It is a misnomer to refer to the Samaritans as Jews, since the Samaritans understand themselves to be direct descendants of the northern kingdom of Israel—which had as its capital the city of Samaria—rather than descendants of the southern kingdom of Judah, from which most Jews trace their origin (see #26). So, at best, the Samaritans, who live primarily in communities near Mount Gerizim and in Holon (near Tel Aviv), numbering less than seven hundred today (even that number is due to increased intermarriage in recent years), should be considered Israelites rather than Jews.
But are they truly Israelites? The Samaritans see themselves as the true remnant of Israel, the faithful keepers of the Torah, still practicing animal sacrifices and circumcision, still celebrating the biblical holy days, but rejecting the later traditions of the Jewish rabbis. They follow only the Torah and their religious traditions, not recognizing the authority of the rest of the Scriptures, and they continue to worship on Mount Gerizim. The spiritual leader of the people is the Samaritan high priest.[107]
According to their official website, “The Samaritans are the descendants of the ancient northern kingdom of Israel. This remnant [sic] are the heirs of the Ten Lost Tribes that still bear the flag of the ancient sanctuaries of Israel.”[108] They also claim that as of the fourth century a.d., they numbered one million people, but through persecution and opposition, their numbers had dwindled to about 150 by the turn of the twentieth century.[109]
The Samaritans have their own unique form of the Hebrew script (different from the style that was adopted by the Jewish communities after the Babylonian exile), their own Hebrew liturgical traditions (including a unique pronunciation of ancient Hebrew) and their own distinct manuscripts of the Torah, which vary slightly from the Masoretic textual tradition (see #6).
Why, then, is their legitimacy as true Israelites questioned? And why did the Talmudic rabbis view them at best as converts? Let us look at the account in 2 Kings 17, describing what happened when the northern kingdom of Israel was decimated by the Assyrians because of Israelite idolatry:
So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.
The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.”
Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.
verses 23–28
If this text, which is not recognized as sacred by the Samaritans, describes their origins, then they are simply very ancient converts to the Israelite faith, but they are not part of the original ten tribes of the northern kingdom (see #27; for mass conversions, see Esther 8:17). Even in this light, however, some Talmudic rabbis questioned the legitimacy of the conversion of the Samaritans—assuming again that this text describes their origins—since, it was claimed, their conversion came about under coercion (lions!) rather than out of love for the truth. And despite the fact that there are some Talmudic traditions that praise the Torah observance of the Samaritans (called Kuthim) and are accepting toward them, for the most part, they were considered to be second-class citizens or, worse still, half breeds.[110] Over the centuries, the fact that the Samaritans did not accept many of the rabbinic traditions was an affront to the rabbinic community, since the rabbis claimed to have traditions that went straight back to Moses on Mount Sinai (see #3), yet the Samaritans claimed a more ancient pedigree than the rabbis and did not confirm the concept of an Oral Law going back to Moses.
Jewish animosity toward the Samaritans is reflected in the comment made in John 4:9, namely, that “Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” John’s gospel also reflects the controversy over sacred locations of worship: Is it Jerusalem, as the Jews say, or is it Gerizim, as the Samaritans say? New Testament commentator Merrill C. Tenney explains:
The Samaritans founded their claim on the historic fact that when Moses instructed the people concerning the entrance into the Promised Land, he commanded that they set up an altar on Mount Ebal and that the tribes should be divided, half on Ebal and half on Gerizim. As the Levites read the Law, the people responded antiphonally. Those on Gerizim pronounced the blessings of God and those on Ebal, the curses of God on sin (Deuteronomy 27:1–28:68). The Jews held that since Solomon had been commissioned to build the temple in Jerusalem, the center of worship would be located there.[111]
To this day, Mount Gerizim is considered sacred by the Samaritans, and they claim that Jewish Torah scrolls have been edited so as to downplay the importance of Gerizim and put undue emphasis on Jerusalem.
Are the Samaritans, then, true Israelites, a living remnant of the Ten Lost Tribes? Or are they ancient converts, dating back more than 2,700 years? Either way, they should be recognized as people who believe in the God of Israel and whose traditions are indeed quite ancient, people who have been preserved, perhaps miraculously, through the centuries. Interestingly, Yeshua Himself seemed to place the Samaritans in their own unique class, speaking of the Gentiles, the Samaritans and the house of Israel in Matthew 10:5–6, an understanding that seems to be reflected in Acts as well (note 8:4–18).