The Canon · No. 030
Samaritanism
Israelite Samaritan religion
c.400 BCE (formal split) – present · Abrahamic · Living · Mount Gerizim, Nablus, and Holon, Israel
III. THE AXIAL AGE — c.900 – 200 BCE
How many
Approximately 850 people. One of the smallest surviving religions on earth, recovered from a low of 146 in 1919.
Who began it
No founder. Samaritans identify as descendants of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who were never deported by Assyria, and hold that Judaism is the deviation — the split occurring when Eli moved the sanctuary from Mount Gerizim to Shiloh. Jewish tradition, in 2 Kings 17, describes them instead as resettled foreigners.
What it is for
To keep the original Torah at the original holy place.
What it worships
YHWH, one God, aniconic. Identical in principle to Jewish monotheism.
What it holds
Five articles: one God; one prophet, Moses, and no prophet after him; one holy book, the Torah alone; one holy place, Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem; and a day of judgment. The rejection of the prophets and writings means no Isaiah, no Psalms, no Daniel — and therefore a Bible one-third the length of the Jewish one.
What it does
Sabbath observed even more strictly than in Orthodox Judaism, with no electricity and no leaving the house except for prayer. Circumcision on the eighth day, without exception. Their own script, a direct descendant of paleo-Hebrew rather than the Aramaic square script Jews adopted. The Passover sacrifice on Mount Gerizim — the slaughter and roasting of lambs — which they have performed annually for well over two thousand years and which is the only surviving live animal sacrifice in the biblical tradition.
After death
A day of judgment and reward, affirmed as an article of faith but developed far less than in rabbinic Judaism, since the Torah alone says very little about it.
Its texts
The Samaritan Pentateuch, which differs from the Masoretic text in about 6,000 places, most trivially but including an explicit commandment to build the altar on Mount Gerizim. Some of its readings agree with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint against the Masoretic text, which makes it genuinely important for textual criticism. Also the Memar Marqah and the Defter liturgy.
Its branches
None. A single community with two settlements.
Of note
A living answer to what Israelite religion looked like before the Babylonian exile reshaped it. The genetic and textual evidence supports a real ancient Israelite descent, not the foreign-settler account of 2 Kings.
Its timeline
- 722 BCE Assyria destroys the northern kingdom; the origin of the dispute.
- c.450–400 BCE Nehemiah's opposition to Sanballat; the communities harden against each other.
- c.330 BCE Temple built on Mount Gerizim.
- 128 BCE John Hyrcanus, the Judean Hasmonean ruler, destroys the Gerizim temple. The breach becomes permanent.
- c.30 CE The parable of the Good Samaritan works as a story only because its audience despised Samaritans.
- 529 CE Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule are crushed; the population collapses catastrophically.
- 1919 CE The community reaches its recorded low of 146 people.
- 1954 Israeli president Ben-Zvi assists the community; half relocate to Holon.
- Present About 850 people, split between Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim and Holon, holding both Israeli and Palestinian documents and maintaining relations with both.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.