O WARRFTtf
GERGESENES.— See Gerasenes.
GGRIZIU (D'n? VT har Gerizztm, the modem Jebel et-fUr). — This important mountain faces its northern companion Ebal, having in the narrow pass between them the town of Nflblus (Neapolis), the ancient Shechem. Its height, 2849 ft., makes it lower than the other by 228 ft., but it has far surpassed it in historical and religious associations. The cleft between them (to which possibly the mountain owes its name) presents the only pass from east to west in the mountain range of Ephraim, and, being also on the main road from north to south, its facility of access and central position in the land marked it out as an important place in the kingdom of Israel.
To-day, as the sacred place of the little Samari-
tan community, it ia interesting chiefly as • monument to the vitality of religious prejudice. The Samaritan Pentateuch contains a verse giving express commandment that an altar should be built on Mt. Gerizira, making it rather than Ebal or the temple-rock of Jerusalem the first and central shrine of the chosen people and the re- vealed law. This knowledge of the will of the Almighty is thus confined to a small and dwindling company in a Syrian village, the rest of the world, both Jews and Gentiles, being in darkness and error ; and the assumption is to them one of com- fort and complacency. The Samaritans and tlieir Mt. Gerizim thus form the world's iiieniorial of sectarianism, after the manner of Natural History showing at once the grub and the leaf it lives upon.
The top of the mountain is broad, bare, and rocky, and among the sacred places scattered over it some refer to the Bible narrative, others to Samaritan events, and others to Christian history. 1. Patriarchal. — Abraham entered the Promised Land by the pass of Gerizim, encamping at Shechem by the oak of Moreh, Gn 12* (J). Geri- zim is also claimed, as against Mt. jloriah in Jerusalem, to have been the mountain to which Abraham was directed when commanded to oiler up Isaac, Gn 22- (K). Much discussion has taken place over this locality, the evidence bearing chiefly on points of distance, conspicuousness, and the meaning of the words Moreh and Illoriah. The Scripture account scarcely encourages such attempted precision, as its reference is merely to 'one of the mountains,' the words 'of Moriah' being an undoubted gloss. On the whole, Gerizim or some neighbouring height accords best with the Bible description.
The Samaritans point to a trench on the S.E. end of the Gerizim summit as the snot where Isaac was laid on the altar. The Jews and Moslems agree with tlie Samaritans in attaching great im- portance to this trial by sacrifice in the life of Abraham, Jewish tradition stating that Isaac said to his father, 'Bind me fast,' and the Moslems making Ishmael, whom they substitute for Isaac, surpass this zeal by saj'ing, ' Do not bind me.'
Samaritan tradition, arguing from the neigh- bourhood of the village of Salem, makes Gerizira the place where Abraham was met by Melchizedek and the king of distant Sodom (Gn 14""^-). It is also connected with Jacob, who, on his return from Paddan-aram, bought ' the parcel of ground ' for his encampment at Shechem, Gn 33'*"'"' (E). In addition to this, the Samaritans point to a spot on the summit called Khurhet Lauzeh, as the place where Jacob slept, and had the vision of divine protection and promise, Gn 28'"- (E).
2. Israelite. — Ebal and Gerizim were the mountains on whose sides the tribes assembled under Joshua, according to the command of Moses, to hear the curses and the blessings connected with the observance of the law (Dt ll»'-s- 27"-", Jos §33. 84) Gerizim was probably selected in preference to Ebal as the mount of blessing, because to one looking eastwards it was on the riijht hand, the side of good fortune (see Driver on Dt 11^). The Samaritans point out a piece of flat rocky ground as the site of Joshua's altar and their own temple.
The distance from Ai, taken along with the position of Ebal and Gerizim in the centre of a hostile country, has off'ered a diflSculty to the acceptance of the above narrative in Deutero- nomy. A solution was attempted by Eusebius (Onom. sac.^ 253), Epiphanius, and others, by referring Ebal and Gerizim to localities nearer the Jordan Valley. But their connexion with Shechem, to which Josephus (Ant. xi. viii. C), Eusebius, and Jerome themselves refer, ha* always discountenanced such a theory.
GEKON
GERSHON
Ibl
Geriziiii comes again into prominence when Jotham delivered his highly ligurative parable to the treaclieroua elders of Slieohera (Jg 9'''").
Tradition has represented these two mountains as brought under the spell of the blessings and curses once pronounced upon them, declaring Gerizim to be beautiful ancl fertile, while Ebal is bare and barren ; but at tlie present day they sliow the similarity that might be exfiected from their proximity, elevation, and composition.
3. Samaritan. — It ia well known that the Samaritans erected a temple on Gerizim wliich la-nceforth became the rival of the temple at Jerusalem in historical claims and sanctity as a religious centre. The occa.sion that led to its erection, ace. to Josephus (Ant. XI. viii. 2, 4), was the marriage between Manasseh of the high- priestly family in Jerusalem and the daughter of SanbaUat. This union, and many similar inter- marriages, created the desire for an independent sanctuary, that would be free from the dictation of the Jerusalem authorities. It is practically certain that Josephus' chronology here is incorrect. He places the erection of the schismatic temple in the time of Alexander the Great, who, according to him, authorized its erection ; but there can be little doubt that the temple on Gerizim was built a century earlier (c. 432 B.C.) by the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite referred to in Neh 13^ (cf. inter alius, Ryle, Canon ofOT, 91 f.). This Samari- tan temple lasted at least till the time of the Macjabees, when it was probably destroyed (c. 110 n.c)by John Hyrcanus ( Jos. Ant. xill. ix. 1 ; Wars, I. ii. 6). To wliat extent this rivalry as to the proper site of worship survived in the time of Christ, is seen in the proverbial hatred between Jews and Samaritans, and in the arguments urged bj' the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well(Jn 4=*--').