Who Were The Samaritans?

Investigating a once-powerful sect that has preserved its sacred traditions for millennia

- By Sara Toth Stub

RISING NEARLY 3,000 feet above sea level, Mount Gerizim overlooks the city of Nablus in the West Bank. For more than two millennia, the mountain has served as the holiest place of worship for the Samaritan people. In their telling, the Samaritans are descended from the original Israelites, who escaped from slavery in Egypt and wandered the desert for 40 years before entering the Promised Land. The Samaritan Pentateuch, which relates the same basic narrative as the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, identifies Mount Gerizim as the site where Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac and where Joshua took the Israelites to make their first sacrifices after they finally crossed the River Jordan into Israel. According to the Jewish version, these events took place at Mount Moriah, understood to be the future site of Jerusalem, and Mount Ebal, a higher peak across a narrow valley from Mount Gerizim. Rather than building a temple in Jerusalem, as the Jews did, Samaritan texts record that they were instructed by God to worship on Mount Gerizim.