Samaritans

The Samaritans (Autoethnonyme: Shamerim , which means observing them or those which keep ; in Hebrew modern: Shomronim - שומרונים, i.e. of Shomron , Samarie; or “Jew-Samaritans”) are people very few related with the Juifs and alive in Israel and the West Bank. One calls sometimes their religion the samaritanism .

The Samaritains offer the paradox to be at the same time one of the smallest populations of the world, since they are less than 700 In 2006, and one of oldest equipped with a written history, since their existence is attested to II in Samarie. They dominated this area until the 6th century, in the north of current the Israel.

Their religion is based on the Pentateuque, like the Judaïsme. However, contrary to this one, they refuse the religious centrality of Jerusalem. Although they appeared before the development of the rabbinical Judaïsme and that this difference is thus not at the origin of their divergence, they do not have a Rabbin S and the Talmud orthodoxe Judaïsme does not accept. The Samaritans also refuse the books of the Hebraic Bible posterior with the Pentateuque (Livres of the prophets and hagiographal books).

They are not regarded Juif S, but as descendants of old the Israélite S of the ancient kingdom of Samarie. Contrary, the orthodoxe Jews regard them as descendants of foreign populations, having adopted an illegitimate version of the Hebraic religion, and for this reason refuse to regard them Juifs, or even as descendants of old the Jews. They are recognized like Juifs by the State of Israel.

Origins

Jews of the surroundings of the year 1000 av. J. - C. lived seems it on the highlands being in the west of the the Jordan, and a little beyond, on the territory of current the Jordan. According to the Bible, they would have been divided into 12 more or less rival tribes, then unified about the year 1000 av. J. - C. by the king Saül, then by the King David, and his son Solomon.

After the death of Solomon, towards 930 av. J. - C., the 10 tribes of North would have made secession, and formed the Royaume of Israel, also called “kingdom of Samarie”, the name of the city which became its capital to the IX E This kingdom then became the neighbor and sometimes the adversary of the kingdom of the South: the Kingdom of Juda, around Jerusalem.

The two kingdoms Jews

The kingdom of Samarie and the kingdom of Juda were defined in an ambiguous way one compared to the other. They belonged to the same religious community Jew, but they were also in territorial, political competition and with final the nun. One can read in this competition the origin of the Samaritans.

In a context where religion and policy are not separate, the control of the religion is an important aspect of the control of the capacity, and respective places of worship were set up by the two kingdoms. That of Juda was installed in Jerusalem, while the kingdom of Samarie installed some several, the two principal ones being located “at the north ends and south of the kingdom, at Béthel and daN”. In the first centuries, this diversity of the temples however did not seem to pose problems too much, and in any case did not involve an official schism. It should be recalled that, to the neighborhoods of the year thousand before Jesus-Christ, there was not according to the Bible of permanent and fixed places of worship. The prophet Samuel is thus a priest of the sanctuary of Silo. It was the translation of a historical absence of centralization going back to the existence of separate tribes. With the structuring in kingdoms, competition started to be felt, and each place of worship was gradually proposed by the kingdom which managed it.

The Bible “depicts us inevitably the hopelessly inclined tribes of North to the sin”. The temples of Samarie are shown to be opened with the pagan rites, and not to be not really Jews: The children of Israel made in secrecy against the Eternal their God, of the things which are not well. They built high places. They drew up statues and idols on any high hill. They manufactured idols of Astarté, they were prosternèrent in front of all the army of the skies, and they served Baal. They made pass by fire their sons and their filles.

The “historical” books of the Bible concerning the periods before the destruction of the first Temple in -586, generally called “history deuteronomist”, are dated from the reign of Josias (-639 with -609), after the destruction of Samarie, but integrate older sources, for certain northerners (like the prophets Amos or Osée). The historian deuteronomist transmits to his readers a double message, rather contradictory. Of dimensioned, it depicts Juda and Israel like two twin States. Other, it describes them like savagely antagonistic. Josias ambitionne to extend to North. The Bible, in support of its ambition, thus repeats to satiety that its population is made up of Jews which should have achieved their devotions in Jerusalem. The Bible was to remove any legitimacy with the northerner worships - mainly that of the sanctuary of Béthel - and to show that the religious traditions of the kingdom of North were impious”. “Violence, idolatry, cupidity characterize the not very edifying portrait of the northerner kingdom of Israel which both brush us Livres of the Kings

It is impossible to know if all these charges are founded, but they show a strong hostility towards the kingdom and the religious practices of north, well before the “official” appearance of the Samaritans.

The kingdom of Samarie was invaded and destroyed by the Assyrie in 722 before our era, which in did one of its provinces. The kingdom of Juda accepted Assyrian suzerainty on the other hand, and thus survived. Juda took again a full independence only under the reign of Josias (from -639 to -609), until its destruction by the Babylonian and with the deportation of its population in 586-587 before our era.

