two nations rose at length to such a height, in their contests for the superior sanctity of 
their respective temples, as to lead to the destruction of that on Gerizim (129 b.c.). Yet 
the worship continued, for coins of Neapolis are extant, on which Mount Gerizim, with 
its temple (probably rebuilt), are represented as the symbol of the City. 
The Samaritans are now reduced to a few hundred persons, who continue in the creed 
of their fathers; and on the days of the Passover, and other feasts of their religion, 
ascend Gerizim and worship God upon “ the mountain,” where, on the site of their 
ancient Temple, they make their sacrifices “ as of old.” They pretend to possess at 
Nablous one of the most ancient copies of the Pentateuch. 1 As a sect, the Samaritans 
are now greatly reduced; and a few small communities exist only here, and in Cairo, Gaza, 
and Damascus. 
1 The Samaritan priest displays this MS. to travellers, and pronounces it to be 3460 years old, the 
work of Abishua, the son of Phinehas. It is, however, conjectured to be modern. Bibl. Res. iii. 105. 
RUINS OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT JOHN, SEBASTE. 
On approaching from the West the ruins of the ancient City of Samaria, now the village 
of Sebaste, the most conspicuous object is formed by the ruins of the Church of Saint 
John the Baptist, which overhang the steep declivity below the village of Sebaste. This 
Church was built on the spot where tradition holds, that this “more than prophet,” the 
herald of our Lord, was imprisoned, martyred, and buried. 1 
The alcove for the Altar, occupying the greater part of the eastern end, which thus 
assumes a rounded form, is an imposing piece of mixed architecture, the Greek style 
predominating; the arches of the windows are round; and the whole alcove is highly 
ornamented, especially on the outside. But the upper arches on the inside of the alcove 
are pointed, as are also the great arches in the body of the Church. The latter rest on 
columns of no defined order; the capitals, though Corinthian in shape and size, being 
decorated with resemblances to the trunk of the palm-tree. 
The walls are still entire to a considerable height, and the length of the Church is 
one hundred and fifty feet (besides a porch of ten feet), the width seventy-five feet; 
the windows are high up and narrow, with the pointed arches and zig-zag ornaments 
peculiar to the early Norman, 2 and blocks carved with grotesque heads and figures. It 
seems to have been, at one period, fitted for military defence. The general architecture 
precludes the supposition that it is older than the time of the Crusades, though its 
substructure and its eastern end might have had an eai'lier date. 3 Popular tradition 
attributes this, as it does so many other Christian Churches in Palestine, to the Empress 
Helena; it is much more probable that it was erected by the Knights of St. John, 
whose numerous crosses mark their reverence for the patron saint of their celebrated 
order. In the midst now stands the tomb of a Sheikh! 
1 According to Josephus, the Baptist was beheaded in the Castle of Machoerus, on the east of the 
Dead Sea, near which, it may be presumed, that he was buried. Antiq. xviii. 5. 2. 
a Roberts’s Journal. 3 Biblical Researches iii. 141. 
