Читать книгу Judaism I - Группа авторов - Страница 58

The fundamental element is the link to the Torah of Moses. The Samaritans held to the Torah alone, not recognizing the »Prophets and Writings« which came into the canon in the two centuries on either side of the turn of the era. In this regard the Samaritans were closer to the Sadducean wing of Judaism than the Qumran Essene wing or even the Pharisaic. In their exclusive observance of the Torah, they are best comparable to the Karaites.⁷² Their Torah loyalty did, however, display features in which self-interest is also apparent. The most important change was made, of all things, to the Decalogue, where as a tenth commandment, the building of an altar on Mount Gerizim was added following Deut 27:4–7. This passage also altered vis-à-vis the MT:

(4) When you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones (cf. Deut 27:2f.), which I command you this day to set up, on Mount Gerizim (MT: Mount Ebal). You shall brush them with lime. (5) There you shall build an altar to Yahweh, your God, an altar of stones. You shall not work it with iron tools. (6) You shall build the altar of Yahweh, your God, of unhewn stones, and on it you shall offer burnt offering sacrifices for Yahweh, your God. (7) There you shall slaughter and consume salvation sacrifice animals and celebrate before Yahweh, your God.⁷³

This is the legitimation of an exclusively Samaritan YHWH-cult on Mount Gerizim. Whether Samaritan synagogues were already formed at the time when the temple on Mount Gerizim existed or only after its destruction, remains an open question. »Next to nothing is known of the origins of the Samaritan synagogue.«⁷⁴ It is only very recently that interest in the current history of the Samaritans has resurfaced.⁷⁵

To summarize: The Samaritans were not a »Jewish sect«­—as strictly speaking Jewish sects did not exist before the canonization of rabbinic Judaism in the second century CE—and they never saw themselves as such. They are an Israelite community focused on Torah alone, whose background may indeed be influenced by northern Israelite syncretistic elements, but which committed itself to exclusive Torah observance from the third or second century BCE. In the Samaritan Pentateuch we meet scripture that is strictly focused on the Mosaic Torah and which deviates from the »Judean« Pentateuch at specific points. These divergences are part of the self-portrayal of the Samaritan religious self-understanding. As »Samaritans« they are not »Judeans.« Whether they are »Jews« is a matter of debate. Josephus tells us that the Samaritans presented themselves as Jews when it suited them and as non-Jews when being Jews would have been harmful to them (cf. Ant. 12.257–264). This is made especially clear in relation to the oppression of the Jewish cult in Jerusalem under Antiochus IV and the Maccabean uprising. Josephus reports (Ant. 12.257–264, excerpts):

(257) When the Samaritans saw the Jews under these sufferings, they no longer confessed that they were of their kindred, nor that the temple on Mount Gerizim belonged to Almighty God … And they now said that they were a colony of Medes and Persians; and indeed they were a colony of theirs. So, they sent ambassadors to Antiochus, and an epistle, whose contents are these: »To king Antiochus the god, Epiphanes, a memorial from the Sidonians, who live at Shechem. (259) Our forefathers, upon certain frequent plagues, and as following a certain ancient superstition, had a custom of observing that day which by the Jews is called the Sabbath. And when they had erected a temple at the mountain called Gerizim, though without a name, they offered upon it the proper sacrifices. (260) Now, upon the just treatment of these wicked Jews, those that manage their affairs, supposing that we were of kin to them, and practiced as they do, make us liable to the same accusations, although we be originally Sidonians ... (261) We therefore beseech thee, our benefactor and Savior, to give order to Apollonius, the governor of this part of the country, and to Nicanor, the procurator of thy affairs, to give us no disturbance … ,since we are aliens from their [i.e. the Jews’] nation, and from their customs; but let our temple, which at present hath no name at all be named the Temple of Jupiter Hellenius.⁷⁶

Antiochus acquitted the Samaritans of the allegations and granted that their sanctuary should be named after Zeus Hellenius (Ant. 12.262–264).

The period following this was not free of conflicts with Jerusalem and the Judeans either. The most important event was the above-mentioned destruction of the sanctuary on Gerizim by the Hasmonean Hyrcanus I. Herod sought peace by rebuilding Samaria as Sebaste (Ant. 15.296–298; J.W. 1.403) and the marriage of the Samaritan woman Malthake (Ant. 17.20; J.W. 1.562f.). Enmity was inflamed by the desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem by Samaritans strewing human bones in the Jerusalem temple (Ant. 18.29) and the murder of Galilean Passover pilgrims (Ant. 20.118–136; J.W. 2.232–247). At the beginning of the Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–74 CE), the rebels destroyed Sebaste (J.W. 2.458–460).⁷⁷