Samaritan Community Research Articles

The Pentateuch: Genesis

The PentateuchGenesis Christopher T. Begg, Richard A. Taylor, and Fred W. Guyette 447. [Levites as Prophets and Scribes and Their Role in the Transmission of the Torah] Oliver Dyma, "Levites as Prophets and Scribes and Their Role in the Transmission of the Torah," TORAH, 115-29 [see #926]. In this essay, D. analyzes the role of Levites as scribes and the socio-historical setting of the production, collection, and curation of authoritative texts. For D., the scribal [End Page 149] activity of the Levites, the intellectual elite of the Persian and Hellenistic periods in Yehud, may be seen as the unifying factor that ultimately led to the canon. However, D. also challenges the indiscriminate ascription of a vast body of texts to the Levites, a practice which obscures the many and diverse currents and interests as well as the existence of other relevant educated groups in Yehud with their own political and/or religious interests. [Adapted from volume's introduction, p. 5—C.T.B.] 448. [The Samaritan Contribution to the Pentateuch] Innocent Himbaza, "What is the Contribution of the Samaritans to the Pentateuch?" Social Groups behind the Pentateuch, 289-312 [see #913]. H. provides an overview of the discussion of the possible role of the leaders of the Samaritan community in the promulgation of the Pentateuch. Modifying Benedikt Hensel's view on the matter, he argues that the "schism" between Jerusalem and Gerizim began only in the 2nd cent. b.c.e., when the two groups rejected each other. H. further argues that the project of assembling the Pentateuch may have begun before the emergence of tensions between the two Yahwistic communities and that the Persian authorities of the provinces of Yehud and Samaria may have been behind the compromise document they thereby produced. According to H., Jews and Samaritans may have read the same Pentateuch until the 2nd cent. b.c.e., the moment at which a literary schism concerning the place of worship took place. Nonetheless, it was not the Samaritans who were responsible for the harmonizations found in the SP, as various DSS manuscripts attest. Rather, the Samaritans may have chosen an already harmonized pentateuchal text in order to have available a "perfect" Torah without textual and literary deficiencies. Generally, H. assigns the texts of Genesis to Joshua that refer positively to the region around Shechem, including the Joseph story (Genesis 37–50) and certain passages in Deuteronomy 11 and 27 to the literary activity of the Samaritan community in the 5th cent. b.c.e. In the course of his essay he also deals with the relationship between the Pentateuch and the Hexateuch. In the current form of the Hexateuch, the major worship site would be Ebal and Gerizim. If the Book of Joshua is separated from the Pentateuch and read as an independent document that is followed by the prophetic books, Jerusalem becomes the ultimately chosen site of worship from the Book of Judges onward, Shechem is portrayed negatively as a place of division, apostasy, and crime (see Judges 9; 1 Kings 12; Jer 41:4-7; and Hosea 6–9). For H., the eventual rejection of the Hexateuch reflects the end of the peaceful period and the beginning of difficulties in the relationship among the worshipers of Yhwh. Especially in the Former Prophets, he argues, the Northern Kingdom is portrayed negatively on the whole because the Samaritans were already rejected and thereby were excluded from participating in the (final) redaction of the Prophets and the Writings. [Adapted from editor's introduction, pp. 20-21—C.T.B.] 449. [The Elders Redaction in the Pentateuch] Jaeyoung Jeon, "The Elders Redaction (ER) in the Pentateuch: Scribal Contributions of an Elders Group in the Formation of the Pentateuch," Social Groups behind the Pentateuch, 73-98 [see #913]. In his essay, J. endeavors to detect the scribal contribution from a lay leadership group in the Yahwistic community of Yehud in the Persian period. His study suggests that a series of texts in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is marked by a particular notion of the prophetic Tent of Meeting, different from the Priestly Tabernacle. These texts elevate the status of the...

