Samaritans come each the religious & an ethnic group. Ethnically, it is descended from either the class action of denizen that develop modems to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the beginning of the Christian era. Religiously, it is a disciple of Samaritanism, a religion according to a Torah. Samaritans claim that their worship is verity religion of the ancient Israelites, predating the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, but Samaritanism has historically been rejected by normative Judaism.

Presently, no supplementary than two or three century Samaritans, residing mostly in the city of Nablus in the West Bank and some in the city of Holon in Israel.

A Samaritans either speak Modern Hebrew or Palestinian Arabic as their mother language. For liturgical purposes, Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic are used.

History

A precise historical origins of the Samaritans come disputed to this day. 2 Kings 17 and Josephus (Antiquites 9.277–91) claim that the Samaritans come descendent of mixed ancestry, each of Israelite lineage and of exile brought into a area of Samaria by the Assyrians from more lands it experienced conquered, including Cuthah. But then, a Samaritans develop universally claimed to become a descendent of Israelites of a Northern Kingdom world health organization remained behind in the period of the Babylonian Captivity, and so introduced none of a religious changes caused among the Jews in the period of this instance. Occasionally modern scholars agree. The transmitted learn (Shen, et al., 2004) concluded from either either either Y-chromosome analysis that Samaritans descend from a Israelites (including Cohen, or even priests), & mitochondrial DNA analysis shows descent from Assyrians & more foreign women, profits validating two local & foreign origins for the Samaritans.

A few date their split sustaining a Jews to the period of Nehemiah, Ezra, and a rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after a Babylonian exile. Giving exiles considered a Samaritans to become non-Jews &, so, non healthy for this religious function.

[538-515 B.C.] Exile ends and Cyrus proclaims that the Temple of Jerusalem is to be rebuilt. Temple is completed in 515 B.C.

[http://www.newmediabible.org/1goodsam/travel/03luke1030/articles/article3jerusalem.htm article3jerusalem Level III says:]

Once a exile ended within 538 B.C. & a exiles returned personal once again, it incurred that their previous motherl& wwhen okay, populated by more population world health organization experienced claimed this land as their have and that their previous glorious capital however stash away ruins.

Based on data from Two Chronicles 36.22–23, a Persian Emperor Cyrus, world health organization returned a exiles to their native land, explicitly ordered a population to rebuild a temple. A prophet 2nd Isaiah identified Cyrus when "Yahweh’s anointed" (meshiach; understand Isa 45.I). the temple was rebuilt on top a period of many decades.

A task was 1st led by Sheshbazzar (astir 538 B.C.), late by Zerubbabel & Jeshua, & late however by Haggai & Zechariah (520–515 B.C.).

A Temple was completed around 515 B.C.

A Samaritans built their rival Temple in Mount Gerizim, near Shechem.

[330 B.C.] Samaritans build their Temple on Mount Gerizim
A accurate date of the schism between Samaritans & Jews is unknown, however was sure complete per prevent of the 4th century BCE. Archeologic excavations at Mount Gerizim indicate that the Samaritan temple was built there c. 330BCE, & whenever Alexander a Dandy (356-323) was in the area, he is said to develop visited Samaria & non Jerusalem. ¹

[http://www.grizimtour.com/Tourism.htm ...it was on Mount Gerizim] that Abraham offered Isaac (Gen 22:2). :It was as well understood to become a place in which God chose to establish His title (Deut 12:5).

Although this & similar information come to Jerusalem, a Samaritan identification of the "place" when Mount Gerizim processed it a focus of their spiritual values.

When a Samaritan woman informed Jesus, a mountain was center of their worship (John 4:20).

[174-164 B.C.] Antiochus Epiphanes attempts to Hellenize the Jews and the Samaritans
[http://www.newmediabible.org/1goodsam/travel/03luke1030/articles/article3jerusalem.htm article3jerusalem Level III says:]

In the 2nd century B.C. the particularly piercingly series of cases sooner or later led to the revolution.

After Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a Syrian king world health organization got control of the region, tried to kill Jewish religion, he proclaimed himself the incarnation of the Greek god Zeus & positioned his statue in the virtually all sanctum in the temple, in which he sacrificed pigs.

A authority of the high priesthood was severely damaged after number one Jason and so Meneleus bought their professional from either Antiochus.

the persecution & dying of close Jewish souls world health organization refused to worship & kiss Antiochus’ image one of these days led to a rebellion led by Judas Maccabeus & his personal.

Judwhen’ priestly personal, a Hasmoneans, introduced the dynasty that ruled in the period of a period of conflict, by having tensions arising each from either either inside the personal also as from external enemies.

