SAM 
619 
SAM 
tures than the five books of Moses, so the priest could bring 
no others with him besides those books written in the old 
Phoenician letters, which, upon the return of the Jews, Ezra 
changed for the Chaldee, which we now call the Hebrew 
letters. 
Upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, 
and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, the religion 
of the Samaritans received another alteration on the follow¬ 
ing occasion. One of the sons of Jehoiada, the high-priest, 
whom Josephus calls Manasseh, married the daughter of 
Sanballat the Horonite; but the law of God having forbidden 
the intermarriages of the Israelites with any other nation, 
Nehemiah set himself to reform this corruption, which had 
spread into many Jewish families, and obliged all that had 
taken strange wives immediately to part with them. (Nehem. 
xiii. 23—30.) Manasseh, unwilling to surrender his wife, 
fled to Samaria; and many others in the same circumstances, 
and with similar disposition, went and settled under the 
protection of Sanballat, governor of Samaria. Manasseh 
brought with him some other apostate priests, with many 
other Jews, who disliked the regulations made by Nehemiah 
at Jerusalem; and now the Samaritans, having obtained an 
high-priest, and other priests of the descendants from Aaron, 
were soon brought off from the worship of the false gods, 
who were as much enemies to idolatry as the best of the Jews. 
However, Manasseh gave them no other scriptures besides the 
Pentateuch, lest, if they had the other scriptures, they should 
then find that Jerusalem was the only place where they 
should offer their sacrifices. From that time, the worship of 
the Samaritans came much nearer to that of the Jews, and 
they afterwards obtained leave of Alexander the Great to 
build a temple on Mount Gerizim, near the city of Samaria, 
in imitation of the temple at Jerusalem, where they prac¬ 
tised the same forms of worship. 
To this mountain and temple the Samaritan woman of 
Sychar refers in her, discourse with our Saviour, John iv. 20. 
The Samaritans soon after revolted from Alexander, who 
drove them out of Samaria, introduced Macedonians in their 
room, and gave the province of Samaria to the Jews. This 
circumstance contributed in no small degree to increase the 
hatred and animosity between those two people. When any 
Israelite deserved punishment on account of the violation of 
some important point of the law, he presently took refuge in 
Samaria or Schechem, and embraced the worship at the 
temple of Gerizim. When the affairs of the Jews were 
prosperous, the Samaritans did not fail to call themselves 
Hebrews, and of the race of Abraham. But when the Jews 
suffered persecution, the Samaritans disowned them, and 
alleged that they were Phoenicians originally, or descended 
from Joseph, or Manasseh his son. This was their practice 
in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
Notwithstanding the charge above-mentioned, it is cer¬ 
tain, the modern Samaritans are far from idolatry ; some of 
the most learned among the Jewish doctors own, that they 
observe the law of Moses more rigidly than the Jews them¬ 
selves. They have a Hebrew copy of the Pentateuch, dif¬ 
fering in some respects from that of the Jews ; and written 
in different characters, commonly called Samaritan charac¬ 
ters ; which Origen, Jerom, and other fathers and critics, 
ancient and modern taken to be the primitive character of* 
the ancient Hebrews; though others maintain the contrary. 
The point of preference, as to purity, antiquity, &c. of 
the two Pentateuchs, is also much disputed by the modern 
critics. 
Origen, Jerom, and Epiphanius inform us, that the Sama¬ 
ritans rejected all the sacred writings, except the five books 
of Moses. 
The Samaritans are now few in number: though it is 
not very long since they pretended to have priests descended 
directly from the family of Aaron. They were chiefly found 
at Gaza, Neapolis or Schechem (the ancient Sichem or 
Naplouse), Damascus, Cairo, &c. They had a temple, or 
chapel, on mount Gerizim, where they performed their sacri¬ 
fices. They have also synagogues in other parts of Palestine 
and also in Egypt. 
