration, claiming to be of the same religion with the Jews and asking to be associated in the rebuilding of the Temple. They were rejected by the leaders of the new See also:theocracy, who feared the result of admitting men of possibly mixed See also:blood and of certainly questionable orthodoxy; and so the Jehovah-worshippers of Samaria were driven to the ranks of " the adversaries of Judah and See also:Benjamin (Ezra iv.). Nevertheless, down to the time of See also:Nehemiah, the See also:breach was not See also:absolute; but the See also:expulsion from Jerusalem in 432 B.C. of a See also:man of high-priestly See also:family (Neh. xiii. 28), who had married a daughter of Sanballat, made it so. It can hardly be doubted that this See also:priest is the See also:Manasseh of Josephus (See also:Ant. xi. 8), who carried the Pentateuch to Shechem, and for whom the temple of Gerizim was perhaps built.

For, though the See also:

story in Josephus is put a See also:century too See also:late and is evidently based on a confusion, it agrees with Neh. xiii. in essentials too closely to be altogether rejected,' and supplies exactly what is wanted to explain the existence in Shechem of a community bitterly hostile to the Jews, yet constituted in obedience to Ezra's Pentateuch. It is remarkable that, having got the Pentateuch, they followed it with a fidelity as exact as that of the Jews, except in regard to the sanctuary on Mt Gerizim. The text of the sacred See also:book was transmitted with as much conscientiousness as was observed by Jewish See also:scribes;2 and even from the unwilling See also:witness of the Jews3 we gather that they fulfilled all righteousness with scrupulous punctiliousness so far as the See also:letter of the law was concerned. They did not however, receive the writings even of the prophets of N. Israel (all of which are preserved to us only by the Jews) nor the later oral law' as See also:developed by the See also:Pharisees. But although these See also:differences separated the two communities, their See also:internal development and See also:external history ran parallel courses till the Jewish See also:state took a new departure under the See also:Maccabees. The religious resemblance between the two bodies was increased by the institution of the See also:synagogue, from which there See also:grew up a Samaritan See also:theology and an exegetical tradition. The latter is embodied in the Samaritan See also:Targum, or Aramaic version of the Pentateuch, which in its present form is probably not much earlier than the 4th century A.D., but in See also:general is said to agree with the readings of See also:Origen's To See also:Eaµapettrucov. Whether the latter represents a See also:complete See also:translation of the Law into See also:Greek may be doubted, but at any See also:rate the Samaritans began already in the time of See also:Alexander to be influenced by See also:Hellenism. They as well as Jews were carried to See also:Egypt by See also:Ptolemy Lagi, and the rivalry of the two parties was continued in See also:Alexandria (Jos. Ant. xii. 1.

I), where such a translation may have been produced. Of the Samaritan contributions to Hellenistic literature some fragments have been preserved in the remains of Alexander Polyhistor.6 'There are, however, many difficulties in the story, which is not rendered clearer by references to Sanballat in the documents from Elephantine (dated in 408/407 B.C.) published by Sachau in the Abhandlungen d. Kgl. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. for 1907. 2 This appears by the frequent agreement of the Samaritan Pentateuch with the See also:

Septuagint. The Samaritan See also:character is an See also:independent development of the old Hebrew See also:writing, as it was about the time when they first got the Pentateuch, and this in itself is an indication that from the first their text ran a See also:separate course. Differences between See also:MSS. existed down to the time of the Massoretes (see See also:art. HEBREW), and it was from one of these divergent texts that the Samaritan was derived, the Septuagint from another. But while the Jews constantly revised their text with skill and success, the rigid conservatism of the Samaritans prevented any changes except the corruptions naturally due to human infirmity. The story that they possess a copy of the Law written by Abisha, the See also:great-See also:grandson of See also:Aaron, seems to have aroused a strangely widespread See also:interest, so that tourists invariably ask to see it and usually claim to have succeeded in doing so. Considering the extreme reverence with which it is regarded, it may safely be said that this See also:manuscript is never shown to them.