[174-164 B.C.] Under duress, the Samaritans dedicate their Temple to Jupiter Hellinius
Antiochus Epiphanes was on the throne of Syria from either 175 to 164 BC. His determined policy was to Hellenize his entire kingdom. A greatest obstacle to his ambition was a fidelity of the Jews to their historic religion. a universal peril led a Samaritans, great for safety, to repudiate everthing connection & kinship sustaining the Jews. It sent ambassadors & an epistle request to exist when recognized as belonging to the Greek persin, & to keep around their temple on Mt. Gerizim known as "The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius." A asking was granted. This was apparently a final breach between them groups indicated around John 4:9, "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. ²

Several centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Samaritans had built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim] to rival the one in Jerusalem. Here, they offered sacrifices according to the Mosaic code. Anderson notes that during the reign of Antiochus IV (175-164 B.C.):

Josephus Book 12, Chapter 5 quotes the Samaritans as saying: II Maccabees 6:1-2 says: In 167 B.C. the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes set up an altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offerings in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He also sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is known as the "abomination of desolation." ⁴

This Samaritan Temple at Mount Gerizim was destroyed by John Hyracanus in about 128 B.C., having been in existence about 200 years. Only a few stone remnants of it exist today.

[164 B.C.] to Modern Times
During the Hellenistic period, Samaria (like Judea) was largely divided between a Hellenizing faction based in Samaria (Sebastaea) and a pious faction, led by the High Priest and based largely around Shechem and the rural areas.

Samaria was a largely autonomous state nominally dependent on the Seleucid empire until around 129 BCE, when the Jewish Hasmonean king Yohanan Girhan (John Hyrcanus) destroyed the Samaritan temple and devastated Samaria.

Samaritans fared badly under Roman rule, when Samaria was part of the Roman province of Judea, in the early part of the Common Era. However, this period was also something of a golden age for the Samaritan community. The Temple of Gerizim was rebuilt after the Bar Kochba revolt, around 135 CE. Much of Samaritan liturgy was set by the high priest Baba Rabba in the fourth century CE.

There were some Samaritans in the Persian Empire, where they served in the Sassanid army.

Later, under Byzantine Emperor Zeno in the late fifth century, Samaritans and Jews were massacred, and the Temple on Mt. Gerizim was again destroyed. Under a charismatic, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar (or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war to create their own independent state in 529. With the help of the Ghassanid Arabs, Emperor Justinian I crushed the revolt; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved. The Samaritan faith was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire; from a population once at least in the hundreds of thousands, the Samaritan community dwindled to near extinction.

A large number of Samaritans fled the country in 634 CE, following the Muslim victory at the Battle of Yarmuk. Samaritan communities were established in Egypt and Syria but they did not survive into modern times. During the mid 800s Muslim fanatics destroyed Samaritan and Jewish synagogues. During the 10th century relations between Muslims, Jews and Samaritans improved greatly. In the 1300s the Mamluks came to power; they plundered all Samaritan religious sites, and turned their shrines into mosques. Many Samaritans converted out of fear. After the Ottoman conquest, Muslim persecution of Samaritans increased again. Massacres were frequent. In 1624, the last Samaritan high priest of the line of Eleazar son of Aaron died without issue, but descendants of Aaron's other son, Ithamar, remained and took over the office.

By the 1830s only a small group of Samaritans in Shechem remained extant. The local Arab population believed that Samaritans were "atheists" and "against Islam", and they threatened to murder the entire Samaritan community. The Samaritans turned to the Jewish community for help, as Jews and Arabs had good relations at this time, and Jewish entreaties to treat the Samaritans with respect were eventually heeded.

In the past, the Samaritans are believed to have numbered several hundred thousand, but persecution and assimilation have reduced their numbers drastically. In 1919, an illustrated National Geographic report on the community stated that their numbers were less than 150.

Modern times
The Samaritans now number just under 650, divided about equally between their modern homes on their sacred Mount Gerizim, and the Israeli town of Holon, just outside of Tel Aviv.

Until the 1980s, most of the Samaritans resided in the Palestinian town of Nablus below Mount Gerizim. They relocated to the mountain itself as a result of the first Intifada, and all that is left of the community in Nablus itself is an abandoned synagogue. But the conflict followed them. In 2001, the Israeli army set up an artillery battery on Gerizim.

Relations with the surrounding Jews and Palestinians have been mixed. In 1954, Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi created the Samaritan enclave in Holon but Israeli Samaritans today complain of being treated as "pagans & alien" by orthodox Jews. Those living in Israel have Israeli citizenship. Samaritans in the Palestinian territories are a recognized minority and they send one representative to the Palestinian parliament. Palestinian Samaritans have been granted passports by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

As a small community divided between two mutually hostile neighbors, the Samaritans are generally unwilling to take sides in the conflict, fearing that whatever side they take could lead to repercussions from the other.

