25 Facts About Samaritans

Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice versa, largely due to interfaith marriages.

Samaritans possessing only Israeli citizenship in Holon are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, while those holding dual Israeli and Palestinian citizenship in Kiryat Luza are exempted from mandatory military service.

In Rabbinic Judaism, for example in the Tosefta Berakhot, the Samaritans are called Cuthites or Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq.

Until the middle of the 20th century it was customary to believe that the Samaritans originated from a mixture of the people living in Samaria and other peoples at the time of the conquest of Samaria by Assyria .

The issue surrounding the Samaritans offer to help rebuild the temple was a complicated one that took a while for the Judeans to think over.

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We do know that Samaritan and Jewish alienation increased and that the Samaritans eventually built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, near Shechem.

Term "Cuthim" applied by Jews to the Samaritans had clear pejorative connotations, and is regarded as an insult to Samaritanism, implying that they were interlopers brought in from Kutha in Mesopotamia and rejecting their claim of descent from the ancient Tribes of Israel.

Samaritans's policy was to Hellenize his entire kingdom and standardize religious observance.

Samaritans appear briefly in the Christian gospels, most notably in the account of the Samaritan woman at the well and the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Zeno rebuilt the church of St Procopius in Neapolis and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signaling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.

Under a charismatic, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar, the Samaritans launched a war to create their own independent state in 529.

Samaritans who are Israeli citizens are drafted into the military, along with the Jewish citizens of Israel.

Samaritans living in both Israel and in the West Bank enjoy Israeli citizenship.

Samaritans living in the West Bank have been granted passports by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The Samaritans themselves describe the Ottoman period as the worst period in their modern history, as many Samaritan families were forced to convert to Islam during that time.

Samaritans mentioned the name of several Palestinian Muslim families as having Samaritan origins, including the Al-Amad, Al-Samri, Buwarda and Kasem families, who protected Samaritans from Muslim persecution in the 1850s.

Samaritans further claimed that these families had written records testifying to their Samaritan ancestry, which were maintained by their priests and elders.

Samaritanism is centered on the Samaritan Pentateuch, which Samaritans believe to be the original and unaltered version of the Torah that was given to Moses and the Israelites on Mount Sinai.

However, the Samaritan text speaks of the place where God has chosen to establish His name, and Samaritans identify it as Mount Gerizim, making it the focus of their spiritual values.

Samaritans's poses the question to Jesus when she realizes that he is the Messiah.

Samaritans have retained an offshoot of the Ancient Hebrew script, a High Priesthood, the slaughtering and eating of lambs on Passover eve, and the celebration of the first month's beginning around springtime as the New Year.

Samaritans refer to themselves as Benai Yisrael which is a term used by all Jewish denominations as a name for the Jewish people as a whole.

The Samaritans have several groups of religious texts, which correspond to Jewish Halakha.

Samaria or Samaritans are mentioned in the New Testament books of Matthew, Luke, John and Acts.

The best known reference to the Samaritans is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospel of Luke.

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