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. They returned 
two answers dated in the year 998, of the Hegira of Maho¬ 
met. These answers never came to the hands of Scaliger. 
They are now in the library at Paris, and have been 
translated into Latin by father Morin, priest of the Oratory; 
and printed in the collection of letters of that father in 
England, 1662, under the title of “ Antiquitates Eoclesize 
Orientials.” M. Simon has inserted a French translation, 
in the first editions of “ Ceremonies et Cqutumes des Juifs,” 
by way of supplement to Leo de Modena. 
In the first of these answers, written in the name of the 
assembly of Israel, in Egypt, they declare that they cele¬ 
brate the Passover every year, on the fourteenth of the first 
month, on mount Gerizim, and that he who then did the 
office of high-priest was called Eleazar, a descendant of 
Phinehas, son of Aaron. At present they have no high- 
priest. In the second answer, which is in the name of the 
high-priest Eleazar, and the synagogue of Schechem, they 
declare that they keep the sabbath in all the rigour with 
which it is enjoined in the book of Exodus; none amongthem 
stirring out of doors but to the synagogue. They add, that 
on that night they do not lie with their wives; that they 
begin the feast of the Passover with the sacrifice appointed 
for that purpose in Exodus; that they sacrifice nowhere else 
but on mount Gerizim, that they observe the feasts of har¬ 
vest, the expiation, the tabernacles, &c. They add farther, 
that they never defer circumcision beyond the eighth day; 
never marry their nieces, as the Jews do, have but one wife; 
and, in fine, do nothing but what is commanded in the law : 
whereas the Jews frequently abandon the law to follow the 
inventions of their rabbins. 
At the time when they wrote to Scaliger, they reckoned 
one hundred and twenty-two high-priests; affirmed that 
the Jews had no high-priests of the race of Phinehas; and 
that the Jews belied them in calling them Cutheans; for 
that they are descended from the tribe of Joseph by Ephraim. 
The truth is, the Jews impose abundance of things on the 
Samaritans: they frequently confound them with the Saddu- 
cees, as if they were infected with their errors. Rabbi Ben • 
jamin, who lived in the 12th century, confirms the best part 
of what we have said of the Samaritans: he observes, they 
had priests of the tribe of Aaron; and who never married 
with any but those of the same tribe: that they sacrificed 
on mount Gerizim, where they had an altar of stone, raised by 
the Israelites after passing over Jordan. He adds, that they 
are of the tribe of Ephraim; that they change their habit to 
go to the synagogue, and wash before they put it on. 
SAMARITAN Medals. In the cabinets of antiquaries 
we find some medals, usually called Samaritan medals, the 
inscriptions and legends of which are Hebrew; but the cha¬ 
racter different from the Hebrew of our' bibles, which is the 
square Plebrew, or Chaldee: and it is hence, viz. from the 
character, not from their being struck by the Samaritans, 
that they are denominated Samaritan. 
The learned Jesuit Souciet, in an express dissertation on 
the Samaritan medals, rejects all Hebrew medals, whose in¬ 
scriptions are in Chaldee characters, as spurious, and allows 
of none to be genuine but the Samaritan. Of these there are 
four kinds:— 
The first bear expressly the name of Simon, and the sub¬ 
ject for which they were struck, viz. the deliverance of Je¬ 
rusalem. The second kind have not the name Simon, but 
only the deliverance of Sion, or Jerusalem. The third kind 
have neither Simon nor the deliverance of Sion; but only the 
epochas, first year, second year, &c. The four Jr class have 
neither any inscriptions, nor any thing whence one may 
judge of the time they were struck. 
The three first kinds were certainly struck after the return 
from the Babylonish captivity, and in the time of Simon 
Maccabeus, after Jerusalem had been freed from the yoke 
of the Greeks. But though struck after the captivity, father 
Souciet observes, their character shews itself to be that of 
the ancient Hebrew, which was used before the captivity, 