The origin of the See also:

legend is no doubt due to a pious See also:fraud. It is first mentioned by See also:Abu'l-fatb in 1355, from which See also:year its " invention " See also:dates. Obviously an old copy would be chosen for the purpose of such a See also:discovery, but it is unlikely to be earlier than the loth or 11th century A.D. 2 Not, indeed, without exceptions, nor at all periods, but such is the general intention of the Massekheth Kuthim; see See also:Montgomery, Samaritans, cap. x. 6 For details see Nutt, Fragments, p. 37, and more fully, Montgomery, l.c. No doubt, in addition to the legal ordinances, the Samaritans retained §ome ancient traditional practices (cf. Gaster in Transactions of the 3rd Internat. Congr. for the History of Religions, i. p. 299, See also:Oxford, 1908), or introduced some new observances. Their See also:Passover, for instance, has some peculiar features, one of which, the application of the sacrificial blood to the faces of the children, has a parallel in the old Arabic 'aqiqah. See the account of an See also:eye-witness (See also:Professor Socin) in See also:Baedeker's See also:Palestine; See also:Mills, Three Months' See also:Residence at Nablus (See also:London, 1864), p.

248; See also:

Stanley, The Jewish See also:Church i. app. iii. 6 Chiefly in quotations by See also:Eusebius (Praep. Ev., ed. See also:Gifford, Oxon., 1903, bk. ix. 17). See Freudenthal, Hellenistische Studien, ii. (See also:Breslau, r875) ; Scharer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus See also:Christ (Eng. ed., 1891), ii. 3. p. 197. The troubles that See also:fell upon the Jews under See also:Antiochus Epiphanes were not escaped by the Samaritans (2 See also:Mace. v. 23; vi. 2), for the account in Josephus (Ant. xii.

5. 5)., which makes them voluntarily See also:

exchange their religion for the worship of the Grecian See also:Zeus, is evidently coloured to suit the author's hostility. Under the Maccabees their relations with See also:Judaea became very See also:bitter. They suffered severely at the hands of See also:Hyrcanus, and the temple on Mt Gerizim, was destroyed. Although this treatment established an unalterable enmity to the Jews, as we see in the New Testament, in Josephus and in Jewish tradition, the two sects had too much in See also:common not to unite occasionally against a common enemy, and in the struggles of the Jews with See also:Vespasian the Samaritans took part against the See also:Romans. They were not, however, consistent, for under See also:Hadrian they helped the Romans against the Jews and were allowed to rebuild their temple on Mt Gerizim. They seem to have shared in the Jewish See also:dispersion, since in later times we hear of Samaritans and their synagogues in Egypt, in See also:Rome and in other parts of the See also:empire. In the 4th century they enjoyed a certain degree of prosperity, according to their own See also:chronicles, under Baba the Great, who (re-)established their religious and social organization. In 484, in consequence of attacks on the Christians, the Gerizim temple was finally destroyed by the Romans; and an insurrection in 529 was suppressed by Justinian so effectively that, while retaining their distinctive religion, they became henceforth politically merged in the surrounding population, with a merely domestic history. They are mentioned in later times by the Jewish travellers Benjamin of See also:Tudela (1173) and See also:Obadiah See also:Bertinoro (1488 in Egypt), by See also:Sir John Maundevilie and others, but little was known of them in See also:Europe till See also:Scaliger opened communications with them in 1583.6 In consequence of the interest thus aroused, the traveller Pietro della See also:Valle visited them in 1616 and succeeded in obtaining a copy of their Pentateuch and of their Targum. Towards the end of the same century See also:Robert Hurrtington (after-wards See also:bishop of Raphoe), who was See also:chaplain to the See also:Turkey merchants at See also:Aleppo, interested himself in them 7 and acquired some interesting See also:manuscripts now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Since his time there has been intermittently a See also:good See also:deal of See also:correspondence with them,8 and in See also:recent years owing to the increased facilities for travelling they have been much visited by tourists, not altogether for their good, as well as by scholars.

