Judaism – The Legal Case: Proof Beyond Doubt

Now we meet some very useful enemies, the Samaritans – Shomronim. They are a proudly distinct non-Jewish group, who despite hating us, verify our claims. 

The Samaritans: Historical Appearance and Background

They stepped briefly on the stage at our Return from Babylon (370 BCE) and had been in the Land for 185 years prior to that. At the Return from Babylon, they were living in the north, still today called Samaria (Shomron), and as mentioned above, followed the Torah and used almost the entire text except for a very few sentences. They see themselves as the real Jews in the absence of the old exiled Jews. 

Interaction With Samaritans During the Second Temple

They offered to help build the Second Temple on our return from Babylon. Understandably, they became enraged when they were rejected because they were not regarded as Jews and they then tried to prevent the building.

Modern Samaritan Community

They are today a tiny, mysterious but very much alive community numbering about 500, half of whom live today near Tel Aviv and half in Palestinian Gerizim. Claiming that for over 2700 years they have had the true version of Judaism jealously kept separate from ours. They steadfastly insist that they are Jews whom Joshua led into Canaan and that we are the divergent Jews, corrupting the religion as early as 1272 BCE.

Evidence Of Samaritans From Dead Sea Scrolls

Indeed, the Dead Sea Scrolls show the dispute as to whether Jerusalem or Gerizim is the temple site, proving the Samaritans were centred on Mount Gerizim for 500 to 1000 years before the Dead Sea Scrolls. We both had the Torah throughout that time.

Shared Torah and Credibility

The central issue is that they have, practically word for word, the same Torah dating back to 555 BCE – and you can really believe them because they are not Jews.

Tracing Samaritan History

Actually the Samaritans’ claimed history starts before 555 BCE – and we do need to trace this back. 

Their narrative is that they are descendants of the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe who, for over 3 centuries, disagreed with the Jewish establishment before finally breaking off at the time of the High Priest Eli. This would be circa 900 BCE.

Claims About Their Temple

They claim that their temple – the only real temple – was built originally on Mount Gerizim at that time and that Solomon’s is not the true temple. Four centuries later, in 555 BCE, when the Ten Tribes were destroyed by the Assyrians, the Samaritans claim to have been spared and continued to occupy a northern ‘Israel’, permanently emptied of Jews.

Assyrian Annals and Contradictions

The annals of the Assyrian Conquests do indeed mention them. They however contradict the Samaritans’ claim that they were already in the Land. In describing the Assyrian policy of removing all the inhabitants – 27,280 people – from northern Israel and repopulated it with foreigners, the Assyrians mention bringing in the Samaritans. Old religions persisted amongst these enforced immigrants but they also adopted parts of Judaism to appease the ‘local gods’. For the Samaritans, this became their major belief. Thus, it seems difficult to claim that they are descendants of Jewish tribes. You can read of the DNA and archaeological proof just below.

Babylonian Invasion and Survival

A century or so after the Greek/Assyrians descended in 555 BCE destroying the Ten Tribes, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the remaining Southern Kingdom. The Samaritans who still occupied the devastated north, rapidly insisted rather sensibly that they were not Jews. He therefore let them remain around Mount Gerizim when we were taken off to Babylon – 422 BCE.

Dismissal of Samaritan Claims

Most had dismissed this all as fantasy. The world insisted that the Samaritans did not begin their history in the Holy Land with Joshua (1272 BCE) or the Assyrians (555 BCE) but only with the Babylonian conquest (422 BCE). 

Motivations of Bible Experts

This was because the gentile and secular Bible ‘experts’ needed to place our ‘concoction of the Torah’ no earlier than that period.

Those Jews’ Hebrew Bible had to be – simply had to be – composed no earlier. It was presumably hastily scribbled out in the motorway cafes on the way back from Babylon. If anyone mentioned the Samaritans, they were dismissed as Jews who remained in Judea during the Babylonian Exile and then rejected the new-fangled hotchpotch Text with which we came back. These sad phonies continue to spread their nonsense that the Torah was composed about 350 BCE.

Talmud’s Perspective

The Talmud discussed the Samaritans and all this, 2000 years ago and was naturally ignored but now it is proven scientifically to be absolutely accurate. We stated that the Samaritans had the Torah from well before the Exile – since at least 555 BCE. The Bible Critics, who were renowned experts in Hebrew and Aramaic of course, seemed to have been, surprise – surprise, unable to read the Aramaic Talmud or Hebrew Torah or any texts covering this. Surprise, surprise.

