EBAL, and GERIZIM, Two mountains of Palestine significant in Hebrew tradition in connection with the blessing and cursing of the people (Dent. xi. 29. xxvii. 11-26: 33-4). They are situated in central separated by a narrow valley about 200 yards wide, in which stands the town of Nabulus Neapolis. the ancient Shochem), which is still the metropolis of the Samaritans,. They rise to an elevation of 3077 feet and 2S-I9 feet respec tively, and are known at the present day as Jebel Sulemiyell and .rebel et-Tur. The Samari tans erected a temple on Nount Gerizim prob ably in the fourth century before Christ. It was destroyed by about two hundred years later, but the mountain continued to be held sacred. A rivalry between the Jerusalem and the Samaritan cults is a feature of post exilic Jewish history and continues to the days of Jesus. The narrative of the blessing and cursing in Deuteronomy is thought by ninny to be a late addition to the book reflecting the Jewish side of this controversy. The Hebrew text of Dent. xxvii. 4-8 enjoins the building of an altar to Jehovah on 1\lount Ebal, and the plac ing there of large stones inscribed with the law. This injunction according to the Samaritan text, refers to Gerizim. Two explanations of the dis crepancy are possible. Either the Hebrew is correct and the Samaritan an intentional altera tion to justify the building of the temple on Gerizim, or the Samaritan is correct and the Ilebrew all early change to deprive this temple of its scriptural support. The former view is
generally held by modern scholars, but there is much to be said in favor of the latter. if the law which the Samaritans recognized ordained the eonstri•tion of a sanctuary on :Mount Elml, it is difficult to see why they should deliberately have chosen the other mountain; while it is quite apparent why the mention of Gerizim as a spot divinely selected for a sanctuary in a book that never refers to Jerusalem by name should have caused a Jewish scribe to correct it, as an error. In either ease the injunction is singularly out of harmony with the centralizing tendency of the code, and seems to point to a firmly rooted tradition. It was to Gerizim and the controversy between Jews and Samaritans concerning its sanctity that the 'woman of Samaria' referred in her conversation with Jesus (John iv. 201). The Samaritans claim that Gerizim was the scene of' the attempted sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. xxii.), and on this mount they still perform the yearly paschal sacrifice. See SAMARITANS.