SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 391 



The accounts which we have of the ancient Samaritans, (or Cut- 

 haeans, as they are called by the Jewish writers, from the founder 

 of the sect, Sanballad, a Cuthite,) have cboie to us chiefly through 

 their inveterate enemies the Jews; whose contempt and hatred 

 were apparently excited hy their being a mixed race, of doubtful 

 genealogy, and schismatical in their creed. In rejecting the whole 

 of the Old Testament excepting the Pentateuch, they were coun- 

 tenanced by the Sadducees. Our Lord, however, declares, that 

 they worshipped they knew not x what ; * which seems to imply that, 

 although they cherished, in common with the Jews, the expecta- 

 tion of a Messiah, their worship had still an idolatrous tincture : they 

 * feared the Lord,' but, if they did not still 'serve graven images,' 

 like their ancestors, f they did not worship God as a Spirit. Not- 

 withstanding their emnity against the Jews, they joined in revolt 

 against the Romans, and shared in the calamities of the guilty na- 

 tion. After the fall of Jotapata and Jaffa, eleven thousand six hun- 

 dred of them are stated to have posted themselves on Mount Gerizim; 

 as if, like the Jews of Jerusalem, trusting to the protection of their 

 temple,;or resolved to perish on the'sacred spot. The Roman gen- 

 eral Cerealis, with 600 horsemen and 300 footmen, blockaded them 

 here ; and after inviting them to surrender, which they obstinately 

 refused, put the greater part to the sword. 



Five centuries after the Christian era, the Samaritans, who still 

 remained a distinct, though motley race, had so increased in strength 

 that they rose in arms, under the standard of a desperate leader, to 

 protect themselves against the persecution of the emperor Justinian. 

 They were, says Gibbon, * an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by 

 the Pagans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians as 

 idolaters. One hundred thousand, it has been computed, perished, 

 or were sold as captives in the Samaritan war, which converted the 

 once fertile province into a wilderness. A remnant, however, have 

 always rallied on this consecrated spot, under the shadow of Mount 

 Gerizim. In 1676, a correspondence took place between their 

 chief priest at Nablous and the learned Scaliger, on the differences 

 between the Samaritan and Hebrew Pentateuchs, in the course of 

 which information was elicited respecting the opinions then held 

 by this ancient sect. The summary of their creed was to this ef- 

 fect: That they believe in God, and in the laws of his servant Mo- 

 ses ; they practise circumcision ; keep the sabbath with all the rig- 

 or of a penance ; observe the passover, the pentecost, the feast of 

 tabernacles, and the great fast of expiation most strictly; and nev- 

 er offer any sacrifice but on Mount Gerizim. The hea.d of their 

 religion must reside at Shechem. In 1697, Mr. Maundrell had a 

 personal conference with the Samaritan chief-priest, on the subject 

 of a singular discrepancy between the text of the Samaritan Penta- 

 teuch and the received Hebrew text. The passage in question oc- 

 curs Deut. xxvii. 4 : ' Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over 



* John iv. 22. 1 2 Kinjs xvii. 41. 



