THE PENTATEUCH OF THE SAMARITANS 147 



new ritual offered them by one who had himself fled from it ? 

 The books of Ezra and Nehemiah reveal how strong the animus 

 was which divided the Israelites of the North from those of the 

 South. Did a study of the history of the Samaritans exhibit 

 them as ready to accept the religious views of their neighbours, 

 there might be some plausibility in the Critical opinion. On the 

 contrary, the whole history of the Samaritans demonstrates the 

 opposite. They were forbidden to exercise the rites of their 

 religion by the heathen Emperors of Rome ; yet they persisted 

 in doing so. They endured savage persecutions at the hands of 

 the Christian Emperors of Byzantium ; still they maintained 

 their faith. Though the Moslems have so much in common with 

 the Jews, and on the whole favoured them, they persecuted the 

 Samaritans. Despite all this, they have continued the rites and 

 ceremonies of their faith. Is it at all likely they would take 

 anything quite new from the hands of a runaway priest like 

 Manasseh ? If, on the other hand, their mode of worship was 

 the same as that in Jerusalem, then we can imderstand the 

 reception of a legitimate Aaronic priest. Only if so, the 

 Samaritans must have had the Priestly Code, and indeed the 

 whole Pentateuch before Manasseh came to Samaria. 



It may be assumed that the Samaritans did not get their religion 

 or the book which taught its observances from Jerusalem, or 

 through Manasseh, the Jewish priest. Is there any other region 

 whence, or time when, it could come to them ? When the 

 Samaritans, as related in Ezra iv, 2, claim to be allowed to assist 

 in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem, they assert that " since 

 the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur " they had done sacrifice 

 to the JHWH God of Israel. Though their claim to help is 

 rejected, it is not because their assertion is false, but because 

 it was only to the Jews had Cyrus given permission to rebuild 

 the Temple. When we turn to 2 Kings xvii we find the justifica- 

 tion of this claim. The colonists who had been sent to replace 

 the deported Israelites complained to the King of Assyria that 

 JHWH the God of the land had sent lions among them " Be- 

 cause they know not the manner of the God of the land " ; 

 that is to say, the mode in which He may be worshipped accept- 

 ably. In answer, Esar-haddon sends them a priest or priests to 

 instruct them in the proper sacrifices and ritual, to render JHW^H 

 propitious to them. Although it is not said that the King of 

 Assyria sent the Torah with these priests it seems for several 

 reasons highly probable. The Sargonid Princes of Nineveh 



