We have already spoken of the Samaritans under the article CUTH. The Samaritans Samaritans are the people of the city of Samaria, and the inhabitants of the province of which Samaria was the capital city. In this sense, it should seem that we might give the name of Samaritans to the Israelites of the ten tribes, who lived in the city and territory of Samaria. However, the sacred authors commonly give the name of Samaritans only to those strange people whom the kings of Assyria sent from beyond the Euphrates to inhabit the kingdom of Samaria, when they took away captive the Israelites that were there before. Thus we may fix the epoch of the Samaritans at the taking of Samaria by Salmanezer, in the year of the world 3283. This prince carried away captive the Israelites that he found in the country, and assigned them dwellings beyond the Euphrates, and in Assyria, (2 Kings xvii. 24.) He sent other inhabitants in their stead, of which the most considerable were the Cuthites, a people descended from Cush, and who are probably of the number of those whom the ancients knew by the name of Scythians.

After Salmanezer, his successor Esar-haddon was informed, that the people which had been sent to Samaria were infested by lions that devoured them, (2 Kings xvii. 25.) ; this he imputed to the ignorance of the people in the manner of worshipping the god of the country. Wherefore Esar-haddon sent a priest of the God of Israel that he might teach them the religion of the Hebrews. But they thought they might blend this religion with that which they professed before; so they continued to worship their idols as before, in conjunction with the God of Israel, not perceiving how absurd and incompatible these two religions were.

It is not known how long they continued in this state; but at the return from the captivity of Babylon, it appears they had entirely quitted the worship of their idols; and when they asked permission of the Israelites that they might labour with them at the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem, they affirmed, that from the time that Esar-haddon had brought them into this country they had always worshipped the Lord, (Ezra iv. 1, 2, 3.) And indeed, after the return from the captivity, the scripture does not anywhere reproach them with idolatrous worship, though it does not dissemble either their jealousy against the Jews, nor the ill offices they had done them at the court of Persepolis, by their flanders and calumnies, or the stratagems they contrived to hinder the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem.—(Nehem. ii. 10, 19. iv. 2, &c. vi. 1, 2, &c.)

It does not appear that there was any temple in Samaria, in common to all these people who came thither from beyond the Euphrates, before the coming of Alexander the Great into Judea. Before that time, every one was left to his own discretion, and worshipped the Lord where he thought fit. But they presently comprehended, from the books of Moses which they had in their hands, and from the example of the Jews their neighbours, that God was to be worshipped in that place only which he had chosen. So that since they could not go to the temple of Jerusalem, which the Jews would not allow of, they betook themselves of building a temple of their own upon mount Gerizim, near the city of Shechem, which was then their capital. Therefore Sanballat, the governor of the Samaritans, applied himself to Alexander, and told him he had a son-in-law, called Manasseh, son to Jaddus the high-priest of the Jews, who had retired to Samaria with a great number of other persons of his own nation; that he desired to build a temple in this province, where he might exercise the high-priesthood; that this undertaking would be to the advantage of the king’s affairs, because in building a temple in the province of Samaria, the nation of the Jews would be divided, who are a turbulent and factious people, and by such a division would be made weaker, and less in a condition to undertake new enterprizes.

Alexander readily consented to what Sanballat desired, and the Samaritans presently began their building of the temple of Gerizim, which from that time they have always frequented, and still frequent to this day, as the place where the Lord intended to receive the adoration of his people. It is of this mountain, and of this temple, that the Samaritan woman of Sychar spoke to our Saviour, (John iv. 20.) See Gerizim.

The Samaritans did not long continue under the obedience of Alexander. They revolted from him the very next year, and Alexander drove them out of Samaria, put Macedonians in their room, and gave the province of Samaria to the Jews. This preference that Alexander gave to the Israelites contributed not a little to increase that hatred and animosity that had already obtained between these two people. When any Israelite had deserved punishment for the violation of some important point of the law, he presently took refuge in Samaria or Shechem, and embraced the way of worship according to the temple of Gerizim. When the Jews were in a prosperous condition, and affairs were favourable to them, the Samaritans did not fail to call themselves Hebrews, and pretended to be of the race of Abraham. But no sooner were the Jews fallen into discredit or persecution, but the Samaritans immediately disowned them, would have nothing in common with them, acknowledged themselves to be Phoenicians originally, or that they were descended from Joseph and Manasseh his son. This used to be their practice in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

The Samaritans, having received the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses, from the priest that was sent by Esar-haddon, have preserved it to this day, in the same language and character it was then, that is, in the old Hebrew or Phoenician character, which we now call the Samaritan, to distinguish it from the modern Hebrew character, which at present we find in the books of the Jews. These last, after their captivity, changed their old characters, and took up those of the Chaldee, which they had been used to at Babylon, and which they continue still to use. It is wrong, says F. Calmet, to give this the name of the Hebrew character, for that can be said properly only of the Samaritan text. The critics have taken notice of some variations between the Pentateuch of the Jews and that of the Samaritans; but these varieties of reading chiefly regard the word Gerizim, which the Samaritans seem to have purposely introduced to favour their pretensions, that mount Gerizim was the place in which the Lord was to be adored. The other various readings are of small importance.