“And the word became . . . gossip?” Unhinging the Samaritan woman in the age of #MeToo

This article examines the Samaritan woman’s speech in John 4. More specifically, this article employs a womanist hermeneutic of “unhinging” to argue that the Samaritan woman serves as an example for women who struggle with issues of testimonial authority in the midst of silence and shame at the hand of their communities. Thinking through the dynamic of the #MeToo movement and issues of power, testimonial authority, and trauma, this article interrogates the phrases dia ton logon (“because of the word”) and dia tēn sēn lalian (“because of your gossip”) to argue that, although the Samaritan woman possesses agency and voice with the power to engage Jesus in theological discussions, interpreters of her story still interrogate her for perceived sexual indiscretions to the point of her continued silence and shame in the history of interpretation. This article wrestles with both the Johannine author’s and the Samaritan community’s reducing her agency and voice to the point that readers live in ambiguity regarding her status. Concluding thoughts imagine what “living in ambiguity” looks like as a way to unhinge not only the Samaritan woman but contemporary African American church women from the experiences of silence and shaming in the age of #MeToo.

Representation of Arabic and Syriac in the Samaritan Version of Saadya Gaon’s Translation of the Pentateuch

Abstract Saadya ben Joseph al-Fayyumi (Saˁīd b. Yūsuf al-Fayyūmī, Saadya Gaon, b. Egypt 882—d. Baghdad 942) translated the Pentateuch as well as several other parts of the Bible into Arabic in the first half of the 10th century. The translation, named tafsīr by Saadya himself, was transmitted in two versions, one in Hebrew letters, probably intended for and used by Jewish-Rabbanite communities, and another in Arabic letters, probably intended for and used by other communities. Several manuscripts holding a Saadyan version in Arabic letters were used by Christian communities in the Near East. Some of these manuscripts probably reached the Samaritans, or at least one Samaritan community. The main source consisting of the Samaritan version of Saadya Gaon’s translation of the Pentateuch is MS London BL OR 7562. The article discusses the status of this manuscript among the other Samaritan Arabic translations, its characteristics, and demonstrates the reflections of Arabic and Syriac vocabulary in its Samaritan script.

The Allographic Use of Hebrew and Arabic in the Samaritan Manuscript Culture

Abstract In the 10th/11th century, Arabic became both the vernacular and literary language of the Samaritan community, along with the two languages of the liturgy: Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic; Samaritan Neo Hebrew was also employed at this time mainly for the composition of religious poems. Together with the introduction of the Arabic language, the Samaritans started to use the Arabic script, along with the Samaritan Hebrew formal and cursive scripts. In comparison with the use of the Arabic script, the Samaritan Hebrew script served mostly for more sacred texts or was employed in order to mark certain textual passages with a higher degree of sacredness. Allography of Arabic in Samaritan Hebrew letters is attested in Samaritan manuscripts since the beginning of the 13th century, although it was introduced most probably at an earlier date. This allography is employed mainly for the Arabic translation of the Samaritan Torah, for the Arabic translations of prayers, and for Samaritan Hebrew or Samaritan Aramaic quotes in Arabic texts. The replacement of Arabic by Modern Israeli Hebrew as the primary vernacular among the Samaritans living in the State of Israel led to a revival of Samaritan Hebrew allography for Arabic texts in the 20th century, mainly in festival poems in Arabic language, which are performed at certain occasions, although not all congregants are still familiar with the Arabic language and script. A close analysis demonstrates that Samaritan Hebrew allography of Arabic is the result of an intense contact between two scribal cultures, both of which were well established amongst the Samaritans. The allographic use of the Samaritan Hebrew script for writing Arabic texts originally did not aim to make these texts more accessible to Samaritan readers, but rather was employed to mark Arabic texts as belonging to the realm of the sacred.

A qualitative study exploring the experience and motivations of UK Samaritan volunteers: “Why do we do it?”

ABSTRACT Telephone helplines offer a valued service for those in distress. However, little research has explored the experience of helpline volunteers. Through semi-structured interviews, we explore the volunteering experiences of nine long-term UK Samaritan volunteers. Interviews were analysed using Interpretive Interactionism. The analysis highlighted that volunteering impacted participants’ experience of their sense of self. The decision to volunteer was framed as part of a search for personal meaning, tied to experiences of loss and reparation. Participants reflected positively on their volunteer identity, but highlighted tensions between a sense of vocation and the experience of care burden. The Samaritan Community also offered a sense of belonging and social support. They experienced involvement as personally meaningful, enabling the construction of a positive self-identity.

