(5.) We now enter upon the second phase in the his- tory of Gerizim. According to Josei)hus, a marriage contracted between Manasseh, brother of Jaddus, the then high-priest, and the daughter of Sanballat the Cuthican (comp. 2 Kings xvii, 21), having created a great stir amongst the Jews (who had been strictly forbidden to contract alien marriages ; Ezra ix, 2 ; Neh. xiii, 23) — Sanliallit, in order to reconcile his son- in-law to this iinpopul ir afihiity, obtained leave from Alexander the Great to build a temple upon Mount Gerizim, and to inaugurate there a priesthood and al- tar rival to those of Jerusalem (Ant. xi, 8, 2-4, and, for the harmonizing of the names and date, Prideaux, Connect, i, 390, and sq., l^'Caul's edit.). "Samaria thenceforth," says Prideaux, " l)ocame the common refuge and asylum of the refractory Jews" (ibid. ; see also Joseph. Ant. xi, 8, 7), and for a time, at "least, their temple seems to have been called by the name of a Greek deity (Ant. xii, 5. 5). Hence one of the first acts of Hyrcanus, when the death of Antiochus Sidetes
had set his hands free, was to seize Shcchem, and de- stroy' the temple upon Gerizim, after it had stood there 200 years (Ant. xiii, i), 1). But the destruction of their temple by no means crushed the rancor of the Samaritans. The road from Galilee to Judasa lay then, as now, through Samaria, skirting the foot of Gerizim (John iv, 4). Here was a constant occasion for religious controversy and for outrage. "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest to drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria .'"said the female to our Lord at the well of Jacob — where both parties would always be sure to meet. " Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship?" . . . Subsequently we read of the depredations committed on that road upon a party of Galilreans (Ant. sx, G, 1). The liberal at- titude, first of the Saviour, and then of his disciples (Acts viii, 14), was thrown awaj' upon all those who would not abandon their creed. Gerizim thus con- tinued to be the focus of outbreaks through successive centuries. One, under Pilate, while it led to their se- vere chastisement, ])rocured the disgrace of that ill- starred magistrate, who had crucified "Jesus, the king of the Jews," with impunity (Ant. xviii, 4, 1). An- other hostile gathering on the same spot caused a slaughter of 10, GOO of them under Vespasian. It is re- markable that, in this instance, want of water is said to have made them easy victims ; so that the delicious- ly cold and pure spring on the summit of Gerizim must have failed before so great a multitude ( War, iii, 7, 32). At length their aggressions were directed against the Christians inhabiting Neapolis — now pow- erful, and under a bishop — in the reign of Zeno. Ter- ebinthus at once carried the news of this outrage to Byzantium : the Samaritans were forcibly ejected from Gerizim, which was handed over to the Christians, and adorned with a chui-ch in honor of the Virgin ; to some extent fortified, and even guarded. This not proving sufficient to repel the foe, Justinian built a second wall round the church, which his historian says defied all attacks (Procop. Be yEdif. v, 7). It is probably the ruins of these buildings which meet the eye of the modern traveller (Porter, Handb. of S. and P. ii, 339). Previously to this time the Samaritans had been a nu- merous and im))ortant sect — sufficiently so, indeed, to be carefully distinguished from the Jews and Ciclico- lists in the Theodosian Code. This last outrage led to their comparative disappearance from history. Trav- ellers of the 12th, 14th, and 17th centuries take notice of their existence, but extreme paucity (Earli/ Ti-avel- lers, by Wright, p. 81, 181, and 432), and their numbers now, as in those days', is said to be below 200 (Robin- son, Bib. Ees. ii, 282, 2d ed.). We are confined b}- our subject to Gerizim, and therefore can only touch upon the Samaritans, or their cit}' Neapolis, so far as their history connects directly with that of the mountain. AVe may observe, however, that as it was undoubtedly this mountain of which our Lord had said, "AVoman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor j-et at Jerusalem (i. e. exclusive- ly'), worship the Father" (John iv, 21) — so likewise it is a singular historical fact, that the Samaritans have continued on this self-same mountain century after century, with the briefest interruptions, to worship ac- cording to tlieir ancient custom ever since to the pres- ent day. >Miile the Jews — expelled from Jerusalem, and therefore no longer able to offer up bloody sacri- fices according to the law of Moses — have been obliged to adapt their ceremonial to the circumstances of their destiny ; here the Paschal Lamb has been offered up in all ages of the Christian {era by a small but iniited nationality (the spot is accurately marked out by Dr. II., />//;/. /iV.?. ii, 277). Their copy of the law, probably the work of ^fanassoli, and known to the fathers of the 2(1 and 3d centuries (Prideaux, Connection, i, COO; and Rol)inson, ii, 297-301), was, in the 17th, j-indicated from oblivion by Scaliger, Usher, Morinus, and others;