The religion of this people was at first the Pagan. Every one worshipped the deity they had been used to in their own country (2 Kings xvii. 25, 30, 31.) Samaritans. The Babylonians worshipped Succoth-benoth; the Cuthites, Nergal; the Hamathites, Ashima; the Avites, Nibhaz and Tartak; the Sepharvites, Adrammelech and Anammelech. If we would enumerate all the names of false gods to whom the Samaritans have paid a sacrilegious worship, we should have enough to do. This matter is sufficiently perplexed, by reason of the different names by which they were adored by different nations, insomuch that it would be almost impossible to clear up this affair. See Succoth-benoth, &c. Afterwards, to this profane worship the Samaritans added that of the Lord, the God of Israel, (2 Kings xvii. 29, 30, 31, 32.) They gave a proof of their little regard to this worship of the true God, when under Antiochus Epiphanes they consecrated their temple at Gerizim to Jupiter Agrius. In the time of Alexander the Great, they celebrated the sabbatical year, and consequently the year of jubilee also. We do not know whether they did it exactly at the same time with the Jews, or whether they observed any other epoch; and it is to little purpose that some critics have attempted to ascertain the first beginning of it. Under the kings of Syria they followed the epoch of the Greeks, or that of the Seleucidae, as other people did that were under the government of the Seleucidae. After that Herod had re-established Samaria, and had given it the name of Sebaste, the inhabitants of this city, in their medals, and all public acts, took the date of this new establishment. But the inhabitants of Samaria, of which the greater part were Pagans or Jews, were no rule to the other Samaritans, who probably reckoned their years according to the reigns of the emperors they were subject to, till the time they fell under the jurisdiction of the Mahometans, under which they live at this day; and they reckon their year by the Hegira, or, as they speak, according to the reign of Ishmael, or the Ishmaelites. Such of our readers as desire to be further acquainted with the history of the ancient Samaritans, we refer to the works of Josephus, where they will find that subject largely treated of.

As to their belief, it is objected to them, that they receive only the Pentateuch, and reject all the other books of scripture, chiefly the prophets, who have more expressly declared the coming of the Messiah. They have also been accused of believing God to be corporeal, of denying the Holy Ghost, and the resurrection of the dead. Jesus Christ reproaches them (John iv. 22.) with worshipping they know not what; and in the place already referred to he seems to exclude them from salvation, when he says, that "Salvation is of the Jews." True it is, that these words might only signify, that the Messiah was to proceed from the Jews; but the crime of schism alone, and a separation from the true church, was sufficient to exclude them from salvation. The Samaritan woman is a sufficient testimony that the Samaritans expected a Messiah, who they hoped would clear up all their doubts (John iv. 25.) Several of the inhabitants of Shechem believed at the preaching of Jesus Christ, and several of Samaria believed at that of St. Philip; but it is said, they soon fell back to their former errors, being perverted by Simon Magus.

The Samaritans at present are very few in number. Joseph Scaliger, being curious to know their usages, wrote to the Samaritans of Egypt, and to the high-priest of the whole sect who resided at Neapolis in Syria. They returned two answers to Scaliger, dated in the year of the Hegira 998. These were preserved in the French king's library, and were translated into Latin by father Morin, and printed in England in the collection of that father's letters, in 1682, under the title of Antiquitates Ecclesiae Orientalis. By these letters it appears, that they believe in God, in his servant Moses, the holy law, the mountain Gerizim, the house of God, the day of vengeance and of peace; that they value themselves upon observing the law of Moses in many points more rigidly than the Jews themselves.—They keep the sabbath with the utmost strictness required by the law, without stirring from the place they are in, but only to the synagogue. They go not out of the city, and abstain from their wives on that day. They never delay circumcision beyond the eighth day. They still sacrifice to this day in the temple on mount Gerizim, and give to the priest what is enjoined by the law. They do not marry their own nieces, as the Jews do, nor do they allow themselves a plurality of wives. Their hatred for the Jews may be seen through all the history of Josephus, and in several places of the New Testament. The Jewish historian informs us, that under the government of Coponius, one passover night, when they opened the gates of the temple, some Samaritans had scattered the bones of dead men there, to insult the Jews, and to interrupt the devotion of the festival. The evangelists shew us, that the Jews and Samaritans held no correspondence together (John iv. 9.) "The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." And the Samaritan woman of Sychar was much surprised that Jesus talked with her, and asked drink of her, being a Samaritan. When our Saviour sent his apostles to preach in Judea, he forbade them to enter into the Samaritan cities, (Matt. x. 5.) because he looked upon them as schismatics, and as strangers to the covenant of Israel. One day when he sent his disciples to provide him a lodging in one of the cities of the Samaritans, they would not entertain him, because they perceived he was going to Jerusalem. (Luke ix. 52, 53.) "Because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem." And when the Jews were provoked at the reproaches of Jesus Christ, they told him he was a Samaritan (John viii. 48.), thinking they could say nothing more severe against him. Josephus relates, that some Samaritans having killed several Jews as they were going to the feast at Jerusalem, this occasioned a kind of a war between them. The Samaritans continued their fealty to the Romans, when the Jews revolted from them; yet they did not escape from being involved in some of the calamities of their neighbours.

There are still at this day some Samaritans at Shechem, otherwise called Naplouse. They have priests there, who say they are of the family of Aaron. They have a high-priest, who resides at Shechem, or at Gerizim, who offers sacrifices there, and who declares the feast of the passover, and all the other feasts, to all the dispersed Samaritans. Some of them are to be found at Gaza, some at Damascus, and some at Grand Cairo.