For most Christians, the term “Samaritan” evokes a compassionate people who help others in need, especially when nobody else is willing to do so. In fact, today “Samaritans” is the name of an organization that attends to the emotionally distressed. The name derives from the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10-25–37. When Jesus was asked “And who is my neighbor?” he replied with the parable- A man fell into the hands of robbers who beat him and left him lying half dead. Neither a priest nor a Levite who happened to pass by did anything to help him. Only a Samaritan traveler stopped to bandage his wounds and make provisions for his care. He alone proved to be a true neighbor of the man who was robbed. Another New Testament narrative tells of Jesus healing ten men, only one of whom—a Samaritan—returned to thank him (Luke 17-11–19). In the famous scene at Jacob’s well, in which a woman from Samaria speaks to Jesus, he reveals himself to her as the Messiah (John 4-1–26). Whether these are literary parables or stories written from a theological perspective, rather than historical episodes, these tales accurately portray the ambivalent attitude of Jews towards Samaritans at that time. What gives these stories their special edge is the Samaritans’ status in the eyes of the Jews of that time. The Samaritans were looked down upon and considered to be of questionable descent. The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus(a) reflects a common opinion of the time in his explanation of their heritage- In 721 B.C.E. the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians, who deported much of the population and resettled the land with foreigners.(b) The Samaritans, according to Josephus, were of mixed heritage, descending from both the Israelites and these “pagan” settlers. Among these new settlers, a southern Mesopotamian people from Cutha was singled out as the ancestors of the Samaritans, who were then called Cutheans. Modern historical scholarship has shown, however, that this is a spurious account of Samaritan origins- The Samaritans are simply an offshoot of early Judaism. Since very ancient times, the Samaritans have regarded Mt. Gerizim, near Nablus (ancient Shechem), as their holy mountain, rather than Jerusalem, the center of Jewish worship. A number of passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that Mt. Gerizim has a legitimate, if obscure, claim to holiness through association with the figures who visited it. Abraham and Jacob both visited Shechem (Genesis 12-6–7, 33-18–20), as did Joseph (Genesis 37-12–14). And although Joseph died in Egypt, his bones were brought back to Shechem for burial (Joshua 24-32). That various Biblical figures considered Mt. Gerizim sacred is also evident in several passages. In Deuteronomy 11-29, Moses commands the Israelites to pronounce a blessing on Mt. Gerizim when they enter the land of Canaan (see also Deuteronomy 27-12). When the Israelites cross the Jordan, they build an altar on Mt. Ebal, opposite Mt. Gerizim, and six of the tribes face Mt. Gerizim while blessing the people of Israel, as Moses had commanded (Joshua 8-30–33). According to Josephus, the Samaritans built a temple on Mt. Gerizim in the late fourth century B.C.E., during the time of Alexander the Great. When, about two hundred years later, the Jews regained their independence and installed the Hasmonean dynasty as leaders, the Jewish king John Hyrcanus (134–104 B.C.E.) destroyed the Samaritan temple. In reaction, the Samaritans moved further and further away from Jerusalem and from mainstream Judaism. Eventually, the Samaritans developed a separate religion that, nevertheless, has many affinities with Judaism. The Samaritans retained the Torah, or the five books of Moses (also called the Pentateuch), as their sacred scripture, although the Samaritan version contains some significant theological variations. Where the Jewish version refers to “the place that God will choose,” suggesting Jerusalem, the Samaritan version has “the place that God has chosen,” meaning Mt. Gerizim (Deuteronomy 12-5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26, 14-23–25, 16-6–7 et al.). The Samaritan Pentateuch also contains an addition to the tenth commandment, which instructs the Israelites to build an altar on Mt. Gerizim. Unlike the Jews, whose priesthood ceased to function after the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., the Samaritans continued to have an active priesthood with a high priest as their leader even after the Mt. Gerizim temple was destroyed. Gradually, however, their numbers diminished under persecutions by Christians and Muslims until they were almost extinct. Around the turn of the century, only about 100 Samaritans were left. Their numbers increased, however, when Samaritan men married Jewish women who became Samaritans. Today, there are two communities of Samaritans, one in Nablus and one in H|olon, south of Tel Aviv. Each numbers approximately 300. Every year, the high priest, who lives in Nablus, presides over the Passover sacrifice on Mt. Gerizim, which is celebrated in strict conformity with the injunctions in Exodus.