Samaritan

The Samaritans (Shamerim, 'keepers' of the Law) are an Israelite people who trace their descent to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and the priestly tribe of Levi, and who hold that Mount Gerizim above Nablus, not Jerusalem, is the place God chose. They became a distinct community in the Persian and Hellenistic periods; once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, they were reduced by Byzantine repression (the revolts of 484-529), conversion and hardship to about 100 people in the early modern era, and have since recovered to about 950 (2025). Since the mid-20th century they have lived in two places: Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim in the West Bank, where the Nablus community moved up the mountain, and Neve Pinchas in Holon, Israel, descended from the Jaffa community. Four family houses remain: the priestly Cohen house (202 members), Tsedaka (158), Danfi (242) and Marhib (149). Genetic studies support descent from the ancient Israelite population of Samaria.

Samaritan life is shaped by strict Sabbath observance (no fire, cooking or travel), purity laws, endogamy and a calendar of seven biblical festivals computed by the priests, three of them pilgrimages to Mount Gerizim. At Passover the whole community slaughters lambs at sunset on the mountain and eats them roasted at night, watched by thousands of visitors. Because the community is so small, women from Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan and Israel's Jewish population are invited to marry in and adopt Samaritan law, and genetic counselling guards against hereditary disease. The Holon Samaritans speak Hebrew and live as Israelis; those on Gerizim speak Arabic and Hebrew and straddle Israeli and Palestinian society.

Samaritanism accepts only its own Torah, the Samaritan Pentateuch in the ancient Hebrew script, and rejects the Prophets, the Writings and the rabbinic Oral Law. Its creed confesses one God, Moses as the only prophet, the Torah, Mount Gerizim as the holy place and a day of vengeance and recompense, with the coming of the Taheb, a restorer like Moses. A High Priest of the Cohen house leads the community and priests read the Torah in Samaritan Hebrew; liturgy also uses Samaritan Aramaic. The great festivals are celebrated on Gerizim, where the Samaritan synagogue and museum stand at Kiryat Luza; Holon has its own synagogue.

The Bible is available in Hebrew and Arabic, both understood by the community, but there is no Scripture, film or audio in Samaritan Hebrew, which is liturgical only. The New Testament's Samaritan narratives (John 4, Luke 10 and 17, Acts 8) and the Taheb hope are natural bridges, yet the community accepts only the Torah and its tiny, endogamous character makes conversion almost unthinkable. No Samaritan believers in Christ are known and no outreach specific to them was found.

Every Samaritan holds Israeli citizenship, and those on Mount Gerizim also hold Palestinian identity, making them the only community recognised by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Families intermarry across the two places and the Holon Samaritans join the Gerizim community for every pilgrimage festival, so the two halves form a single people separated by a political line.