The origin of the Samaritans: the orthodoxe Jewish thesis

According to the Bible (Second book of the Kings), which one about the middle of sixth century BC (that is to say at least 150 years after the events), population of the kingdom of Samarie considers written would have been off-set worms of other areas of the Assyrian Empire in punishment of his sins. It would have then mysteriously disappeared. They would be the “Ten tribes lost of Israel”.

The Bible affirms that foreign populations would have been moved to replace them on their territory. These foreigners would have created a religion mixing pagan Jew influences and , thus giving rise to the Samaritans.

And Israel was taken along captive far from its country in Assyrie, where it remained so far. King d' Assyrie made come from people and establishes them in the towns of Samarie in the place of the children of Israel. When they started to live there, they did not fear the Eternal, and the Eternal sent against them lions which them tuaient.
One says to king d' Assyrie: The nations which you transported and established in the towns of Samarie do not know the manner of serving the god of the country, and it sent against them lions which make them die.
King d' Assyrie gave this order: There make go one of the priests that you took along from there in captivity and that he teaches the manner to them of serving the god of the pays.
One of the priests who had been taken along captive of Samarie was established in Béthel, and taught to them how they were to fear Éternel.
But the nations made each one their gods in the cities which they lived, and placed them in the houses of the high places built by Samaritains.
They feared also the Eternal and they served at the same time their gods according to the habit of the nations from where one had them transportés.
They follow still today their first usages.
The Eternal had made alliance with them, and this order had given them: You will not fear others dieux.
And they did not obey, and they followed their first uses. These nations feared the Eternal and served their images; and their children and the children of their children so far do what their fathers have fait. One notes a contradiction in the second book of the kings: the new inhabitants of the old kingdom of Samarie (become Assyrian province) are described like foreigners, but it is as indicated as “the Eternal had made alliance with them”, as if they were the descendants of old the Jews. On a side they “feared the Eternal”, other “they served at the same time their gods”. The now identified population as “samaritaine” becomes thus an ambiguous population, mixes pagan foreigners and influences Jews, rejected overall community.

The posterior rabbinical literature is also shared. The Talmud speaks punctually about the Samaritans, in divergent terms, but which slice sometimes with the total rejection. The treaty Houllin accepts the meat of the animals which they killed like Casher, if a Jew were pilot demolition, and the treaty Orlah of the Talmud of Jerusalem admits their bread under certain reserves. In another treaty of Talmud of Jerusalem, which would date from the 1st century, their food is regarded as legal. A minor treaty ( Massekhet Kouthim ) confirms their partial acceptance: “when could they be received in the Jewish community? When they give up Har Garizim (the Mont Garizim) and recognize Jerusalem and the resurrection of deaths”. The same treaty recognizes as in the majority of their uses, they resemble Israélite S.
Ainsi, at the beginning of the Christian era, the charge of Paganisme it is given up by certain Jewish monks. But the charge not to be of ascent Jew remains, even if approach of the Massecheth Kuthim watch some evolutions: the Samaritans could be accepted “in the Jewish community” (in spite of their origins) if they reformed their practices. Such an “open” approach of the second great Jewish historical charge (not to be of origin Jew) is however very with fact marginal in the Talmud.

The origin of the Samaritans: the alternative thesis

Facts

The archeologists exhumed a good part of the files of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrian chronicles of Sargon II, the king who overcame the kingdom of Samarie, indicate:

I besieged and occupied the town of Samarie, and took along: 27280 of its captive inhabitants. I travelled by 50 tanks to them, but left them the remainder of their affaires.

Certain translators are not agreement with the precision brought (“town of Samarie”), considering that the original text lets plane the doubt between the city and the State de Samarie.

There is a common point with the Livres of the Kings: deportation of the Jew S.A. well take place. But there is also an important difference: the number of the deportees. For the Second book of the Kings, it is all the population or almost which was off-set. For Sargon II, it is a minority. The archeologists indeed estimate the population of the kingdom of Samarie at: 200000 people, according to the found cities and villages. There had been a first deportation well ten years earlier, when the Assyrian king Teglath-Phalasar III had conquered the Galileo. But it also was quantified to the Assyrian texts. The total of the two deportations reaches approximately: 40000 people, is 20% only total of the inhabitants. Undoubtedly primarily the elite. The historians think that certain Jews of North would have also left as refugees towards the Kingdom Juda.