One of the biggest problems facing the community today is the issue of continuity. With such a small population, divided into only four families (Cohen, Tsedakah, Danfi and Marhib; a fifth family died out in the last century) and a refusal to accept converts, there has been a history of genetic disease within the group. To counter this, Samaritans have recently agreed that men from the community may marry non-Samaritan (i. e. Jewish) women, provided that they agree to follow Samaritan religious practices. This often poses a problem for women, who are less than eager to adopt the strict interpretation of biblical laws regarding menstruation, by which they must live in a separate shack during their periods and after childbirth. Nevertheless, there are a few instances of intermarriage. Apart from that, all weddings within the Samaritan community are first approved by a geneticist at Israel's Tel HaShomer Hospital, in order to prevent the spread of genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs Disease.

In 2004 the Samaritan high priest, Shalom b. Amram, passed away and was replaced by Elazar b. Tsedaka. The Samaritan high priest is selected by age from the priestly family. The high priest resides on Mount Gerizim.

Religion

The Samaritan religion is based on some of the same books used as the basis of Judaism, but these religions are not identical. Samaritan scriptures include the Samaritan version of the Torah, the Memar Markah, the Samaritan liturgy, and Samaritan law codes and biblical commentaries. Samaritans appear to have texts of the Torah as old as the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; scholars have various theories concerning the actual relationships between these three texts.

Religious beliefs
There is one God, the same God recognized by the Hebrew prophets; Their view of God is the same as the Jewish biblical view of God; The Torah was dictated by God to Moses; Mt. Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the one true sanctuary chosen by Israel's God; Many Samaritans believe that at the end of days, the dead will be resurrected by a "taheb", a restorer (possibly a prophet, some say Moses); They possess a belief in Paradise (heaven); The priests are the interpreters of the law and the keepers of tradition; unlike Judaism, there is no distinction between the priesthood and the scholars; The authority of classical Jewish rabbinical works, the Mishnah, and the Talmuds are rejected; Samaritans reject Jewish codes of law; They have a significantly different version of the Ten Commandments (for example, their 10th commandment is about the sanctity of Mt. Gerizim).

Samaritan law is not the same as halakha (Rabbinical Jewish law). The Samaritans have several groups of religious texts, which equate to Jewish halakhah. A few examples of such texts are:

Samaritan Chronicle, The Tolidah (Creation to the time of Abishah) Samaritan Chronicle, The Chronicle of Joshua (Israel during the time of divine favor) Samaritan Chronicle, Adler (Israel from the time of divine disfavor until the exile) Samaritan Halakhic Text, The Hillukh (Code of halakhah, marriage, circumsion, etc.) Haggadic Midrash, Abu'l Hasan al-Suri Haggadic Midrash, Mamar Markah Haggadic Midrash, Pinkhas on the Taheb Haggadic Midrash, Molad Maseh (On the birth of Moses)

The Samaritans retained the Ancient Hebrew script, the high priesthood, animal sacrifices, the actual eating of lambs at Passover, and the celebration of Aviv in spring as the New Year. The original name of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Teruah, at the beginning of Nisan, is not considered a new year as it is in Judaism. Their main Torah text differs from the Masoretic Text, as well. Some differences are doctrinal: for example, their Torah explicitly mentions that "the place that God might chose" is Mount Gerizim. Other differences seem more or less accidental.

List of the Samaritan High Priests (from 1613)
''For a complete listing of Samaritan High Priests, see [http://ellone-loire.net/obsidian/Holyland.html#Samaria]; [http://www.hostkingdom.net/Holyland.html#Samaria]

Line of Eleazar: 1613-1624 Shelemiah ben Pinhas Line of Itamar: 1624-1650 Tsedaka ben Tabia Ha'abta'ai 1650-1694 Yitzhaq ben Tsedaka 1694-1732 Abraham ben Yitzhaq 1732-1752 Tabia ben Yiszhaq ben Avraham 1752-1787 Levi ben Avraham 1787-1855 Shalma ben Tabia 1855-1874 Amram ben Shalma 1874-1916 Yaacov ben Aaharon ben Shalma 1916-1932 Yitzhaq ben Amram ben Shalma ben Tabia 1933-1943 Matzliach ben Phinhas ben Yitzhaq ben Shalma 1943-1961 Abrisha ben Phinhas ben Yittzhaq ben Shalma 1961-1980 Amram ben Yitzhaq ben Amram ben Shalma 1980-1982 Asher ben Matzliach ben Phinhas 1982-1984 Phinhas ben Matzliach ben Phinhas 1984-1987 Yaacov ben Ezzi ben Yaacov ben Aaharon 1987-1998 Yosseph ben Ab-Hisda ben Yaacov ben Aaharon 1998- 2001 Levi ben Abisha ben Phinhas ben Yitzhaq 2001- 2004 Shalom ben Amram ben Yitzhaq (Saum Is'haq al-Samiri) from 2004 Eleazar ben Tsedaka (he is the 131-st Samaritan High Priest)

Samaritans in the Gospels
Because of the mutual dislike between Jews and Samaritans, the Gospels twice mention good deeds by Samaritans. Jesus teaches that actions speak louder than ethnic identity or pious appearances: The parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus asks water from the Samaritan Woman of Sychar.