Posted: 9/15/2013 12:24:33 PM EDT
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So I was, while procrastinating on a school assignment, contemplating the ethnic group referred to in the new testament as the "Samaritans". The Bible doesn't go in depth regarding Judean/Samaritan relations, though it does suggest a certain degree of animosity between the two peoples. So then I looked it up on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans#Samaritanism And apparently, Samaritans still exist. They practice their own Abrahamic religion, based on their particular version of the Torah. They think all of the Jewish texts accepted by Jews as cannon after the Torah are bullshit. There were apparently millions at some point, with Samaritans about as numerous as Jews in the Roman province of Judea. Now there are a mere 750. Apparently the primary cultural difference between Jews and Samaritans is that the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon while the Samaritans continued living in the Levant. For whatever reason, after the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile, a Catholic vs Protestant or Sunni vs Shia style conflict started between the Jews and the Samaritans. Anyway, as a Biblical history nerd, I thought this was cool and decided I would share.  |