The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration

The destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim by John Hyrcanus (ca. 112/111 BCE) is often regarded as the decisive cause of the final breach between Jews and Samaritans. This action is usually interpreted as one of hatred and contempt directed against the Samaritan community as a whole; it has even been maintained that Hyrcanus’s real intention was to exclude the Samaritans from Judaism. Yet comparative analysis of John Hyrcanus’s treatment of the people he subdued may lead to the opposite conclusion. I propose that John Hyrcanus’s policy toward the Samaritans was aimed at forcing their integration into the Hasmonean state, which would lead to their exclusive dedication to the Jerusalem temple and its high priest.

The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version. Edited and translated by Benyamim Tsedaka and coedited by Sharon Sullivan.

B iblical Studies, Jewish Studies, the history of the Middle East and the study of the Hebrew and Aramaic languages owe a great debt to the Samaritan community and its scribes. Thanks to the piety of the community members, their complete faithfulness to the tradition of their fathers, and their constant presence in the land of Israel, they have preserved evidence of ancient languages and customs that other communities of Israel failed to retain. Especially strong is the adherence of the Samaritans to the reading of the Torah and its precise transmission from father to son. Thus, despite the fact that the extant Samaritan manuscripts are not older than the twelfth century, oral transmission has provided an authoritative and complete source of their Torah today in a form close to (though not completely similar to) how it was read and heard about two thousand years ago. Additionally, at least from Byzantine times onwards, the learned of the community actively composed translations of their Torah, probably intending to explain and clarify the holiest text of the community in times in which its contents and Hebrew language were no longer clear enough. First they composed Aramaic translations, but towards the twelfth century ce , when this language also ceased to be understood properly, they started to compose translations into Arabic. These translational enterprises, that were of course carried out for internal needs, teach us not only about the ways the Torah was understood throughout the generations, but also shed light on its Hebrew text.

Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities: Imagining The Michigan State University Israelite Samaritan Collection as the Foundation for a Thriving Social Network

This article discusses the design of a culturally-tailored digital archive with the Samaritan community in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The aim is to bring together two distinct groups of users - textual scholars and members of the Israelite Samaritan community - both of whom have a significant stake in the cultural and scholarly value of the Samaritan Archive, via an online environment in which they can view and interpret the Samaritan texts, interact with members of their respective communities, and interact with one another.