The establishment of foreign colonists is indicated several times in the remainder of the text, but in connection with other conquests. Perhaps this policy of establishment was obviously current, and was thus made in Samarie, as the book of the kings indicates it. One found, in Gézér and in the surroundings, of the wedge-shaped texts of the VII E containing of the Babylonian names. The deportation of alien populations in Samarie (at least in certain zones), affirmed by the Books of the Kings, thus is well confirmed. The Archéologie states on the other hand that this repopulation is far from being massive. The potteries, inscriptions, villages, etc show a great continuity with the former period. The Livre of Jérémie reports that 150 years after the fall of the kingdom of North, just after the fall of Jerusalem in -586, of the Jews of North arised with offerings for the Temple of Jerusalem: “eighty men came from Sichem, Silo and Samarie, the shaven beard, torn clothing, the gashed skin of incisions. They brought cereal offerings and Encens to offer them in the Temple of the Eternal. ”

Last fact in contradiction with the Bible: the current religion of the Samaritans, strictly based on the Pentateuque, does not present a trace of Paganisme. The rabbinical treaties dating from the beginning of the Christian era and previously quoted indicate that this strict Monothéisme is very old. To the VI E, the book of Jérémie, already quoted, show them making offerings with the temple. One misses however autonomous sources to speak about the religion of the Samaritans with and front J. - C. It possible, but not is thus proven, that one period ago of a few centuries when the religion samaritaine would have been a Syncrétisme pagano-Jew, in accordance with the charge of the Livres of the Kings.

The genetics was requested to bring certain answers as for the origin of the Samaritans. The study of Shen '' and Al '', in 2004 thus related to the comparison between the Y chromosome of 12 Samaritains men and those of 18-20 men not Samaritains, divided between 6 Jewish populations (of origins Ashkénaze, Morrocan woman, Libyan woman, Ethiopian, Iraqi and Yemeni) and 2 Israeli not-Jewish populations (Druzes and Palestinians). The results of preceding analyzes on groups of African and Europeans were integrated in the statistical analysis. DNA mitochondrial (inherited the women) was also compared. The study concludes that significant resemblances exist between the Y chromosomes (male) Jewish and Samaritans, but that DNA mitochondrial (inherited the women) differs between the Jewish populations and samaritaines. “To our surprise, all the Y chromosomes inherited the men of the Samaritans non-Cohen not to the sacerdotal family belong to the group Cohen” (a genetic characteristic which one mainly meets at the Jews cohanim, i.e. supposed to go down from Aaron. “The data indicate that the Y chromosome Samaritans and Jews have an affinity much larger than those of the Samaritans and their geographical neighbors of long time, Palestinians”. “However, it is not the case for the haplotypes of DNA mitochondrial women. the distances between Samaritans, Jews and Palestinians for DNA mitochondrial are about identical. Moreover, low diversity suggests that the maternal gene flow in the community samaritaine was not very high” (few entries of women in the community).

The interpretation of the facts

The dominant thesis in the historians is rather than 80% of the inhabitants of the old kingdom of Samarie remained on the spot, and became the Samaritans (with the religious direction of the term) cities by the book of the kings.

Accordingly, the 10 mysteriously disappeared tribes of Israel would be only one myth invented to justify the exclusion of the Samaritans of the community Jew: one did not break with other Jews, one noted their mysterious disappearance and their replacement by foreigners.

The reasons of this final rupture would be especially:

the question of the centrality of the temple of the Mount Garizim or that of Jerusalem in the worship.
the place of the Torah oral (compiled later in the Mishna, the Gémara then the Talmud) at Judéens, and refused by the Samaritans.

The study previously quoted (Shen '' and Al '') tries to bring a lighting by the genetics. Its authors lean finally in favor of a mixed approach between replacement and continuity: “we suppose that characteristic genetics samaritaines introduce a sub-group of the priests Cohanim Jew of origin which did not leave in exile when the Assyrian conquered the kingdom of North, but which married Assyrian and exiled women reinstalled starting from other conquered grounds”. Two points should however be noted: on the one hand “the high diversity of the Haplotype S of DNA mitochondrial among Israelis suggests that the female founders of each Jewish group were very few and of various ascents”. The specificity of the genetic markers female Samaritans is thus difficult to interpret in the light of the specificity of the female genetic markers of each Jewish group. In addition, the appearance of specificities is not dated. It can go up front, for or after the period of the Assyrian conquest, and thus does not inform us inevitably about the events caused by this one.

The origin of the Samaritans: the thesis of the Samaritans

According to their book of the Chronicles ( Sefer ha-Yamim ), the Samaritans regard themselves as the descendants of the tribes of Ephraïm and Manassé (two tribes resulting from the Tribu of Joseph) alive in the kingdom of Samarie before its destruction in -722. The sacerdotal family affirms to go down from the Tribu of Lévi. The vision reducing them from old the Jews of North is rather close to that of the majority of the historians.

They add that “they are the Jews which separated from them at the time of the transfer of the Arche to” before our era. According to the second of their seven chronicles, “it is Elie which caused the schism by establishing with Silo a sanctuary with an aim of replacing the sanctuary of the Mont Garizim”.

The question of the Garizim Mount

The centrality of the Garizim Mount is not the only specificity of the Samaritans. In addition to the question of their supposed origin not Jew by the Jews, there exist also important differences as regards crowned texts, the Samaritans accepting only Pentateuque. But the Garizim Mount like principal saint places, in places and place of Jerusalem, is a fundamental marker of the difference with the Jews.

