Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure

by C. R. Conder

A note at the end of the Book of Numbers connects this manuscript with the story given above from the Samaritan Book of Joshua.

“It came out from the fire by the power of the Lord to the hand of the King of Babel, in the presence of Zerubbabel the Jew, and was not burnt. Thanks be to the Lord for the Law of Moses.”

This curious manuscript, which has been photographed for the Palestine Exploration Fund, came into Mr. Ducat’s hands from a Samaritan in payment of a bad debt. It has been in England, and was then offered for sale for £1000. In 1872, £200 was asked for it. There were faint traces of gilding on the proper names still visible when shown to me in August of the same year.

Turning again to the Samaritans themselves. In 1872 the little community numbered 135 souls, of whom no less than eighty were males. The Moslems say that the number is never exceeded, and that one of the eighty dies as soon as a child is born. By the defection of Jacob Shellaby with his family, they have been reduced to a total of 130 souls.

Year by year the Samaritans are dying out. Clinging to Shechem and the Holy Mountain, they are the last left of the nation which in the fifth and seventh centuries spread far over Palestine and Egypt.

The religion of the Samaritans approaches probably closer to original Judaism than anything among the Jews themselves. Even their view that Gerizim was intended to be the Temple mountain is not without foundation, for while the blessings and curses are placed on the two Samaritan mountains, Jerusalem is not noticed in the books of Moses.

The first Samaritan doctrine is the Unity of God and His special revelation to Israel. They hold Moses to be the one messenger of God, and superior even to their expected Prophet; they believe in the immutability and perfection of the written law, and finally in Gerizim as the earth’s centre, the house of God, the highest mountain on earth, the only one not covered by the flood, the site of altars raised by Adam, Seth, and Noah, the Mount Moriah of Abraham’s sacrifice, the Bethel or Luz of Jacob’s vision, the place where Joshua erected first an altar, next the tabernacle, finally a temple. On its slope the cave of Makkedah is also shown, though now closed up. From all these sacred memories it becomes naturally the central shrine of Samaritan faith.

It appears also that they believe in future retribution, and in angels and devils as ministers of God in the unseen world, but their views as to the future life seem to be vague.

Still more interesting is the question of the Samaritan belief in a future prophet who is to be of the sons of Joseph. This expectation, founded on the words of Moses, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet like unto me” (Deut. xviii. 15), is identical with the Jewish expectation in Maccabean times. It is to this belief, no doubt, that the Samaritan woman refers in the conversation at Jacob’s well, “I know that Messias cometh” (John v. 25). In 1860 the Samaritans believed the Prophet to be already on earth. His name is to begin with the letter M, his titles are Taheb the “restorer,” and El Mahdy the “guide.” Following his direction the congregation will repair to Gerizim, under the famous “twelve stones” will find the Ten Commandments, and under the stone of Bethel the golden vessels of the Temple and the manna. After one hundred and ten years the Prophet is to die and be buried beside Joseph in the valley. Soon after, on the conclusion of seven thousand years from its foundation, the world is to come to an end.

Whilst agreeing with the Jews in the acceptance of the law in its strictest and most limited interpretation as immutable and everlasting, the Samaritans differ in many minor points as to its interpretation, not only as regards Gerizim, but also in such matters for instance as the rights of the widow who is married to the nearest relation and not to the brother of her husband. They allow bigamy if the first wife be childless, but do not permit more than two wives; they do not allow earrings to be worn, because of the use of earrings in the moulding of the golden calf. Any member of the priest’s family may be made a priest if twenty-five years old, and if his hair has never been cut. The men marry at fifteen, the girls at twelve, the dowry given by the husband being from forty to sixty pounds. Generally speaking they adhere more closely to the original spirit of the law than do the Jews, and have not invented any of those evasions which are described in the Talmud.