At the present See also:

day they live only at Nablus,(Shechem), about 15o in number, the congregations formerly existing in See also:Gaza, See also:Cairo, See also:Damascus and elsewhere having See also:long since died out. Politically they are under the See also:Turkish See also:governor of Nablus; their ecclesiastical See also:head is the " Priest-levite " (in 1909 See also:Jacob b. Aaron), who claims descent from Uzziel the younger son of Kohath (Exod. vi. 18). The See also:line of the high-priests, so called as being descended from Aaron, became See also:extinct in 1623. In religion, since they recognize no sacred book but the Pentateuch, they agree with the Jews in such doctrines and observances only as are enjoined in the law of Moses. They do not therefore observe the feast of See also:Purim, nor the fast of the 9th of Ab, nor any of the later rabbinical extensions or modifications of the law. It is this conservatism which has caused them to be confused with the See also:Sadducees, who likewise rejected the later traditional teaching; but it is not correct to say that they deny the resurrection (s See also:Epiphanius, Haeres. ix., and others) and the existence of angels (See also:Leontius, de Sectis, ii. 8), or that they are entirely See also:free from later religious developments. Briefly summarized, their creed is as follows: (a) God is one, and in speaking of Him all anthropomorphic expressions are to be avoided: creation was effected by his word : divine appearances in the Pentateuch are to be explained as vicarious, by means of angels (so as See also:early as the 4th century A.D.); (b) Moses is the only See also:prophet: all who have since claimed to be so are deceivers; (c) the Law, which was created with the See also:world, is the only divine See also:revelation; (d) Mt Gerizim is the house of God, the only centre of worship; (e) there will be a day of See also:judgment. Closely connected with this are the doctrines (also found in the 4th century) of a future See also:life and of a See also:messiah (Ta'eb), who shall end the See also:period of God's displeasure (Fanuta) under which his people have suffered since the See also:schism of Eli and the disappearance of the See also:Ark, and shall restore Israel to favour (Re'uta, Ridwbn). 6 See See also:Eichhorn's Repertorium, xiii. p.

257. 7 See his letters ed. by T. See also:

Smith (London, 17041. See especially de Sacy in Notices et extraits, xii. The later letters are of less interest. The Samaritan See also:language properly so called is a See also:dialect of Palestinian Aramaic, of which the best examples are found in the literature of the 4th century A.D. An archaic See also:alphabet, derived from the old Hebrew, was retained, and is still used by them for writing Aramaic, Hebrew and sometimes even Arabic. After the Moslem See also:conquest of See also:Syria in 632 the native dialect of Aramaic gradually died out, and by the i ith century Arabic had become the See also:literary as well as the popular language In the See also:Liturgy Hebrew was no doubt used from the earliest times See also:side by side with Aramaic, and after the I ith century it became, in a debased form, the only language for new liturgical compositions. The literature of the Samaritans is, like that of the Jews, almost entirely of a religious character Reference has been made above to Samaritan Hellenistic See also:works which have perished except for a few fragments. According to Samaritan tradition, their books were destroyed under Hadrian and See also:Commodus, but of the language and contents of them nothing is recorded There can be no doubt that some, perhaps much, of the literature has been lost, for nothing' is extant which can be dated before the 4th century A.D The Targum, or Samaritan-Aramaic version of the Pentateuch was most probably written down about that time, though it was clearly based on a much older tradition and must have undergone various recensions. To the same period belong the liturgical compositions of See also:Amram Darah and Marqah, and the latter's midrashic commentary (called the " Book of Wonders ") on parts of the Pentateuch, all in Aramaic. With the possible exception of one or two See also:hymns there is nothing further till the i ith century when there appears the Arabic version of the Pentateuch, usually ascribed to Abu Sa'id, but perhaps really by Abu'l-See also:hasan 2 of See also:Tyre, who also wrote three Arabic See also:treatises, still extant, on theological subjects, besides some hymns.

