In accordance with the Law, the levirate marriage is practised ; but with the difference, that it is not the brother, but the nearest friend that takes his wife. As among the Sephardic Jews also, a second wife is allowed during the life of the first when she has had no children.
Beyond these things their religious ideas are vague. The Pentateuch is their sole canonical book, and beyond its life they never seem to have passed. They were never called upon to go tlirough a stirring national crisis, like the Jews during the Maccaboean times, and so tliey never rose to the same vigour and intellectual life. The written sources of their dogma are late, but from these and from Jewish sidelights we can learn something. It is discussed in the Talmud as to wiiether they are to be classed with the Sadducees in belief, and the Jews seem to have had some ground for thinking so, for they are represented as saying that ' no resurrection is recorded in the Law' (Bab. Sanh. 906). Still, the modern Samaritan believes in a resurrection, in the distinction be- tween good and evil spirits, in a judgment, and in the ci'eation from nothing. It is to be remarked, however, that Arabic writers in the jSIiddle Ages tell us of Samaritan sects professing the distinctive beliefs of both Pharisees and Sadducees, so that tlie opinions of both parties must have been held by individuals at an earlier date. In Jn 4-' we find that the woman of Samaria looked forward to the coming of a prophet whom she, like the Jews, designated 'the Messiah.' That this word should have been used bj^ her has been regarded as peculiar, since it does not occur in the Law, but in the 1st cent, we find Samaritans familiar with and quoting tiie prophets {]\Hd. Dehar. § 3) ; and, besides, we must see that it would be impossible for a faith like theirs, continually under the pres- sure of a foreign bondage, to survive without absorbing many of the elements of Jewish eschatol- ogy ; and of these the Messianic idea was the most widely spread in the 1st cent., so much so that it was hardly possible for even the Samaritans to escape its influence. It was doubtless in connexion with such a hope that the prophet arose, and tumults occurred which were put down by Pilate, causing liim finally tlie loss of his office {Ant. XVIII. iv. 1) ; as it also led Simon Magus to give himself out as some great one (Ac 8^). When the ISIessianic idea took final form, they expected the Messiah's coming in the year 6000 A.M., but did not think
that he should be greater than Moses. Whether he should be of tiie tribe of Joseph does not appear, but they denied the ai)plication of Gn 49"* (where their re.'uUng varies from the MT) as proof that he should spring from Judali. From the Jews they adopted the .synagogue system ; and, apart from the feast days kept on Gerizim, all their worship is conducted in Keniset es-Sdniir^, the synagogue of the Samaritans, in tiie S.W. of tiie town (Nftblus). The iiigli priest, who is said to be of the tribe of Levi, conducts tlieir .services, and, according to tlie Law, he receives tithes from his people.
4. Literature. — The most ancient and important document the Samaritans possess is the (Hebrew-) Samaritan Pentateuch ; and this tliey seem to have become possessed of at a very early date — indeed, before tiie Babylonian (niE'N) alpiiabet had sup- idanted the older Hebrew, for, like all tiie later books of this people, it is written in a character that is now peculiar to them, — the Samaritan alphabet, — but wliicii in itself is nothing more or less than a cursive form of tiie old lapidary script of Hebrew, Phoenician, and Moabite. Another testimony to their early reception of the Torah is tliat it is not divided into parCishahs like the jNIT, but, on a totally different principle, independent alike of the Rabbis and the Alexandrian critics, into kctztn. These number in all 962, Genesis con- taining 250, Exodus 200, Leviticus 134, Numbers 218, and Deuteronomy 160. While the language of this recension of the Pentateuch is Hebrew, it supports in the matter of various readings rather tiie LXX than tlie MT, the number of agreements being not less tiian 2000, while in the ages of the patriarchs it differs from both the LXX and tlie MT. But more to be considered than all these taken togetlier are certain variations that have liad an important bearing on their religion. The Jews were wont to accuse the Samaritans of having corrupted the Law ; and the charge was well founded. In Dt 27'* (cf. also v.'') we find the .sub- .stitution of 'Gerizim' for 'Ebal,' and at the close of the Decalogue in both Ex 20^' and Dt 5-^ a long passage is inserted — ■
' And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanite, whither thou gfoest in to possess it, thou shalt set up for thyself great stones, and thou shalt plaster them with lime, and thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law ; and it shall be when ye pass over Jordan, ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, on Mount Gerizim, and thou shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt offer upon it sacrifices to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and thou shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. That mountain is beyond Jordan after the way from the rising of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite, who dwelleth in the West, over against Gilgal, near by the oak of Moreh, over against Shechem.'