(c) The most precious possession of the Samaritans is an ancient Torah scroll that, according to their tradition, was written by the great-grandson of Aaron, Abisha,(1) 13 years after the Israelites’ entry into Canaan.(d) Largely because of the persecution that the Samaritans suffered over the centuries, their ancient books have perished, making it difficult to reconstruct their early history. The only sources of information we have, other than those Samaritan traditions preserved in medieval works, are the writings of the early church fathers and archaeological finds. Valuable as Patristic writings are, they touch on just certain aspects of Samaritanism and leave many questions unanswered. In recent decades, however, archaeology has begun to fill in the gaps, allowing us to reconstruct early Samaritan history. Excavations have been conducted on Mt. Gerizim itself,(2) and a number of Samaritan synagogues, which I will concentrate on here, have been discovered both inside Samaria and in the Diaspora. We can learn much by comparing ancient Samaritan synagogues to contemporaneous Jewish synagogues. The origins of Samaritan and Jewish synagogues are equally obscure. But it is clear that even before the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., there were Jewish synagogues in Palestine. Jesus, Paul and other early Christian leaders are said to have taught and preached in synagogues (Matthew 9-35; Luke 4-44; Acts 6-9, 9-2), and, indeed, several synagogues from this period have been excavated.(3) In addition, a plaque from an ancient synagogue in Jerusalem from this same period, or even earlier, was recovered in an early Jerusalem excavation, although the building itself has never been found.(4) Inscriptions have also been recovered in Egypt that speak of Jewish synagogues as early as the third century B.C.E.(5) It stands to reason that the Samaritans, as an offshoot of Judaism, also had synagogues at this time. Interestingly, for both Samaritan and Jewish synagogues, our earliest archaeological evidence comes not from Palestine, but from the Diaspora. The Samaritan case is especially significant because it shows how far the Samaritans spread. In 1979–1980 two inscriptions from Samaritan synagogues were found on the Aegean island of Delos.(6) The earlier inscription can be dated to between 250 and 175 B.C.E. on the basis of paleography (the shape and form of the letters) and orthography (spelling). The text refers to “Israelites [on Delos] who make offerings to hallowed Argarizein.” Argarizein is the Greek form of Mt. Gerizim; in typical Samaritan fashion the two Hebrew words har, “mountain,” and Gerizim were contracted to form one. Note that the Samaritans refer to themselves as “Israelites,” reflecting their belief that they are the true Israelites. The word for synagogue used in the inscription is proseucheµ (literally, a place of prayer), the Greek word used in the Diaspora by Jews and Samaritans for their synagogues. The second inscription was found in the same place, but dates to between 150 and 50 B.C.E. It honors an individual named Serapion, originally from Crete, who made donations to the community. Most likely the donation was intended for the renovation or embellishment of the synagogue. Not far from where the two inscriptions were found, a building was excavated that is generally identified as a Jewish synagogue.(7) If this is correct, and if the area where the Samaritan inscriptions were found also included a Samaritan synagogue, then Jews and Samaritans built their respective places of assembly in close proximity. Perhaps further excavations will clarify this point. Ancient literature hints that Samaritan synagogues may have been located in Rome and Tarsus between the fourth and sixth centuries C.E. Short inscriptions in Samaritan and Greek script found in Thessalonica and Syracuse may have come from Samaritan synagogues in these cities during this same time period. Apparently, the Samaritans flourished in the Diaspora. But they also remained a significant community in Palestine. Before 1947, the existence of Samaritan synagogues in Palestine was known only from literary, legal and epigraphic sources. Samaritan historical writings, called Chronicles, mention them, as do some church fathers, and several Byzantine laws seem to refer to them. Various inscriptions in Samaritan and Greek script were thought