Of the same date (1053) is an See also:

anonymous commentary on See also:Genesis, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MS. Opp. add. 4°, 99), interesting because it quotes from books of the See also:Bible other than the Pentateuch. In the 12th century, 1\Iunajja 4 and his son Sadaqah wrote on theology; the earlier part of the See also:chronicle called al-Taulidah 5 was compiled, in Hebrew (1149); and about the same time treatises on Grammars by Abu Sa'id and Abu Ishaq See also:Ibrahim See also:ibn Faraj: The next See also:ion years were rather barren. Ghazal ibn-al-Duwaik, who wrote on the story of Balak and on the restoration of the See also:kingdom to Israel, is said to have lived in the 13th century, and another chronicle (in Arabic), called the Book of Joshua, is dated about the same time by T. \V. J. Juynboll.' In the second See also:half of the 14th century lived three important liturgical writers, Abisha b. Phinehas (ob. 1376), Abdallah b. See also:Solomon and Sa'd-See also:allah (or Sa'd-ed-din) b. Sadaqah: Abu'l-fath, who composed his chronicle 3 in 1355: a high priest Phinehas, author of a See also:lexicon: and the anonymous writer of the commentary on the Kitab al-asatir,9 a See also:work, ascribed to Moses, containing legends of the Patriarchs.

Another famous liturgist See also:

Abraham Qabazi lived in the early part of the 16th century, and his See also:pupil See also:Ismail Rumaihi in 1537 wrote a work on the praise of Moses. Probably about the same time, or a little later, is another anonymous commentary on Genesis in the See also:Huntington Collection in the Bodleian Library (MS. See also:Hunt. 301). Several members of the Danfi family were prominent in the 18th century as liturgists, among them Abraham b. Jacob, who also wrote a commentary 10 on Gen.-Num., and of the levitical family Ghazal ibn Abi Sarur, who commented on Gen.-Exod. Another Ghazal (=Tabiah n. See also:Isaac), priest-levite, who died in 1786, was a considerable writer of liturgy. Subsequent authors are few and of little interest. Mention need only be made of the chronicle u written (i.e. compiled) in Hebrew by Ab Sakhwah (=Murjan 12) b. As'ad, of the Danfi family, in 1900, chiefly on the basis of al-Taulidah and Abu'l-fatb; an Arabic chronicle a by Phinehas b. Isaac (ob.

Except, of course, the Pentateuch itself (see BIBLE) which cannot be properly regarded as a Samaritan work. 2 So Kahle, see the bibliography. 3 See Neubauer in Journ. asiat. (1873), p. 341. 4 See Wreschner, Samaritanische Traditionen (See also:

Berlin, 1888). 5 Ed. by Neubauer in Journ. asiat. (1869). The chronicle was continued in 1346, and was subsequently brought down to 1856-1857 by the present priest. s See Niildeke, Gott. Gel. Nachr.

(1862), Nos. 17, 20. ' C1ronicon Sam.... See also:

Liber Josuae (Lugd. See also:Bat., 1848). It narrates the history from the See also:death of Moses to the 4th century A.D. and is derived from See also:sources of various dates. A Hebrew book of Joshua announced by Garter in The Times of See also:June 9, 1908, and published in ZDMG, vol. 62 (1908) pt. ii., is a modern compilation; see Yahuda in Sitzgsber. d. Kgl. Preuss. Akad. (1908), p.

887, and Garter's reply in ZDMG, 62, pt. iii. 5 Ed. by Vilmar (See also:

Gotha, 1865). Partly translated by See also:Payne Smith in See also:Heidenheim's Vierteljahrsschrift, vol. ii. 9 Translated by See also:Leitner in Heid. Viert. iv. 184, &c. 10 An account of the work (of which the only MS. is in Berlin) was given by Geiger in ZDMG, xx. p. 143 and later. Parts of it were published as See also:dissertations by Klumel in 1902 and See also:Hanover 1904. n Ed. by E. N. See also:Adler and M.

