As of 2024, the Samaritan community numbered around 900
people, split between Israel (some 460
in Holon) and the West Bank (some 380 in Kiryat Luza).[5] The Samaritans in Kiryat Luza speak South Levantine
Arabic, while those in Holon primarily speak Modern Hebrew. For liturgical purposes, they
also use Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic, both of which are written
in the Samaritan script.
According to Samaritan tradition, the position of the community's leading Samaritan High Priest has
continued without interruption for the last 3600 years, beginning with the
Hebrew prophet Aaron. Since 2013, the 133rd Samaritan High
Priest has been Aabed-El
ben Asher ben Matzliach.
In censuses, Israeli law classifies the Samaritans as a distinct
religious community. However, Rabbinic literature rejected
the Samaritans' Halakhic Jewishness because
they refused to renounce their belief that Mount Gerizim was the historical
holy site of the Israelites.[b] All Samaritans in both Holon and Kiryat Luza have Israeli citizenship,
but those in Kiryat Luza also hold Palestinian citizenship; the latter group are
not subject to mandatory
conscription.
Etymology and terminology
Inscriptions from the Samaritan diaspora in Delos,
dating as early as 150–50 BCE, provide the "oldest known
self-designation" for Samaritans, indicating that they called
themselves Bene Israel (lit. 'children of Israel') in Hebrew
(i.e., the literal descendants of the biblical prophet Israel, also known
as Jacob, more commonly "Israelites").[6][7]
In their own language, Samaritan Hebrew, the Samaritans call
themselves "Israel", "B'nai Israel", and,
alternatively, "Shamerim" (שַמֶרִים, 'Guardians', 'Keepers', or
'Watchers'). They call themselves al-Sāmiriyyūn (السامريون) in Arabic.[8][9][10][11] The term is cognate with the Biblical Hebrew term Šomerim,
and both terms reflect a Semitic root שמר, which means "to watch" or "to guard".
Historically, Samaritans were concentrated in Samaria. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim (שומרונים, 'Samaritans'), which means
"inhabitants of Samaria". In modern English, Samaritans refer to
themselves as "Israelite Samaritans".[12][13][c]
That the meaning of their name signifies "Guardians"
(or 'Keepers' or 'Watchers') "of the Law" (Samaritan Pentateuch),
rather than being a toponym referring to
the inhabitants of the region of Samaria, was remarked on by a number of
Christian Church Fathers,
including Epiphanius of Salamis in
the Panarion; Jerome and Eusebius in the Chronicon; and Origen in The Commentary on Saint
John's Gospel.[14][15][16] The historian Josephus uses several terms for the
Samaritans, which he appears to use interchangeably.[d] Among them is a reference to Khuthaioi, a
designation employed to denote peoples in Media and Persia putatively sent to Samaria to
replace the exiled Israelite population.[e][f] These Khouthaioi were, in fact, Hellenistic Phoenicians/Sidonians. Samareis (Ancient Greek: Σαμαρεῖς)
may refer to inhabitants of the region of Samaria, or of the city of that name,
though some texts use it to refer specifically to Samaritans.[g]
Origins
The origins of the Samaritans have long been disputed between
their own tradition and that of the Jews. Ancestrally, Samaritans affirm that
they descend from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh in ancient Samaria. Samaritan tradition associates the
split between them and the Judean-led southern
Israelites to the time of the biblical priest Eli,[17] described as a "false" high priest who usurped
the priestly office from its occupant, Uzzi, and established a rival shrine
at Shiloh,
thereby preventing southern pilgrims from Judah and the territory of Benjamin from attending
the shrine at Gerizim. Eli is also held to have created a duplicate of
the Ark of the Covenant,
which eventually made its way to the Judahite sanctuary in Jerusalem.[h]
In contrast, Orthodox Jewish tradition—based on
material found in the Hebrew Bible, Josephus's work, the Talmud, and other historiographic
sources—dates their presence much later, to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity.
In Rabbinic Judaism (e.g.,
in Tosefta Berakhot),
Samaritans are called Cuthites or Cutheans (כותים, Kutim), referring to the
ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is
today Iraq.[18] Josephus, in both the Wars of the Jews and the Antiquities of the
Jews, writing of the destruction of the temple on Mount Gerizim
by John Hyrcanus,
also refers to the Samaritans as the Cuthaeans.[i] In the biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of
several cities from which people were brought to Samaria.[j]
The similarities between Samaritans and Jews were such that
the rabbis of the Mishnah found it impossible to draw a
clear distinction between the two groups.[19] Attempts to date when the schism among Israelites took place—which
engendered the division between Samaritans and Judaeans—vary greatly, from the
time of Ezra down to the siege of
Jerusalem (70 CE) and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE).[20] The emergence of a distinctive Samaritan identity, the
outcome of a mutual estrangement between them and Jews, was something that
developed over several centuries. Generally, a decisive rupture is believed to
have taken place in the Hasmonean period.[21]
Samaritan version
The Samaritan traditions of their history are contained in
the Kitab al-Ta'rikh compiled by Abu'l-Fath in 1355.[22] According to this, a text which Magnar Kartveit identifies
as a "fictional" apologia drawn from
earlier sources (including Josephus but perhaps also from ancient traditions)[23] a civil war erupted among the Israelites when Eli, son of
Yafni, the treasurer of the sons of Israel, sought to usurp the High Priesthood of Israel from the heirs of Phinehas. Gathering disciples and binding them
by an oath of loyalty, he sacrificed on the stone altar without using salt, a
rite which made High Priest Ozzi rebuke and disown him. Eli and his acolytes
revolted and shifted to Shiloh, where he built an alternative temple and an
altar, a replica of the original on Mount Gerizim. Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas had
intercourse with women and feasted on the meat of the sacrifice inside
the Tabernacle. Thereafter, Israel was split into
three factions: the original Mount Gerizim community of loyalists, the
breakaway group under Eli, and heretics worshipping idols associated with
Hophni and Phinehas. Judaism emerged later
with those who followed the example of Eli.[24][25][k]
Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from
the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled
the land. The reference to Mount Gerizim derives from the biblical story
of Moses ordering Joshua to take the Twelve
Tribes of Israel to the mountains by Shechem (Nablus) and place half of the tribes, six in
number, on Mount Gerizim—the Mount of the Blessing—and the other half on Mount Ebal—the Mount of the Curse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans
