YII. Literalure. — Besides the Introductions of Eich- horn, Bertholdt, .lahn, De Wette, Hiivernick, Keil, and Bleek, and the articles in the dictionaries of Kitto and Smith (which we have freely used here), the reader is re- ferred to Gesenius, ]>e Pent. Samarit. Origine, Indole, et Aucioritate (Hala?, 1815, 4to); Journ. Sacr. Lit. July, 1853, p. 298 sq. ; Morini (J.) Exerdtatione.s in vtrum- que Samarit. Pentuteuchum (Paris, 1631, 4to) ; Usher, Syntofima de Sept. Inteiyretibus, Epistola ad L. Cappel- luvi (London, 1655, 4to) ; Poncet, Nouveavx Edaircisse- nients sur VOrigine et le Pentateuque des Samaritains (Paris, 1760, 8vo) ; Le Clerc, Sentimens de quelqves Theo- logiens de Hollande stir VHistoire Critique du R. Simon (Amsterdam. 1686, 8vo) ; Tychsen, Disputatio Uistorico- philologico - critica de Pentateiicho EbrcBO-Samaritano, ab Ehrcvo eoque Masoretico Descripto Exemplari (Butzo- vii, 1765, 4to) ; Prideaux, Old and New Testament con- nected in the History of the Jews and Neighboring Na- tions (London, 1719, 8vo) ; Walton, Prolegomena (ed, Dathe, Leipzig, 1777, 8vo), xi, 9, 11; Cappelli Critica Sacra (ed,Vogeland Scharfenberg,Hal£e,1775-86,8vo); Hassencamp, JJer entdeckte wahre Ursprung der alien Bibeliibersetzungen tmd der gerettete samar. Text (Min- den, 1775) ; Kennicott, Second Dissertation (Oxford, 1759) ; Rutherford, Letter to the Rev, Mr. Kennicott, in which his Defence of the Samaritan Pentateuch is ex- amined, and his Second Dissertation on the State of the Printed JJebrew Text of the 0. T.is shoum to be, in many in.'itances. Injudicious and Inaccurate (Cambridge, 1761, 8vo) ; Kennicott, Ansiver to a Letter from the Rev. T, Rutherford, D.lK (1761, 8vo) ; Rutherford, Second Letter to the Rev. Dr. Kennicott, in which his Defence of the Sec- ond Dissertation is examined (1763, 8vo) ; Bauer, Critica Sacra (Lipsiiv, 1795); Steudel, in Bengel's Archiv. iii, 62(), etc. ; H. Simon, Histoire Critique du V. T. (Paris, 1685, 4to); Fulda, in VsmIuh^s, Memorabilia, \\\; Hasse, ^Ims- sichten zu hiinf tiger Aufkidrmig iiber das A. T. (Jena, 1785, 8vo) ; Paulus, Commentar iiber das N. T. (Liibeck, 1804, 8vo), pt. iv; Hupfeld, Beleuchtung einiger dim- lien vnd missverstitndenen Stellen der attest amentlichen Textgeschichte, in the Studjen und Kritiken, 1830, pt. ii ; Mazade, Sur V Origine, VAge, et VEtat Critique du Pent, Samar. ((Jeneva, 1830, 8vo) ; Hug, in the Freiburg.Zeit- schrift,\Q\.v'\\; Hengstenberg, Z^ze Authentie des Pen- tateuches (lierlin, 1836, 8vo), vol. i ; Stuart, in the A^ortk Amei-ican Review for 1826, and American Biblical Re- pository for 1832; ¥ra.\\kc\,Voi-stiidien (Leipsic, 1841), and Ueber den Einjluss der paldstiniscke7i Exegese aitf
SAMARITAN SECTS
299
SAMARITAN VERSIONS
die alexandrinische Hermeneutik (ibid. 1851, 8vo) ; Lee, Prolegomena, in Biblia Sacra, etc. (Lomlon, s. a.) ; Da- vidson, Treatise on Biblical Criticism (Edinburgh, ]8u2, 8vo); '|11^im "i^aiD, Introductio in Librum Talmu- dicum "Be Samaritanis," seripsit Raphael Kirchheim, (Frankfort, 1851, 8vo) ; Walker, in the Christ. Exami- mr, May and September, 1840 ; Zeitschrift d. D. M. G. xiii, 275; xiv, 622; xviii, 582 sq.; xix, 611 sq.; Nutt, Samaritan History, p. 83 sq. ; Kohn, Be Pentateucho Samaritano (Lipsite, 1865; reviewed in Frankel's Mo- natssckriff, 1865, p. 356 sq.) ; Geiger, Nachgelassene Schriften (Berlin, 1877), iv, 54 sq. ; Pick, Horce Samari- tanae, or, A Collection of Various Readings of the Sa- maritan Pentateuch compared zvith the Hebrew and other Ancient Versions, in Biblioth. Sacra, 1876-77-78. See Samaritans, Modern. (B. P.)