Embedded Midrashim in Samaritan Piyyutim

Embedded Midrashim in Samaritan Piyyutim Moshe Florentin Echoes of Classical Compilations in the Hebrew and Samaritan Liturgy Those who are familiar with the Hebrew and Aramaic piyyut through the ages know how much it was influenced, in form and in content, by classical compilations, and especially by the Bible. The Samaritan piyyut is no exception, and especially the late mediaeval Samaritan piyyut, written in what I call "Hybrid Samaritan Hebrew" (HSH), the Samaritan language which is a mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic, and also a great deal of Arabic. Piyyutim written in HSH are rich in quotations from the Pentateuch (in its Samaritan version, of course), from the Samaritan Aramaic Targum, and from early piyyutim. In many piyyutim one can find quotations from the famous Samaritan midrashic work called Tībåt Mårqe,1 since it used to enjoy great esteem among the Samaritan community. Linguistic and Cultural Liaisons Between Samaritans and Jews Research that has taken place in the last generations has shown that a great measure of affinity existed between the Samaritan languages (Hebrew and Aramaic) on the one hand, and Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic, [End Page 527] and Christian Palestinian Aramaic, on the other. This affinity existed not only in grammar but also in the lexicon, and even in the phraseology and style.2 These findings point not only to the natural similarity between languages actually spoken in the same area but also to strong cultural liaisons that existed between the different communities of speakers. As is well known, such liaisons between Samaritans and Jews are also to be deduced from many places in rabbinic literature. Embedded Aggadah in Unknown Samaritan Piyyutim All this is known; but expressions and ideas, midrashim and aggadot, until now unknown to us from Samaritan sources, which were found for the first time inside unpublished Samaritan piyyutim—this is indeed a matter of interest. This is all the more so when we discover that those are not the output of some Samaritan poet's own imagination but have strong roots in the ancient literary soil of Erets Israel, as in postbiblical literature. The Midrashic and Aggadic Literature of the Samaritans—Examples from Tībåt Mårqe The concept of Samaritan midrash and aggadah is not new. Although the Samaritan midrashic and aggadic literature is not as rich and varied as its Jewish counterpart, we do have two important Samaritan compilations that consist mainly of midrash and aggadah: the first is the chronicle Asatir3 and the second is the above mentioned midrashic compilation Tībåt Mårqe. I will present here two examples from Tībåt Mårqe, which are highly interesting for the common elements of midrash and aggadah that they share with Jewish literature. More precisely, in Tībåt Mårqe there are traces of some midrashim that in their language and formulation are very similar, and sometimes even identical, to midrashim in Jewish literature. In a very important article devoted wholly to this subject, Morde-chai Mishor has presented five such midrashim.4 Since Tībåt Mårqe is not the subject of this article, I will limit myself to two examples: [End Page 528] a. According to the aggadah, it was Serah, the daughter of Asher, who discovered the burial place of Joseph before the Exodus from Egypt. This story is presented in Tībåt Mårqe in these words: Serah set off, and the whole tribe of Ephraim with her, and Moses and Aaron after them, until she reached the place where he [Joseph] was buried, and she stood there, and they excavated the coffin, and took it immediately.5 The same aggadah is found in the Tosefta: How did Moses know where Joseph had been buried? It is said: Serah the daughter of Asher lived in that generation [of Joseph], and she went and told Moses: "Joseph is buried in the river Nile."6 b. According to another aggadah, after the decrees of Pharaoh the Jewish women used to go out to the fields to give birth to their children in hiding. In Tībåt Mårqe this story is told thus: When your enemy ordered the midwives "when...

Robert T. Anderson and Terry Giles. The Keepers: An Introduction to the History and Culture of the Samaritans. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. 300 pp.

The Keepers is a concise and informative introduction to the history and religion of the Samaritans, that branch of the Israelite–Jewish religion that has endured from antiquity to the present among a tiny minority in Palestine and Israel. The book is written in an engaging style that will appeal to a public that would not read specialized works on the subject. At the same time, the information contained in the work is reliable and the authors are careful in their discussions of unsolved (and often unsolvable) issues. In an epilogue, Anderson and Giles underline that there remains a “host of unanswered questions about the history and culture of the Samaritan community” and that this book is “only a beginning” (p. 145).

Maternal and paternal lineages of the Samaritan isolate: mutation rates and time to most recent common male ancestor.

The Samaritan community is a small, isolated, and highly endogamous group numbering some 650 members who have maintained extensive genealogical records for the past 13-15 generations. We performed mutation detection experiments on mitochondrial DNAs and Y chromosomes from confirmed maternal and paternal lineages to estimate mutation rates in these two haploid compartments of the genome. One hundred and twenty four DNA samples from different pedigrees (representing 200 generation links) were analyzed for the mtDNA hypervariable I and II regions, and 74 male samples (comprising 139 links) were typed for 12 Y-STRs mapping to the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY). Excluding two somatic heteroplasmic substitutions and several length variants in the homopolymeric C run in the HVII region, no mutations were found in the Samaritans' maternal lineages. Based on mutations found in Samaritan paternal lineages, an estimate of a mutation rate of 0.42% (95% confidence interval of 0.22%-0.71%) across 12 Y-STRs was obtained. This estimate is slightly higher than those obtained in previous pedigree studies in other populations. The haplotypes identified in Samaritan paternal lineages that belong to the same haplogroup were used to estimate the number of generations elapsed since their most recent common ancestor (MRCA). The estimate of 80 generations corresponds with accepted traditions of the origin of this sect.

