Samaritans
A people of central Israel who worship at Mount Gerizim and accept only the five books of Moses.
What the sources say, and how sure we are
- The text says
In the Gospels, Jews and Samaritans avoid each other. Jesus tells of a Samaritan who helps a wounded man, speaks with a Samaritan woman about worship on Mount Gerizim, and the gospel is preached in Samaria after Pentecost.Luke 10:25–37; John 4:9; John 4:20; Acts 8:4–8
- Outside evidence
The Samaritan Pentateuch is a version of the five books of Moses preserved by the Samaritans. It differs from the Hebrew text in several thousand places, many of them small. Josephus says John Hyrcanus destroyed their temple on Gerizim about 111–110 BC. A small Samaritan community survives today.Samaritan Pentateuch; Josephus, Antiquities 13.254–256
- Debated
The Bible traces the Samaritans to peoples settled in Samaria by Assyria. The Samaritans themselves claim descent from Israelites who stayed in the land, and Josephus tells another story. Scholars debate the origin and when the break with Jerusalem became final.2 Kgs 17:24–41; Josephus, Antiquities 11.302–347