The Samaritans consider that from time immemorial, it is the Mont Garizim which was indicated by God to be the center of the worship. They quote for that the passages of the Deutéronome: “When you pass the Jordan, Siméon, Lévi, Juda, Issacar, Joseph and Benjamin, will be held on the Garizim mount, to bless the people” and more still “And when the Eternal, your God, inserts to you in the country of which you will take possession, you pronounce the blessing on the mountain of Garizim, and the curse on the mountain of Ebal”. One finds other quotations, as in the Livre of the Judges or in that of Josué .
For the Samaritans, Jerusalem would thus have been imposed by the Jews of the South (Jews) against this old sanctification.

Certain factual elements seem to deviate from the Samaritaine vision on the preeminent place of the Mont Garizim in the worship of old the Israélites. The construction of the temple on the Mont Garizim is indeed in rupture with the old pertaining to worship diversity of Samarie: the places of worship of Béthel and daN which dominated the Royaume of Samarie disappear. It is possible that it is about a judéenne influence, a will to answer exclusion by another legitimacy.

Contrary, it is notable that the Garizim Mount is known Pentateuque (the first five books), while the centrality of Jerusalem appears only in the Livres of Samuel and of the Kings, describing the reigns of David and Solomon (but written several centuries afterwards).

Thus, if the Garizim Mount seems old places well crowned Israélite, older perhaps than Jerusalem (at least quoted before this city in the textual sources), it was in any case not, at the time of old the Royaume of Samarie the center of the worship, nor even the places of the most important worship.

Dating of the rupture

In 586 before our era, the kingdom of Juda fall in its turn, and part of its population is off-set with Babylon. After the release of exiled the by Cyrus II in -537, those decide to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem destroys into -586. The Samaritans propose their assistance then: The enemies of Juda and Benjamin learned that the wire of the captivity built a temple with the Eternal, God of Israel. They came near Zorobabel and from the household heads, and said to them: We will build with you; because, like you, we call upon your God, and we let us offer sacrifices to him since the time of Ésar Haddon, king of Assyrie, which made us go up here. But Zorobabel, Josué, and the other chiefs of the families of Israel, answered them: It is not with you and us to build the house of our God; we will only build it with the Eternal, God of Israel, as we ordered king Cyrus, king de Perse. Then people of the country discouraged the people of Juda; they intimidated it to prevent it bâtir.

The exile indeed modified the identities ethno-nuns. As the writing the Rabbin Josy Eisenberg “the VI E was decisive in the history of the Jews. In fact, one can say that it constitutes the true beginning of it, because it sees to take place a fundamental change: end of the time of the Hebrew and the hébraïsme, birth of the time of the Jews and the Judaism”. For old exiled Babylon, the Holy Land is badly known. The old definitions are reinterpreted. The Captivité of Babylon created the Jews with the current direction of the term. It thus creates by opposition the “modern” Samaritans, rejected body Jew.

According to the quotation of the Book of Esdras reported above, the religious rupture with the Samaritans thus seems consumed as of 500 before our era. But of many uncertainties remaining on the dates of drafting of the texts, the evolution of their contents and the way in which they were applied in practice, no certainty is possible. Other sources confirm a final rupture towards -330. Ursula Schattner-Rieser indicates “today, the majority of the specialists as a Samaritan thinks that the “sect” of the Samaritans separated from the religious group judéen at the time Persian, at the time of the return of Néhémie in 445 before J. - C. and that the beginning of the history of the Samaritans itself is the day before the hellenistic time with the construction of a rival temple of that of Jerusalem, on the Mont Garizim.

It is important to note that this rupture does not prevent the resumption of the Pentateuque, resulting from various sources, but compiled in his final form in the South, in Judaea, towards the VI E One can thus suppose it posterior with this drafting, unfortunately badly dated.

The origin of the Samaritans: conclusions

Religious and political divergences increasing initially moved away Israélites from North and the South, as the biblical charges against the religious practices of North testify some. One does not know exactly when date the final rupture between Juifs and Samaritans. As soon as possible, it occurs towards 520 av. J. - C, during the construction of the Second temple of Jerusalem by some of old exiled Jewish with Babylon. At the latest, it is attested towards 330 av. J. - C.

Whatever the reasons of the rupture between the communities, and its exact date, the Samaritans and Judéens (who gave the Juif S) are not regarded more as only one people, while at the same time they claim both of the descent of the Hebrew and than they follow the Pentateuque.

After separation

The Samaritans seem to be remained a rather many population in the north of current the israélo-Palestinian territory: at least a few hundreds of thousands of people until the 6th century, certain authors going up to 1,2 million with S. But they were never again one independent people.