to have belonged originally to Samaritan synagogues. Probably some did, although we now know that many came from private buildings. Since 1948, and especially after 1990, however, a number of actual Samaritan synagogue buildings have been uncovered in ancient Palestine. Oddly enough, the first to be discovered lay outside of Samaria—in Judea, at Sha‘alvim, a site northwest of Jerusalem. Two mosaic floors, found one on top of the other, represent different phases of building. The lower one features two menorot (singular, menorah), or seven-branched candelabra, which might at first be considered evidence of a Jewish synagogue, but as we shall see, many symbols used in Jewish synagogues are also found in Samaritan synagogues. In this case, a number of distinguishing elements clinch the building’s identification as a Samaritan synagogue. Between the menorot is what seems to be a schematic representation of Mt. Gerizim. In addition, the facade of the synagogue faces Mt. Gerizim, unlike Jewish synagogues, which are oriented toward Jerusalem. Further, the mosaic floor bears an inscription, written in Samaritan script, that quotes Exodus 15-18 according to the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch- “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.” (The Samaritan text differs by one letter from the Jewish. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, “forever” is written ‘lmw; in the Jewish version, it is written l‘lm.) A Greek inscription in the mosaic records the renovation of the building, which is referred to as a eukteµrion (prayer house), a term similar to proseucheµ (place of prayer), which was used in the older inscription from Delos. The Sha‘alvim synagogue was probably built in the third or fourth century C.E. and was destroyed in the fifth or sixth century C.E. The Sha‘alvim synagogue is not the only ancient Samaritan synagogue found outside Samaria. One other (and there may be more) was excavated in 1975 at Tell Qasile, near the entrance to the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. Similar in plan to a Greek basilica, the building has a long rectangular hall with two rows of three pillars each, which create two side aisles—as in contemporaneous Jewish synagogues. Pottery and a coin found at Tell Qasile allow us to date the building to the beginning of the seventh century C.E., indicating the length of time the Samaritans thrived here. We can be sure this is a Samaritan synagogue from an Aramaic inscription—“Blessing on Israel”—written in Samaritan script. In addition, the building is oriented east-west, in the general direction of Mt. Gerizim. Two synagogues have been found in Beth Shean, one of which may be Samaritan.(8) In a room added in the late sixth or early seventh century, an inscription was found written in Samaritan letters transcribing a Greek text- “O Lord, help Ephrai(m) and Anan!” It may be that Samaritans shared the building, or at least this particular room, with Jews, as the excavator surmised. If so, this suggests that relations between Jews and Samaritans were not always antagonistic. In Samaria, we find considerable evidence for Samaritan synagogues. Surprisingly, the first excavation of a Samaritan synagogue in Samaria did not occur until 1990. Less than 2 miles from the ancient city of Samaria (called Sebaste in Roman times) is the El-Khirbe synagogue, built in the fourth century C.E. with stones taken from the remains of an early Roman agricultural estate. The longitudinal walls were nearly 6 feet thick, and two tiers of benches originally lined all four walls of the 45-foot-long pillarless hall. The building appears to have been used into the Islamic period, with a break in the late fifth and early sixth centuries C.E. The entrance of the synagogue faces Mt. Gerizim, a telltale sign that it is Samaritan. Yet many of the items depicted in the mosaic pavement could be found in a Jewish synagogue—a menorah, a table, a maha (incense shovel), trumpets, two tongue-like objects and the facade of what appears to be a temple or a Torah shrine.