Samaritans and Samaritanism?

  • Thread starter Thread starter YHWH_Christ
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Y

YHWH_Christ

Guest
Can we have a discussion about the Samaritans and Samaritanism? Currently there are only 810 of them left today in Israel & Palestine. Do you think they ought to be converted? What about their version of the Pentateuch which lists one of the 10 commandments as a commandment to worship at Mt. Gerizim instead of the Jerusalem Temple?
 
YHWH_Christ said:
Can we have a discussion about the Samaritans and Samaritanism? Currently there are only 810 of them left today in Israel & Palestine. Do you think they ought to be converted?
Click to expand...
All we can do is plant and water, God makes the growth.
What about their version of the Pentateuch which lists one of the 10 commandments as a commandment to worship at Mt. Gerizim instead of the Jerusalem Temple?
Click to expand...
Interesting. I didn’t know that. Do they still have animal sacrifices? Or did they ever?
 
Regarding “do you think they ought to be converted”, If the remaining Samaritans want to convert to either Christianity or Judaism or something else, they’ll make the decision themself. I personally think everybody in the world who isn’t a Catholic should immediately convert to Catholicism, but my opinion isn’t going to make everyone do so - people must choose freely themselves.

With respect to their commandment to worship at Mt. Gerizim instead of the Jerusalem Temple, as I am not Jewish, I couldn’t care less about that. Based on Wikipedia, it seems like the Samaritans at least still have access to this area to conduct their worship, so they’re in a better position than the Jewish people in that regard.
 
Oops! Apologies! Didnt realize their origins were in the Bible. I wonder where my author got his info?
 
There’s no need to apologize. Scripture shows what the Samaritans came to believe was a mixture of the Jewish faith and their pagan religion.
"2 Kings 17:26 The nations (pagan) which you have … placed in the cities of Samar′ia do not know the law of the god (Israelite God) of the land; …” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests (tribe of Levi) whom you carried away thence; and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests …taught them how they should fear the Lord. …33 So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. …41 So these nations feared the Lord, and also served their graven images;
Click to expand...
Some think there may have been some Israelites left in Samaria who were not deported. However, Scripture doesn’t indicate it.
 
Last edited:
Wikipedia:
Samaritan Religious Beliefs:
  • There is one God, YHWH, the same God recognized by the Hebrew prophets.
  • The Torah was given by God to Moses.
  • Mount 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 the Taheb, a restorer (possibly a prophet, some say Moses).
  • Resurrection and Paradise (heaven).
  • The priests are the interpreters of the law and the keepers of tradition; scholars are secondary to the priesthood.
  • The authority of post-Torah sections of the Tanakh, and classical Jewish Rabbinical works (the Talmud, comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara) is rejected.
  • They have a significantly different version of the Ten Commandments (for example, their 10th commandment is about the sanctity of Mount Gerizim).
The Samaritans have retained an offshoot of the Ancient Hebrew script, a High Priesthood, the slaughtering and eating of lambs on Passover eve, and the celebration of the first month’s beginning around springtime as the New Year. Yom Teru`ah (the biblical name for “Rosh Hashanah”), at the beginning of Tishrei, is not considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism. The Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Jewish Masoretic Text as well. Some differences are doctrinal: for example, the Samaritan Torah explicitly states that Mount Gerizim is "the place that God has chosen " to establish His name, as opposed to the Jewish Torah that refers to "the place that God chooses ". Other differences are minor and seem more or less accidental.

en.wikipedia.org

Samaritans - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

They don’t sound pagan to me.
 
This Taheb is realized in the person of Jesus.
The insistence on worship on Mount Gerizim is explained in the Book of Kings when the Israelite kingdom was divided. The Israelite kings did not want the people to go back to the Son of David so they had the people worship god on Mount Gerizim rather than on the Temple Mount of the Judeans.
 
The Scriptures tell how the Samaritan group originated. What it tells us is that after being taught the Jewish faith by the priest, they still hung on to some of their pagan practices & beliefs (see vs. 33 & 41). How they may have developed in the hundreds/thousands of years since is not covered in Scripture.
The wikipedia link you provided is very interesting. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Re. Samaritans and 2 Kings 17:

I wrote a post on this a while back.
40.png
Samaritans/ Jews? Sacred Scripture
I’ll try to summarize my earlier posts into something more concise and coherent. In 722 BC, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V laid siege to Samaria following the revolt by the Israelite king, Hoshea son of Elah (2 Kings 17:3-6; 18:9-11). Shalmaneser however died shortly after the conquest of the city; it was his successor Sargon II who completed the conquest of the region. In his records, Sargon claimed to have exile that he captured the city of Samaria in 720 BC, exiled 27,290 captives, rebuilt …
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top