The new inhabitants of Samaria carried along with them their idolatrous worship. In the early period of their settlement they wcre attacked by lions, which they regarded as a judgment inflicted by the deity of the land, whom they did not wor ship. Accordingly they applied to the Assyrian king Esarhaddon for an Israelitish priest to teach them the proper worship of the local god. The request was granted. One of the transported priests was despatched to them, who came and dwelt at Bethel, and instructed them in the worship of Jehovah. He was not a I,evitical priest, but an Israelitish priest of the calves ; because there had been no Levitical ones in the kingdom when the inhabitants were carried away ; and because Bethel, where he settled, was the chief seat of the calf-worship. On the return of the Jews from their Babylonish captivity, the Samaritans wished to join them in rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem, saying, Let us build with you : for we seek your God as ye do ; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assur, which brought us up hither' (Ezra iv. 2). But the prof fered assistance was declined. Thenceforward they threw all obstacles in the way of the returned exiles. Nor were their efforts to frustrate the operations of the JCAVS entirely unsuccessful. Two Persian , kings were induced to hinder the Jews in their re building ; and their opposition was not finally over come till the reign of Darius Hystaspes.
The enmity which began at the time when the co-operation of the Samaritans in rebuilding the temple was refused, continued to increase till it reached such a height as to become proverbial in after times. In the reign of Darius Nothus, one Manasseh, of priestly descent, was expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah for an illegal marriage, and took refuge with the Samaritans. Whether the temple on Mount Gerizini was actually built in the days of Manasseh is doubtful. Probably he laboured to unite the people in a common worship. The temple does not seem to have been erected till the time of Alexander the Great, who gave permission to build it. If so, it did not exist till about too years after Manasseh. It is difficult to make a consistent and clear account of the rnatter out of Josephus, who has evidently fallen into error. since he is inconsistent with Neh. xiii. 28, etc. The establishment of a separate worship and temple made the breach existing between the Jews and Samaritans irreparable. From this time mal content Jews resorted to Samaria ; and the very name of either people became odious to the other. About the year 129 B.c., John Hyrcanus, high priest of the Jews, destroyed the city and temple of the Samaritans. Under Vespasian the city of Sichem received the new name of Neapolis, which still remains in the Arabic form Nablus. At the time of Pilate a tumult was excited among the Samaritans by an adventurer, who persuaded the common people to follow him to the summit of Gerizim, where he pretended that Moses had buried the golden vessels. But Pilate dispersed the multi tude with troops, and put the heads of the sedition to death. In consequence of the Samaritans com plaining of his conduct to Vitellius, Pilate was de posed and sent to Rome. Josephus relates that while Vespasian was endeavouring to subjugate the neighbouring districts, the Samaritans collected in large numbers and took up their position on Mount Gerizim. The Roman general attacked and slew rt,600. Under Septimius Severus they joined the Jews against him ; and therefore Nea.polis was de prived of its rights. In the 3d. and 4th centuries, notwithstanding their former calamities, they seem to have greatly increased and extended, not only in the east but the west. In the 5th century a
tumult was excited at Neapolis, during which the Samaritans ran into the Christian church which was thronged with worshippers, killing, maiming, and mutilating many. The bishop Terebinthus having repaired to Constantinople, and complained to the emperor, the latter punished the guilty by driving them from Mount Gerizim and giving it to the Christians, where a church was erected in honour of the Virgin. Under Anastasius an insur rection headed by a woman broke out, and was soon suppressed. Under Justinian there was a more formidable and extensive outbreak. It is related that all the Samaritans in Palestine rose up against the Christians, and committed many atro cities, killing, plundering, burning, and torturing.
Neapolis they crowned their leader Julian king. But the imperial troops were sent ag,ainst them ; and great numbers, with Julian himself, were slain. In the time of the Crusaders Neapolis suffered, along with other places in Palestine. In 1184 it was plundered by Saladin. After the battle of Hattin, in '187, it was devastated ; and the sacred places in the neighbourhood were polluted by Sala din's troops. Having been several times in the hands of the Christians, it was taken by Abu 'Aly in 1244 ; since which it has remained in the power of the Mohammedans. No Christian historian of the Crusades mentions the Samaritans ; but they are noticed by I3enjamin of Tudela in the r2th century, who calls them Cuthites or Cutheans. In the r7th century Della Valle gives an account of them ; subsequently Maundrell and Morison. After an interest in the people had been awakened by the reception of copies of their Pentateuch, their answers to the letters which Joseph Scaliger had sent to their communities in Nablus and Cairo came into the ha.nds of John Morin, who made a Latin trans lation of them. The originals, and a better ver sion, were published by De Sacy in Eichhorn's Repertoritem, Band xiii. In 167t a letter was sent by the Samaritans at Nablus to Robert Hunting ton, which was answered by Thomas Marshall of Oxford. The correspondence thus begun con tinued till 1688. De Sacy published it entire in Correstondance des Samaritans, contained in Notices et extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi, vol. xii. The correspondence between LudoIf and the Samaritans was published by Cellarius and Bruns ; and is also in Eichhorn's Reprtorium, Band xiii. In 1807 a letter front the Samaritans to Gregoire the French bishop came into De Sacy's hands, who answered it. This was followed by four others, which were all published by the eminent French orientalist. In recent times many travellers have visited and given an account of the Samaritan remnant, such as Pliny Fisk, Robinson, and Wilson. One of the late notices is that of M. E. Rogers, in Domestic Life in Palestine, 1863, 2d ed. ch. x. Another and fuller account is given in Mills's Three months' residence in Nablus, and an account of the modern Samaritans, izmo, 1864; see also Barges' Les Samaritains de Naplause,1855, 8vo, Paris. Their festivals and customs are de scribed by Petermann, who spent two months in that locality (article Samaria' in Herzog's Ency klopedie, vol. xiii.) Mr. Grove has given an ac count of the ceremonial of their atonement in Vacation Tourists for 1S61; and Stanley, of their passover, in Lectures on the Yezoish Church, ap pendix iii. The people are very poor now, and their number small, less than 20o. To all appear ance their total extinction is not far distant.— S. D.