{"id":22259,"date":"2015-09-29T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T10:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=22259"},"modified":"2015-09-26T17:16:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T21:16:44","slug":"there-are-still-samaritans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/","title":{"rendered":"There are still Samaritans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Did you know that there are still Samaritans, that despised off-shoot of Judaism that Jesus reached out to?\u00a0 There are only around 800 left\u2013they call themselves the world\u2019s smallest religion\u2013and they still have their hopes on Mt. Gerazim.\u00a0 Details after the jump.<\/p>\n

From How one of the smallest religious communities in the world is struggling to sustain its community \u2013 Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mount Gerizim, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, is home to the Samaritans, who call themselves the world\u2019s smallest religious community. There are some 780 Samaritans total, distributed between Gerizim, where 380 of them live, and the city of Holon in Israel, where they number 400.<\/p>\n

Hosni Wassef, a Samaritan priest and curator of the Samaritan Museum, located on Mount Gerizim on the outskirts of Nablus, told Al-Monitor that the Samaritans are the descendants of Israelites who fled with Moses from Egypt to the Holy Land some 3,600 years ago to escape the oppression of the Pharaoh. \u201cWe have not left the Holy Land since,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

The word \u201cSamaritan\u201d in Ancient Hebrew, the language of Moses, means \u201cguardian,\u201d referring to those who guarded the Torah, said Wassef. Samaritanism is based on five key pillars: the oneness of God, the prophecy of Moses, the first five books of the Torah, the sanctity of Mount Gerizim (not Jerusalem) and the Last Judgment. . . .<\/p>\n

The holiest place for Samaritans is the summit of Mount Gerizim, which they believe to have been the chosen location for the\u00a0holy\u00a0temple<\/a>.\u00a0By order of Israel, the area is now\u00a0fenced off and only accessible to the\u00a0Samaritans for pilgrimage\u00a0three times a year, during Passover, the Harvest Festival and Sukkot.<\/p>\n

The Samaritans are led by a\u00a0high priest, the eldest member of\u00a0the Levites, who are descendants of\u00a0Eleazer, the second\u00a0high priest of the sect and\u00a0son of Aaron, the first high priest and\u00a0Moses\u2019 older brother who accompanied Moses during the Exodus. Abdullah Tawfiq is the current\u00a0high priest. The occupant of the office traditionally makes\u00a0decisions on religious affairs, while\u00a0two five-person committees, elected to two-year terms in Mount Gerizim and Holon, are\u00a0in charge of managing the community\u2019s daily life, explained\u00a0Wassef.<\/p>\n

Samaritans take great pride in their history, which is preserved\u00a0in the Samaritan Museum,\u00a0built in 1997. According to Wassef, the museum documents the lineage of\u00a0163 generations of Samaritan history, beginning with Adam all the way to the current high\u00a0priest. It also includes what is\u00a0alleged to be the oldest copy of the Torah, written in Ancient\u00a0Hebrew, as well as a collection of Ancient Hebrew documents, books, coins, stones, pottery, traditional glassware\u00a0and\u00a0models\u00a0of the Samaritan holy\u00a0places.\u00a0The Samaritans\u00a0claim their Torah, housed in the synagogue at the museum complex,\u00a0was written 13 years after their ancestors entered the Holy Land. Only\u00a0Samaritans can view it, and then only on three occasions per\u00a0year. By religious tradition,\u00a0only three priests hold the keys to its repository.<\/p>\n

About the differences between Samaritans and Jews, Wassef said, \u201cSamaritans\u00a0use the original [authentic]\u00a0Torah, written in Hebrew by the fourth descendent of Aaron, Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, brother of Moses. It was written\u00a013 years after [Abishua] arrived in the Holy Land. Therefore, there are 7,000 differences in verses and words\u00a0between the Samaritan and the Jewish Torah. This is not to mention the sanctity of Mount Gerizim, where the true temple of Moses was built. It was mentioned 13 times in the Torah, while Jerusalem was never mentioned. It is where Ibrahim [Abraham] built his temple and wanted to sacrifice his son, Isaac, to God.\u201d The split between Samaritanism and Judaism<\/a> resulted from tribal and succession conflicts.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that there are still Samaritans, that despised off-shoot of Judaism that Jesus reached out to?\u00a0 There are only around 800 left\u2013they call themselves the world\u2019s smallest religion\u2013and they still have their hopes on Mt. Gerazim.\u00a0 Details after the jump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20,39],"tags":[4061],"class_list":["post-22259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-history","category-religions","tag-samaritans"],"yoast_head":"\nThere are still Samaritans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know that there are still Samaritans, that despised off-shoot of Judaism that Jesus reached out to?\u00a0 There are only around 800 left--they call\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There are still Samaritans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know that there are still Samaritans, that despised off-shoot of Judaism that Jesus reached out to?\u00a0 There are only around 800 left--they call\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-29T10:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-26T21:16:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/\",\"name\":\"There are still Samaritans\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-29T10:00:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-26T21:16:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Did you know that there are still Samaritans, that despised off-shoot of Judaism that Jesus reached out to?\u00a0 There are only around 800 left--they call\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/09\/there-are-still-samaritans\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"There are still Samaritans\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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