Like the Jews, they passed under the control of the empires which succeeded the Assyrian empire, then under the sovereignty of the dynasty Séleucide, of the Jewish kingdom of the Hasmonéens, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the empire omeyyade and the Ottoman Empire.

Relation with the Séleucide kingdom

The kingdom Séleucide is a kingdom of hellenistic culture, directed by a dynasty of origin Macedonian succeeding Alexandre Large the and reigning on part of the the Middle East, more particularly on the Syria-Palestine zone. The kingdom affirmed very strongly its Greek culture , which a long time did not pose problems particular to the Samaritans and the alive Juifs in Palestine. The situation changes with Antiochos IV (king of 175 av. J. - C with 163 av. J. - C). This one launches indeed, according to the Livres of the Stiffs, a campaign of hellenisation forced of the populations of its kingdom. This countryside implies in particular the obligatory worship of Zeus, represented on ground by Antiochos IV. One does not know the effects of this policy in the other areas of the kingdom, but the will to transform the Second Temple of Jerusalem into temple of Zeus Olympien into -168 would have obtained the support of certain Jews: “Much of Jews agreed readily to its worship, sacrificing to the idols and profaning the Sabbath” (1M1.43), while pushing some of others, the Macchabées and their partisans, with the revolt: “they gathered an army, struck the sinners in their anger and the irreligious people in their fury” (1M2.44).

According to the Books of Maccabées, troops samaritaines would have united in -166 with the army Séleucide to fight Judéens at the time of the revolt of the brothers Macchabées: “Apollonius gathered an important troop of Samarie to make the war in Israel”.
From a religious point of view, the Samaritans would have also agreed to transform the temple of the Garizim mount into temple hellenistic: “Little time after, the king sent Géronte the Athenian to force the Jews to move away from the laws of their fathers and to cease regulating their life on the laws of God to profane the Temple of Jerusalem and to dedicate it to Zeus Olympien, and to dedicate to Zeus Hospitalier that of the Mont Garizim, as the inhabitants of the place asked it” (2M6.1-2). It is noted that according to the Livres of Maccabées, the Greek acceptance of paganism by the Jews partial and “is forced”, when that of the Samaritans is required by “the inhabitants of the place”.

In any assumption, this possible religious rallying does not seem to have left of trace in the Samaritans after the end of the domination Séleucide on the area. It is thus plausible that it either does not act that of a political rallying without true religious contents. But this acceptance, which it is or not been of pure form, partial or supplements, voluntary or forced, the charge of paganism reinforced already carried by the book of the kings.
Thus, two centuries and half after the events, Flavius Josèphe brings back “the Samaritans, seeing the treatment inflicted to the Jews, ceased being given for their parents and claiming that the temple of Garizim was that of God the Almighty, in what they followed their naturalness, that I described already; but they were said downward of Mèdes and Persians, which they are indeed”. Flavius Josèphe even states that the Samaritans would have written with Antiochos IV: “We thus let us beg you, you it benefactor and the saver, to order with Apollonios, sub-prefect, and with Nicanor, royal agent, not to make us a wrong by accusing us of the same crimes as the Jews, which are foreign for us by the race as by the habits, and to devote our anonymous temple to the worship of Zeus Hellénios: thus we will not be molestés any more, and being able from now on to be occupied in full safety with our work, we will pay you more considerable tributes”.

The reality of the relations between the Samaritans and the Séleucides remains difficult to determine, since the only sources dating from the time are the Livres of Maccabées (Flavius Josèphe writing well later). But the period remains important in the history of the relations between Juifs and Samaritans, in what it reaffirmed in the Jewish literature the fact that the Samaritans were not ascent Jew, that they practiced readily the Paganisme and that they were ready to be combined to the enemies Jews.

Relations with the Jews in Antiquity

The relations with the Jews remained bad overall during all Antiquity.

After the success of the Jewish revolt against the Séleucides, the new Jewish kingdom of the Hasmonéens, then directed by Jean Hyrcan I {{er}} conquers Sichem and destroys, towards 108 front J. - C., the temple Samaritan on the Mont Garizim, then the town of Samarie.

The Samaritans become subjects of a State which does not consider them as Juif S. Flavius Josèphe states however that until the Roman procurat of Coponius (6-8 apr. J. - C.), the Samaritans could reach the temple of Jerusalem.

After the conquest by the Roman (protectorate as of 63 before our era), Samarie had several fastenings, fluctuating according to the times. The emperor Auguste attaches it to the kingdom customer of Hérode I {{er}} Large the in -30. Thereafter, the province of Samarie and the cities of the coast are attached to the Roman province of Syria (or Phénicie, according to the periods), and thus escape a Jewish capacity. The Roman Empire is tolerant with the religions of the conquered people, and the situation of the Samaritans thus undoubtedly was some improved.