Seligsohn in the Revue See also:

des etudes juives, vols. 44-46. 1" The same who compiled Gaster's book of Joshua. i3 Mentioned by Yahuda, op. cit. p. 895, as existing in a Berlin MS.1898) of the levitical family; and a theological work,14 also in Arabic, by the present priest-levite, Jacob b. Aaron. BIBLIOGRAr1IY.-General: Nutt, Fragments of a Samaritan Targum . with ... a See also:Sketch of Sam. History, &c. (London, 1874) ; Montgomery, The Samaritans (See also:Philadelphia, 1907), an excellent account with full bibliography; See also:Petermann, Brevis See also:ling. sans. grammatica (Porta Lingg. Orient.), See also:Leipzig, 1873; See also:Steinschneider, See also:Die arabische Literatur d. Juden, p. 319 sqq. (Frankfurt, 1902).

Texts: the Pentateuch in the See also:

Paris and London Polyglotts; separately by Blayney (Oxford, 1790). A See also:critical edition is in preparation by the Freiherr von See also:Gall. Targum in the Polyglotts; reprinted in square character by Brull (Frankfurt, 1874-1879); with critical apparatus by Petermann and Vollers (Berolini, 1872-1891); cf. also Nutt, op. cit.; Kohn, " Zur Sprache . . der Samaritaner," pt. ii. (Leipzig, 1876) (in Abhandlungen f. d. Kunde d. Morgenlandes, v. 4) ; Kahle, Textkritische . Bemerkungen . . . (Leipzig, 1898) and Zeitsch. f. Assyr. xvi., xvii.

Arabic version, ed. by See also:

Kuenen (Gen.-Lev.), Lugd. Bat. (1851); cf. See also:Bloch, Die Sam.-arab. Pent.-ibersetzung, Dent. i.-xi. (Berlin, 1901); Kahle, Die arab. Bibeliibersetzungen (Leipzig, 1904); Heidenheim, Der Commentar Marqahs (See also:Weimar, 1896). Parts also in dissertations by Baneth (1888), Munk (1890), See also:Emmerich (1897), Hildesheimer (1898). Various texts and See also:translations, mostly liturgical, in Heidenheim's Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift (Gotha, 1864-1865, See also:Zurich 1867- ?) often incorrect, cf. Geiger in ZDMG, xvi.-xxii. See also:Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy (Oxford, 1909), text and introduction. For See also:editions of other works see the foregoing footnotes.

(A. Cy.) ,SAMARIUM [See also:

symbol Sm, atomic See also:weight 150.4 (0=16)], a rare.See also:earth See also:metal (see RARE EARTHS). The separation has been worked at by A. v. Welsbach, L. de Boisbaudran, Urbain and Lacombe (Comptes rendus, 1903, 137, pp. 568, 792); Demarcay (ibid. 1900, 130, p. 1019); Benedicks; Feit and Przibylla (Zeit. anorg. Chem., 1905, 43, p. 202) and others. The metal may be obtained by reduction of its See also:oxide with See also:magnesium. It combines with See also:hydrogen to form a hydride. The salts are mostly of a yellowish See also:colour.

The chloride, SmC1a. 6F12O, is a deliquescent solid which when heated in hydrochloric See also:

acid See also:gas to 18o° C. yields the anhydrous chloride. This anhydrous chloride is reduced to a See also:lower chloride, of See also:composition SmC12, when heated to a high temperature in a current of hydrogen or See also:ammonia (Matignon and Cazes, Comptes rendus, 1906, 142, p. 183). The chloride, SmC1z, is a See also:brown crystalline See also:powder which is decomposed by See also:water with liberation of hydrogen and the formation of the oxide, Sm2O3, and an oxychloride, SmOC1. The fluoride, SmF3.See also:H2O, was prepared by H. See also:Moissan by acting with See also:fluorine on the See also:carbide. The sulphate, Sm2 (SO4)3.8H2O, is obtained by the See also:action of sulphuric acid on the nitrate. It forms See also:double salts with the alkaline sulphates. The carbide, SmC2, is formed when the oxide is heated with See also:carbon in the electric See also:furnace.

End of Article: SAMARITANS

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