(9) It would be natural to speculate that the facade represents the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim, but this is almost certainly not the case. Although today we have Josephus’s account of the construction and destruction of the Mt. Gerizim temple, in the fourth century C.E. memory of the temple had completely disappeared from Samaritan tradition; it was never mentioned in Samaritan historical works or in the liturgy or in halakhah (religious law). The mosaic facade probably represents either the synagogue’s own Torah shrine or the facade of the desert Tabernacle, built by the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. By the same token, the table depicted in the mosaic likely represents the shewbread table that stood in the desert Tabernacle (Exodus 25-23–30, 37-10–16), rather than the table that stood in the Temple. The Tabernacle and its vessels play an important role in Samaritan beliefs concerning the end of time. The Samaritans expect that Moses or a figure like Moses, the so-called Taheb,(10) will come to restore the Tabernacle vessels—including the menorah, trumpets, and incense shovel—which, according to their tradition, were buried on Mt. Gerizim. The similarities between Jewish and Samaritan synagogues are not surprising. The same mosaicists probably worked on both. Different religions in the Roman Empire often used similar architecture and art. In a Roman context, a depiction of a door with pillars and a gable with a conch would represent a temple dedicated to a Roman deity; in a Jewish synagogue, the same image would illustrate the facade of the Jerusalem Temple or a Torah shrine from a Jewish synagogue; and in a Samaritan synagogue, it would represent either the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle or a Samaritan Torah shrine. What does not appear in the El-Khirbe mosaic is also significant. The lulav (palm-branch) and etrog (lemon-like fruit), used in the festival of Sukkot, or Tabernacles, are very common symbols in Jewish synagogues. For some unknown reason, they are not found in Samaritan synagogues—at least not in any discovered so far. Even today, Samaritans do not use the lulav and etrog in the same way as the Jews. While Jews carry the lulav and etrog in a religious procession during Sukkot, Samaritans use palm fronds to make the roof of their sukkahs, tabernacles built inside the home during Sukkot to recall the booths in which the Israelites lived in the desert; Samaritans also hang citrus fruits from the roof of their sukkahs. Perhaps these traditions go back as far as the Hellenistic period.(11) Like the El-Khirbe synagogue, the Khirbet Samara synagogue, about 12 miles northwest of Nablus, was constructed in the fourth century C.E. with material from earlier Roman buildings. It shares many aspects of the El-Khirbe synagogue’s plan—thick longitudinal walls and two tiers of benches lining the interior. But the Khirbet Samara synagogue also has an apse at one end, added after the original building was built, and a semicircular atrium that surrounds it on three sides. A groove in the floor in front of the apse once held a chancel screen, separating the apse with the Torah Ark from the rest of the prayer hall. Outside the synagogue, east of the apse, was a mikveh, or ritual bath. Before the apse was added, the synagogue probably had a portable Torah shrine brought in for the service. This is also thought to be true of Jewish synagogues, which underwent the same development in plan. Earlier ones have no apse; later ones do. In the Khirbet Samara synagogue, a mosaic of a Torah shrine was found underneath the benches of the south wall. Perhaps this marked where the moveable Torah shrine was placed before the apse was added.(12) Unfortunately, only part of the synagogue’s exquisitely crafted mosaic floor remains. Within ornamental frames, plants, fruits, jugs, cups, a candelabrum, empty bird cages and a Torah shrine are depicted. Neither the El-Khirbe nor the Khirbet Samara mosaics depict animals or humans. The Samaritans strictly interpreted the Second Commandment’s proscription of images. The only exception is the appearance in some late drawings of the cherubim (rendered like birds) in the Tabernacle.(13) This contrasts conspicuously with contemporaneous Jewish synagogue mosaics, which depict not only animals and humans, but even Greek mythological figures such as the sun god Helios. This representation would have been abhorrent to the Samaritans. The final Samaritan synagogue we will look at, the Zur Natan synagogue, was once thought to be a Byzantine church.e Recent excavations, however, have yielded depictions of a menorah, on both an oil lamp and a grinding stone, and several ritual baths (mikva’ot; singular, mikveh), which have corrected this mistaken impression. The first clue that this building, located 18 miles west of Nablus (ancient Shechem), was Samaritan is geographical- Samaritans inhabited the region during the fifth and sixth centuries C.E., when the mikva’ot and the menorah depictions were made. The location of several of the mikva’ot near the synagogue also indicates this is a Samaritan synagogue, rather than a Jewish one. Before the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., mikva’ot were adjacent to Jewish synagogues; later Jewish synagogues, however, do not have mikva’ot connected with them. In the Samaritan tradition, however, mikva’ot continued to be associated with synagogues. Thus the propinquity