The relations with the Jews remain difficult. A crisis bursts thus under the procurat of Coponius (6-8 apr. J. - C.), when “of the Samaritans, entered in secrecy in Jerusalem, human bones under the gantries threw. Consequently one prohibits with all the Samaritans the access of the Temple, that which one did not have the practice before”.

Speaking about the time of Jesus (in the Thirties of the first century), the Évangile according to Jean still testifies to the bad relations between Samaritains and Juifs: the dialog between Jesus and Samaritaine recall that the Jews do not have relations with the Samaritans (Jean 4,9). Jews use also the charge of “Samaritan” against Jesus: “Aren't we right to say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon? ” (Jean 8,48). Jesus is thus provocative in front when it develops, doctors of the Loi, the Parabole of the Bon Samaritan, putting in scene an acting Samaritan more morally than a priest and than a Lévite.

Shortly after the death of the Christ, Josèphe brings back direct armed confrontations in Galileo, under the emperor Claude: “Between the Samaritans and the Juif S rose also hatreds for the following reason. Galiléens had habit, to go to the festivals in the Holy City, to cross the country of Samarie. Then, while they were on the way, of the inhabitants of a borough called Ginae, located at the borders of the country of Samarie and large plain, started a combat with them and much killed some. Galiléens decided the mass of the Jews to run to the weapons. They plundered and set fire to certain boroughs Samaritans. When Cumanus was informed of this act, it took with him the squadron of Rosefish and four troops of infantrymen, made arm the Samaritans and walked against the Jews; it attacked them, killed a great number of it. Cumanus and the first of the Samaritans, envoys in Rome, obtained, of the emperor one day of audience to speak about the litigations which divided them. Claude after having yes the debates, grateful that the Samaritans had been the first authors of these evils, ordered to carry out those of them which had been presented to him”.

Relationships to the Roman empire

The arrival of the empire in the area in -63 had made it possible to the Samaritans to be gradually released from the Jews. But the relationships to the empire were however sometimes conflict.

During the Jewish rising of 67-73, the emperor Vespasien fears to see the Samaritans rejoining the Juif S, because “they seemed with two fingers to revolt. It sent against them Cérialis, legate of the fifth legion, with six hundred horses and three thousand men of foot. The legate restricted himself to encircle with his troop all the base of the Mont Garizim. However it happened that the Samaritans missed water. Cérialis climbs the mountain then and, having laid out its troop rings some around the enemies, first of all invited them to treat and think of their safety: he promised the life to them saves if they returned their weapons. As it could not convince them, it charged them and passed them all to the wire of the sword, with the number of: 11600”.

Under the reign of Hadrian (from 117 to 138), “Jews and Samaritans would have been struck of prohibition of the Sabbaths, the festivals, of the circumcision, as well as ritual baths. The chronicles samaritaines allot to Hadrian the destruction of all their crowned books, except for Pentateuque and of the genealogy of the priests are known as to have perished in this engagement and the most fertile country on the ground thus became private of farmers.

An ultimate rising will take place later an about sixty years, in 594, without success, and with undoubtedly contributed to complete the demographic collapse of the population samaritaine. Byzantine intolerance, christianization then the Islamization of the populations living in Palestine touched them as they touched the Juif S. But, whereas the Jews could survive as a community in diaspora, Samaritans, remained primarily on the territory of historical Palestine, could not find alternative solutions.

Relationships to the Moslem empires

The arrival of the conquerors Musulman S at the 7th century was undoubtedly lived like a release. The Christian communities “Hérétique S” (from the Byzantine point of view) in any case often lived it as follows: the conquerors were appreciably more tolerant for these religious groups, to which the statute of Dhimmi gave finally an official statute, that from which they did not even profit under the Byzantine empire.

Good at the beginning, the relations between the Samaritans and the capacities in place always were however not perfect. Sources speak about destruction of places of worship Jewish and Samaritans at the 9th century. The Mamelouks would have destroyed places of worship Samaritans at the 14th century. The relations with the Othoman would have been rather bad, except worms the end: “The Samaritans described the Othoman period like the worst period of their modern history. During this period, much samaritaines families changed their religion; several of the famous families of Nablus, like the families Shakhsheer, Yaish and Maslamany were Samaritaines and became Moslem for this period”. In 1596, the large priest Pinhas VII was obliged to exile itself in Damas, which counted nothing any more but a hundred and thirty-two Samaritans.

Already very weakened by the Byzantines, the communities samaritaines thus continued to decrease slowly, undoubtedly because of a certain number of conversions during the centuries with the Islamic religion. This phenomenon of conversion touched the whole of the populations of the Middle East and is thus not specific to the Samaritans. One finds, with Nablus but also in the remainder of the the West Bank, of the Musulman S whose family names are obviously of origin samaritaine.

At the end of the 19th century, the Samaritans obtain a legal recognition of the Othoman authorities, and their community is officially recognized like Millet. Their future seems threatened by consanguinity (there is an abnormally raised number of hereditary handicaps within the community), poverty and conversions. The observers of the time often predict their brought closer disappearance.