A Parish Nurse Practitioner

Debra A. DeMaria, MSN, RN, APN, practices at her own full service family health clinic, Samaritan Community Health Clinic, in Camden, New Jersey. She attends Heritage Church in Voorhees, where she is a parish nurse.Figure

A New Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic

Abstract Samaritan Aramaic was the spoken and literary language of the Samaritan community in Eretz Israel in the first millennium C.E. until it was replaced by Arabic. The major literary remains of the dialect are a Targum to the Pentateuch, liturgical poetry, and a collection of midrashim. Tal's dictionary is the first attempt to organize the vocabulary of these texts, and his work should be commended. Unfortunately, in spite of the long period during which it was written, the dictionary suffers from a variety of defects which make its use difficult for the reader: Order of entries by roots; only partial use of English as target language along side Hebrew; inconsistencies in translation of quotations in parallel entries; inordinate number of errors in orthography; insufficient use of existing dictionaries of other Aramaic dialects.

Tel-eNursing practice: setting standards for practice across the continuum of care.

What was thought to be a quick and limited quality performance improvement (QPI) project between a few departments providing telephone nursing services became an involved organization-wide QPI project to standardize telephone practice. Initially, telephone nursing practice, expanded roles of nurses, and extent of healthcare professionals using the telephone to provide care from afar were not well understood. Lack of standardization and quality and risk management issues were identified. The Good Samaritan Community Healthcare QPI plan of action provided the roadmap to standardize telephone practice across the organization. Many leadership challenges occurred along the road to QPI for telephone practice, as caution signs were acknowledged, hills were climbed, and corners maneuvered.

Samaritan Conditions in Nablus as Presented in Tamimi and Bahjat’s Book, Welayet Beirut a Systematic: Historical Study

Welayet Beirut by Mohammad R. Tamimi (1885-1956) and Mohammad Bahjat (1890-?) is considered one of the major books of contemporary trips which surveys Samaritan Conditions in Nablus before World War I. The information presented in the book is of great significance as it offers detailed descriptions of Samaritan Conditions in this period - such information cannot be found in different Arabic resources. This research, therefore, presents the social, political and cultural background of the authors, Tamimi and Bahjat, the impact of such biographical background on the content of the book and on the Samaritan Community in particular. The study also analyses the information presented by the authors in their book - Samaritan dwelling, their Synagogue, religion, beliefs, social, intellectual and spiritual conditions, their language, literature and crafts as well. Through a comparative study with some contemporary and modern studies, the researcher systematically touches upon their references, opinions as well as styles.

أقلية تحت الاحتلال: دراسة للمواقف الاجتماعية والسياسية للطائفة السامرية في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة

The Samaritan community is one of the smallest minorities in the world. Most of them live in the City of Nablus in Palestine. As a small minority with a main interest to survive, and to reserve its identity and heritage, the Samaritans do their best to keep their neutrality and good relations with all powers and factions in the region.

The Museum Trail: The Michigan State University Samaritan Collection

The Samaritan community is an important resource in the study of the Bible, and this museum collection preserves many of its artifacts.

Genes and phenotypes in the Samaritan isolate.

AbstractA genetic and anthropological survey of the Samaritan community in Israel carried out in the autumn of 1963 included tests for about 30 blood group antigens, several serum proteins, hemoglobin variants Glucose‐6‐Phosphate Dehydrogenase activity, secretor status, color‐blindness and some 18 anthropometric measurements and 18 morphological observations. About 90% of the total group were studied.The results obtained show that in blood groups, the Samaritans have the highest O frequency in the Middle East, A2 is more common than A1, and there are more N genes than M. Not a single case of G6PD deficiency was found. The incidence of color‐blindness is very high (27%). There is heterogeneity in physical type and large variations between individuals are also manifested in hair and eye‐color distribution.

XX. On the Newly Discovered Samaritan Book of Joshua

A Peculiar fate seems to be hanging over the Samaritan literature. Although it is very old, and parts of it go back to centuries before the Christian era, yet one may say that it remained unknown to our very days. It was a continued discovery, one book after the other turning up haphazard, the first discovery dating only from the end of the sixteenth century. Since Scaliger came in contact with the Samaritan community in Cairo, the knowledge of Samaritans and Samaritan literature began to penetrate into Europe.