SAMARITAN SECTS. The most important infor- mation on the subject is given by Epiphanius {Hteres. [i, 28], followed by John Damascus [;ibid. p. 79], and Nicetas [Thesaur. i, 35]). Epiphanius mentions four different sects— the Essenes, Sebuteans, Gorthenians, and Dositheans, With regard to the first of these bodies nothing is known, nor is the information with regard to the Sebuaeans (2£/3oiia7o(, "^X^ISir) more satisfac- tory'. They are said to have distinguished themselves by commencing the j'ear in the early autumn ; soon after this they held the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost later, and that of Tabernacles in the spring, when the Jews were celebrating their Easter. Of the Gorthenians, termed by Nicetas Sorothenians, nothing whatever is known. With regard to the last of the four sects and their leader Dositheus, it is impossible to rec- oncile the discordant testimony of Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan, and Samaritan writers. Epiphanius re- lates of them that they were believers in the resurrec- tion and austere in their manner of life, avoiding ani- mal food, some marrj'ing but once, others not at all. As to the observance of circumcision, the Sabbath, avoid- ing contact with others, fasting and penance, they were not distinguished from the otlier Samaritans. Their founder was, he continues, a .Jew who, for his learning, aspired to be chief among his party, but being disap- pointed in his ambitious schemes, went over to the Sa- maritans and founded a sect : later he retired to a cave, and there starved himself to death out of affected piety.
W^hat Epiphanius relates here concerning Dositheus fully accords with the account of Abul-Fath concerning Diisis; but the austere life of his adherents can only re- fer to those of Dostan, of whom we shall have to speak further on. It seems that Epiphanius has confounded the two together, which has also been done by later writers. The statement of Abul-Fath is that a sect ap- peared calling themselves Dostan, or " the Friends," who varied in many respects the hitherto received feasts and traditions of their fathers. Thus they held for impure a fountain into which a dead insect (y"l'^) had fallen; altered the time for reckoning the purilication of women and commencement of feasts ; forbade the eating of eggs which had been laid, allowing those only to be eaten which were found inside a slain bird; considered dead snakes and cemeteries as unclean; and held any one whose shadow fell upon a grave as impure for seven days. They rejected the words " Blessed be our God forever" (OblSib IDinbx "1^3), and substituted Elo- him for Jehovah ; denied that Gerizim had been the first sanctuary of God; upset the Samaritan reckoning for the feasts, giving thirty days to each month, reject- ing the feasts and order of fasts, and the portions (due to the Levites). They counted the tiftj^ days to Pentecost from the Sabbath the day after the first day of the Pass- over, like the Jews; not from the Sunday, like the other Samaritans. Their priests, without becoming impure, could enter a house suspected of infection as long as he did not speak. When a pure and an impure house stood side by side, and it was doubtful whether the impurity