of the mikva’ot to the Zur Natan synagogue—one is actually connected to the building—helps to identify it as Samaritan. Notwithstanding the ambiguous relationship between Judaism and Samaritanism, there can be no doubt that the latter is a branch of the former that ultimately became an independent religion. The two groups indeed have much in common. Both are descended from the ancient Israelites. Both believe in the same one God, YHWH. Both base their religion on the Pentateuch and celebrate many of the same feasts. They also share important institutions like the synagogue. Of course, they have their differences, some of which allow us to distinguish their respective synagogues. On the whole, Samaritan synagogues confirm the centuries-long interaction between Jews and Samaritans, who remain closely related despite their different centers of worship and the traditional hostilities between the two communities. a. The passage in which Josephus gives his version of 2 Kings 17-24–41 is Jewish Antiquities 9-288–291. See also Steve Mason, “Will the Real Josephus Please Stand Up?” BAR 23-05. b. See Zvi Gal, “Israel in Exile,” in this issue. Gal notes that the absence of archaeological remains in Galilee for the period following the Assyrian assault indicates that this region was not resettled. c. See Reinhard Pummer, “The Samaritans—A Jewish Offshoot or a Pagan Cult?” Bible Review, October 1991. d. See Alan Crown, “The Abisha Scroll—3,000 Years Old?” Bible Review, October 1991. 1. The name does not occur in the Pentateuch; it appears as Abishua in Chronicles 5-30 and 6-35 (in English 1 Chronicles 6-4 and 6-50), as well as in Ezra 7-5. 2. See Itzhak Magen, “Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans,” in Frédéric Manns and Eugenio Alliata, eds., Early Christianity in Context- Monuments and Documents, Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Collectio Maior 38 (Jerusalem- Franciscan Printing Press, 1993), pp. 91–148; and “Gerizim, Mount,” in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (New York- Simon & Schuster, 1993), vol. 2, pp. 484–492. 3. In the opinion of most scholars, these are the synagogues of Gamla, in Galilee, and of Herodium and Masada. Recently, a fourth one was excavated in the vicinity of Modi’in. 4. The so-called Theodotos inscription was found during excavations in 1913–1914; for the most recent detailed discussion see Lea Roth-Gerson, The Greek Inscriptions from the Synagogues in Eretz-Israel (Jerusalem- Yad Itzhak Ben-Zvi, 1987), pp. 76–86 (in Hebrew); for an English translation, see Lee I. Levine, “The Second Temple Synagogue- The Formative Years,” in The Synagogue in Late Antiquity, ed. Levine (Philadelphia- American Schools of Oriental Research, 1987), p. 17. 5. See Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum 1440 and Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum III, 1532 A, both from the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes (247–221 B.C.E.); and Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum I, 129, dated May 11, 218 B.C.E. In all three cases the name for synagogue is proseucheµ. 6. The inscriptions were first published by Phillipe Bruneau in his article “‘Les Israélites de Délos’ et la juiverie délienne,” Bulletin de Correspondence Hellénique 106 (1982), pp. 465–504; they were recently reexamined by L. Michael White in “The Delos Synagogue Revisited- Recent Fieldwork in the Graeco-Roman Diaspora,” Harvard Theological Review 80 (1987), pp. 133–160. 7. For the ongoing discussion about the identity of this building, see White, “The Delos Synagogue Revisited,” p. 140. 8. It is the so-called Synagogue A, located almost 300 meters north of the Byzantine wall, excavated in 1962 by N. Zori, who distinguished three phases in the construction of the building, spanning the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century C.E. to 626–640 C.E., when the synagogue was destroyed. 9. Similar depictions of tongue-like objects have been found on the synagogue mosaic of Sepphoris; see Ze’ev Weiss and Ehud Netzer, Promise and Redemption- A Synagogue Mosaic from Sepphoris (Jerusalem- Israel Museum, 1996), p. 18. 10. Taheb means, literally, the “Returner” and “Restorer (of Divine Grace).” For a summary of the beliefs about the Taheb see Ferdinand Dexinger, “Taheb,” in A Companion to Samaritan Studies, ed. Alan D. Crown, Reinhard Pummer and Abraham Tal (Tübingen- J.C.B. Mohr, 1993), pp. 224–226. 11. See Ruth Jacoby, “The Four Species in Jewish and Samaritan Tradition,” Eretz Israel 25 (1996), pp. 404–409 (Hebrew); p. 103* (English summary). 12. Another depiction of a Torah shrine was found engraved on a stone that may once have decorated the apse. 13. See Pummer, “Samaritan Tabernacle Drawings,” in Numen 45 (1998), pp. 30–68.