After the foundation in 1920 of the Jewish national hearth in Palestine, the relations with the Zionists is good. The latter, largely laic, are not interested in the religious arguments, and recognize without much difficulty the Samaritans like Jews.

Under the influence of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, future president d' Israël of 1952 to 1963 and large friend of the Samaritans, a modern school financed by the Jews is established for the Samaritans under the British mandate, allowing the beginning of a cultural “modernization” of the community, and supporting its economic re-establishment. Ben-Zvi convinces also the Samaritans to agree to conclude certain marriages with the Jewish ones (provided those become samaritaines). These mixed marriages remain far from numerous. In spite of these good relationships, the Samaritans remain reserved vis-a-vis the Zionist project throughout the British mandate on Palestine (1922-1948). According to the words of a high priest of the end of the Années 1930 “I am not the enemy of what the Jews have again their own kingdom. I am annoyed that they must be installed on the ground which is Israel, which forever be with them”. Israel quoted here is the old kingdom of Israel, or Samarie, which covered the north of the Palestine agent of then, and whose Samaritans regard themselves as the descendants. The official attitude was however in general less hostile, being able even to go until a “careful encouragement”. The two versions of the ten existing commands in the Jewish Tanakh (that of the delivers Exodus and that of the Deutéronome) were also standardized” relating to the Garizim mount.

Beyond these basic differences, there exist rather many differences relating to details in drafting between the Torah samaritaine and the Torah Juive. Except the divergences relating to the Garizim mount, these differences make the pentateuque Samaritan closer to the version known as of the Seventy S than of the Texte massoretic.

As for their beliefs, the Samaritans practice a religion which wants to be strictly mosaic. Their “creed” is based on the five following data:
1. The unit and the unicity of Dieu.
2. Brace is only the prophète.
3. Pentateuque is the only book inspired, which can explain the rejection of the whole of the biblical literature and the attachment in only Pentateuque written in characters Samaritans, deriving directly from the writing phénicienne.
4. The Garizim mount is the only place chosen by God to receive a sanctuary there, sits of its holiness, according to Dt 11,9 and 27,4 where the Samaritans read Garizim instead of Ebal.
5. The resurrection of died for the Judgment dernier.

Samaritans await the advent of the Taheb , the Messiah similar to Moïse. He will live a hundred and ten or a hundred and twenty years and will found a second kingdom, which will last of the centuries. It will be the return of the Rahouta period of the divine favor. ”. This last book was written in Araméen Samaritan by Marqah (Marcus), a Philosophe Samaritan of the 4th century of the Christian era, and shows a strong influence of the Greek Philosophie.

One can finally add the book of the chronicles ( Sefer ha-Yamim ), historical work but with certain religious contents.

The worship and clergy

The Samaritans do not recognize the centrality of the Temple of Jerusalem, and take place their own holy, close to current the Nablus, on the Mont Garizim. One does not know the date on which the Samaritans sanctified the Mont Garizim. This one was not in any case in the center of the old religion of the Jews of the kingdom of Samarie, which had multiple sanctuaries. Construction on the mount of a rival temple of that of Jerusalem, symbol of the centrality of the Mount Garizim, would go back to a little front”. These three pilgrimages correspond narrowly to the three principal Jewish pilgrimages, the Sheloshet Haregalim .

Beyond the divergences on the festivals, there are also divergences on the religious calendar. This one “goes back to the first year of the entry of the people of Holy Land Israel that the Jewish Hebrew calendar began the first year of creation. for example, year 3641 in the calendar Samaritan, parallel at year 5763 in the Jewish calendar and at the years 2002-2003 in the civil calendar”. Moreover, calculations of dates of the Calendrier Samaritan are made on the basis of lunar Calendrier rather similar to the Jewish Calendrier (alternation of years of 12 or 13 months lunar), but from which the rules of alternance are different. The celebrations samaritaines thus fall sometimes at the same dates that the equivalent Jewish celebrations, but can also be about it shifted of a few days or one month. The months are numbered, and do not have a name, contrary to the Jewish calendar. For an example of the festivals, celebrations and their dates, here the list of religious holidays of 2002. The Judaism request more simply with the woman to isolate itself from her husband.

The Samaritans use Mezouzot of a particular type, much larger than the Jewish mezouzot , but refuse the use of the Phylactère S, with the manner of old the Sadducéens.

The Menorah is regarded by the Samaritans as their national symbol. The star of David, on the other hand, is not used, because it is a specifically Jewish symbol of which it is not made mention in the Bible. It east seems it appeared well after the rupture between Juifs and Samaritans.

The Circoncision of the male children is made the eighth day after the birth, in accordance with the Lévitique.

