The Samaritans

And the Question of Jewish Identity

De: Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez

Narrado por: Daniel Levis

The destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and the Babylonian exile that followed, could have spelled the end of Israelite identity. But the return of exiles, first under Zerubbabel, and again under Ezra and Nehemiah a generation later, resurrected Isra-elite identity and opened a new chapter in the history of Israel.

The restoration of the exiles to Judah, however, also served to create a spiritual revitalization mostly attributable to a new authority associated with Israelite sacred texts. Ezra’s reforms redefined previous Israelite distinctiveness and established a Jewish identity in-separably connected to the Torah. This rebirth of sorts had consequences. Some groups were excluded in the pursuit of this new identity. The Samaritans were among the first casualties.

The Samaritans represented a unique challenge to the returning exiles. In the Ezra-Nehemiah tradition, the bene hagollah, or the returning exiles, alone constituted the people of Israel and the only legitimate link between pre-exilic and post-exilic Israel. The Samari-tans, as we will see, had a complex identity of their own. They had ties to the northern kingdom of Israel, but also had adopted foreign influences through the Assyrian policy of relocating conquered peoples to different territories in the Empire. The Assyrian policy was based on the assumption that transplanted people were less likely to rebel, given their disconnectedness to the land they were settled in.

The Samaritans claimed that they were authentic representatives of Israel. Most of the returning exiles had never even lived in the land, so from the vantage point of the Samaritans, their claims to legitimacy were dubious. Nevertheless, at least initially, the Samaritans appeared willing to join forces with the exiles. Ezra and Nehemiah ended those overtures, and the schism between Jews and Samaritans only increased as time passed.

©2020 Juan Marcos Gutierrez (P)2021 Juan Marcos Gutierrez

Informative, With a Massive Flaw

This is a highly informative explanation of the ancient history of the Samaritans. But it is only in the last line of the text that the author touches on the last 2,000 years of Samaritan history, and he is wrong. He says that less than a thousand Samaritans continue to reside in the land of Israel. But he is wrong. I interviewed the head of the community in the West Bank city of Nablus. They reside in Palestine, and the consider themselves to be Palestinian Hebrews. If the ancient history is to mean anything, it must be related to the present reality, which the author obscured. And it appears he obscured it through an inherent Zionist bias.

I know this work is unlikely to get many reviews, so the author should feel free to contact me to change this to a five star review if he adds this crucial information and places it within the context of the ancient history.