Critique of Torah Composition Theories

It was ridiculous to claim that the Torah is a scam written by Ezra or Babylonian leaders. Would the Samaritans have accepted anything from the hated leaders of the hated Jews – especially a text concocted in Babylon? How had they become crypto-Jews without the Torah? How come their version is an almost perfect replica and remains today written in the ancient original proto-Hebrew script – as described by the Talmud? All significant differences – such as some dietary, marital, liturgical distinctions – were highlighted and bitterly contested centuries earlier than Ezra.

Timing of Torah Existence

When must that Torah have been in existence? Who could claim it was composed later? Who shares their intellectual achievements with nematodes? The only people I know who are cerebrally challenged to that degree are indeed Wellhausenians and the Bible Critics. And when archaeology and DNA testing in 2004 and 2006 shattered the silence and verified the Talmud, these brazen, pampered academics did not even blush. They doubled-down. 

Persistence of Disproven Theories

Even today there are millions who believe their entirely disproven theories. However, one should not become too excited about this. It is called ‘normality’. Much of the Samaritans’ narrative was justified except their claim to go further back than the Assyrian conquest. Excavations have revealed the original Samaritan temple carbon dated to 550 BCE – the exact date of the Assyrian destruction of the ten northern tribes of Israel – but the same dig has revealed solid bedrock beneath this. No older buildings have been identified anywhere on Gerizim to suggest an older temple which they claim was from 900 BCE. However, the finds confirm their worship was parallel to ours, there being only kosher animal sacrifice bones and, remarkably, sacrificial doves precisely as in the Torah.

DNA Evidence from 2004 Study

Just read this, the Abstract of a fully-endorsed paper from 2004: ‘The Samaritan community, which numbered more than a million in late Roman times and only 146 in 1917, numbers today about 640 people representing four large families. They are culturally different from both Jewish and non-Jewish populations in the Middle East and their origin remains a question of great interest. Genetic differences between the Samaritans and neighbouring Jewish and non-Jewish populations are corroborated …and….principal component analysis suggests a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohenim) at the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel.’ 

Interpretation of DNA Findings

 ‘At the time of the Assyrian conquest…..’. So their DNA supports absolutely their claims to date back to the Ten Tribes’ dispersal in 555 BCE. But even more amazing is that they actually have insisted on a particular and distinct priestly descendancy from the sons of the Cohen Pinchus, as opposed to the Cohen Eli, who was a dissenter in their version of events. And they indeed carry a single male Y-DNA trace leading to a single Cohen living in the time of the Assyrian conquest. However they have no other specific Jewish DNA. If they were descended from two tribes of Jews of Joshua’s time and then strenuously married only within their group, their genes should match across the spectrum of Jewish DNA and Y (male) chromosomes. 

Remarkable Discoveries and Practices

These discoveries remain remarkable. And again, remember that they use the original proto-Hebrew. They proudly read out every Sabbath the same Hebrew words as we have, but from their version in the ancient characters. Their children of 7 can easily read the 4000 year old alphabet. Try to read their scrolls – not א ב ג – but only 𐤀𐤁𐤂. They do so every week.

Samaritan Centers and Rituals

There are two centers – the original on Jabal Jirzim – Mount Gerizim – just south of Nablus on the West Bank, and a second of similar size centered in Ben Amram Street in the township of Holon, southern Tel Aviv. Go and watch their rites with thousands of other tourists. Again, the Samaritans had always rejected our Talmud. 

Rejection of Oral Tradition

They did this in 370 BCE when it was still an oral tradition only, thus proving that our Oral Law also existed six centuries before it was finally written down. They have a different non-Talmudic calendar, reject some Talmudic leniencies and are pleased to detail all their dissimilarities. Interestingly, they still follow many things harking back to Temple times such as a famous Passover sacrificial service – roasting each family’s lamb on a vertical spit – as they did two millennia ago and their versions of Succos (Tabernacles) and Shevuos (Pentecost).

Festival Practices

They all go up to their temple for those three festivals precisely as we went up to Jerusalem. The Samaritans may not be our best friends – but they were honest enemies with accurate memories in insisting with us that we already shared the Torah 2500 years ago. Their DNA and claims have utterly exploded Wellhausen and his monkeys’ nonsensical dating of the Torah.

Verification and Impact

For your journey back, they verify the existence and text of the Torah and liquidate the idiotic ignorant Biblical Critics’ blatherings. They also validate the Talmud All this is astonishing. It proves absolutely your antiquity. Feel old and proud. And do remember your family were still carrying our version of the Torah, word for word, in their arms until only a couple of generations ago.

Conclusion and Transition

You are an ancient relic; a living fossil; the last survivor of your family. Enjoy. Before leaving these centuries and trudging further back with your ancestors as they welcomed their new king, Solomon, you now need to meet a unique, proud, noble and utterly incredible group of most ancient Jews – the authentic Jews – the Yemenites. After studying the Yemenite Jews, your Jewish awareness can never be the same.

Look for their blogs.