Contrary to the Jews, for which the statute of Jew is transmitted by the women, the statute of Samaritan is transmitted by the man, which allowed the development recent and limited marriages of men Samaritans with women external at the community. “There is no rite Samaritan of conversion. What is required, it is only the acceptance of the faith of the community and its lifestyle”. Besides this absence of rite of conversion seems more due to a total absence of conversion at the historical times than with any “liberalism”. On the contrary, the Judaism admits conversions under certain precise conditions, and with thus developed specific procedures. The complete absence of conversions historically proven in the Samaritans is confirmed by the specific absence of procedure, by the serious problems of consanguinity which knows the community and by the genetics: “low diversity suggests that the maternal gene flow in the community samaritaine was not very high” (few entries of women in the community). The current opening towards the integration of “foreign” women within the group is thus a remarkable religious innovation, although it was perhaps also applied to the first millenium before the Christian era, according to a genetic study of 2004.

Relationship to the Judaism

The Samaritans are not recognized like Jews by the orthodoxe Juifs in general and by Israeli rabbinate in particular. This refusal is based on the charges of the books of the kings according to whom the Samaritans are of origin not Jew and practice a tinted religion of Paganisme (cf supra).

Relationship to other religions

One notes in the New Testament, the parabola of the good Samaritan, like some other allusions indicating that Juifs and Samaritains was not attended. These texts return however more to the relation between the samaritanism and the Judaïsme that to the relation between the samaritanism and the Christianisme.
Thereafter, it was indicated higher than the Byzantine Empire (Christian) had persecuted the Samaritans, then had practically destroyed them following their great revolt of the 6th century. Beyond these political relations, the religious influence of the samaritanism on Christianity or the reverse seems weak, even null.

The Samaritans are recognized as Gens of the book by the Islam, with a statute (more or less applied according to the times) of Dhimmi. There too, the cross influences seem marginal. The samaritanism was already a residual religion with the advent of the Islam, which easily explains an absence of influence on the new religion. The Samaritans having on the other hand lived fourteen centuries under Moslem domination, an influence reverses was more possible. But in practice, if the culture arabo-Moslem woman deeply marked the culture of the Samaritans as people, the Islamic religion did not leave measurable traces on the Théologie or the religious practices samaritaines.

Samaritans today

A recent internal study at the community indicates that the Samaritans are “654 at January 1st, 2003, over which 346 (179 men and 167 women) live with Holon in Israel, and 308 (165 men and 143 women) live with Nablus, in the West Bank”.

“Towards the end of the Years 1950, a hundred Samaritans left the the West Bank for Israel under the terms of an agreement with the Jordanian authorities. They lived in the area of Tel Aviv, then went in Holon in 1965 ! Holon ! Nablus ! Total |----- | Sacerdotal house - Dom Kaplanski | | Tribe of Lévi | 49 | 137 ! 186 |- | Tsedaka Hatsafari | | Tribe of Manassé | 128 | 11 ! 139 |----- | Altif Danafi | Danafis | Tribe of Éphraïm | 15 | 118 ! 133 |- | Marchiv Marchivi | Marchiv | Tribe of Éphraïm | 54 | 23 ! 77 |----- | Sassoni-Sirrawi Danafi | Danafis | Tribe of Éphraïm | 58 | 19 ! 77 |- | Yehoshua Marchivi | Marchiv | Tribe of Éphraïm | 40 | ! 40 |----- | Meshallema Danafi | Danafis | Tribe of Éphraïm | 1 | ! 1 |- | Shalabi Danafi | Danafis | Tribe of Éphraïm | 1 | ! 1 |----- | ! TOTAL ! ! 346 ! 308 ! 654 |}

The majority of the traditional marriages are done within the same “house”, which does not improve the serious problems of consanguinity that the community knows: at the beginning of 2003,79 couples came from the same “house”, 51 came from 2 different “houses”, and 14 included a woman coming from the outside of the community.

Extreme case, the Israeli police force announced in 2004 to have stopped Nadar Tsedaka, a Samaritan of the West Bank entered the rows of PFLP, an armed Palestinian faction. In fact, the Palestinian groups, including the Hamas, recognize them like Palestinian, even if in practice, Israeli papers of the Samaritans of Nablus tightened the situation.

Problems of consanguinity

The marriages “between cousins produce the coefficient of highest Endogamie recorded for some population that it is”. Today, the problems of consanguinity are such as the majority of the births are preceded by genetic examinations at the hospital Such HaShomer, in Israel. Since the Years 1920, the Samaritans agree to include Jewish women in their community, in order to solve these problems. But even today, these marriages pose problem, so much from the point of view of the Jews (Israeli rabbinate has the monopoly on the marriage of any Jew in Israel, and he is opposed to the marriages with the Samaritans) that from the point of view of the Samaritans, who fear dissolution in a Jewish unit more important good. These marriages are thus very few, but their number increases. At January 1st 2003, 14 mixed couples with husbands Samaritans (and whose women joined the community) were listed

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