IL Religion. — The Samaritan idea of religion is a national one. To them tlicir faith and people are sy- nonymous. In this sense they are, according to their own belief, the only peculiar people of God, with whom the Almighty has entered into covenants, and which covenants they faithfully keep. These are seven in number, and are as follows : a, the covenant of Noah
((ien. ix, 14) ; b. the covenant of Abraham concerning circumcision (Gen. xvii, 9-14) ; c, the covenant of the Sabbath (Exod. xxxi, 12-17); (/, the covenant of the two tables of the ten commandments (Exod. xx, 2-17); e, the covenant of salt (Numb, xviii, 19);. /J the cove- nant of the Passover (Exod. xii, 2) ; ff, the covenant of the priesthood (Numb, xxv, 12, 13). By virtue of these they are separated, on the one hand, from all the Gen- tiles, and, on the other hand, from the Jews, who, they assert, are cursed since the time of Eli.
1. Constitution. — Their people, according to the above idea, constitute a national religious community, over which two officers preside. The chief is the priest ("lis). Upon him devolves the performance of all the duties prescribed in the law of jNIoses as pertaining to the priestly office. These are now but nominal, as they have no sacrifice because they have no temple ; but certain prayers are offered instead of sacrifices. These, together with the priestly blessings, are given on all occasions by the priest himself, who is in reality but a Levite, for the last of the descendants of Aaron, accord- ing to their own chronicle, died in A.D. 1G31. The second officer is the minister, "Tn {chaz<ni), who is a member of a younger branch of the same family. It is his duty to read the public service generally, both in the synagogue and out of it. Upon him also falls the work of educating the children and instructing them in the law. These two officers sitting in assembh' consti- tute their "j^T ^^3- or house of judr/nient. The priest sits supreme and the minister second, and before this tribunal all Samaritan matters, whether social or relig- ious, are settled. Should a (piestion of any difficulty arise, the priest calls other members of the priestly fam- ily to assist in deciding the case; otherwise all kinds of questions are determined by the two officers alone.
2. Creed. — The Samaritans have no formula of belief or set articles of faith, excepting four great tenets : (1) to believe in Jehovah as the only God ; (2) to be- lieve in Moses as the only lawgiver ; (3) to believe in the niin (Torah), Pentateuch, as the only divine book; (4) to believe in Mount (iorizim as the only house of God. These are the cardinal points of the Samaritan faith; but so far as a more detailed theologi- cal creed is concerned, the thirteen articles drawn up by Maimonides would as well express the Samaritan as the Jewish faith. These consist of a belief, in God as Creator and Governor ; in one God only ; in his not
SAMARITANS, MODERN 304 SAMARITANS, MODERN
being corporeal; in God being first and last of all things; in God as the only object of prayer; in the truth of prophecy; in the trutlifulness and superiority of Moses; in the law as the enactment of Moses; in the unchangeableness of the law; in the omniscience of God; in rewards and punishments; in the coming of the Messiah; and in a general resurrection (BTitisk Jews, p. 68). Here it is important to observe that their only authority in theology is the Pentateuch — nothing is divine and binding but the Torah ; all their dogmas are believed, whether riglitly or wrongly, to be founded upon that sacred volume ; and they are, in fact, strict- ly and wholly the discii)lcs of Moses. It becomes, therefore, a subject of no little interest to the Biblical student to observe how many of the principal doctrines of revealed truth are held by the Samaritans to be the teaching of the law. For instance, they found the doc- trine of a future state upon Exod. iii, t! — " I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ;" being the very passage quoted by the Saviour, and drawing from it the same conclu- sion that "he is not the (iod of the dead, but the God of the living" (Mark xii, 2(), 27) ; and that of a resur- rection they hold to be clearly revealed in Gen. ix, 5 — "And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of ever\' beast Avill I require it, and at the hand of man ; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.'' But we cannot help think- ing that the influence of Christianity is discernible in several points of modern Samaritanism, as well as of modern .Judaism ; and that some doctrines may be regarded as affiliated to the Torah rather than induct- ed therefrom. Their doctrine concerning the Messiah, although infinitely below the conception of the New Test., is yet far superior to that of the Jews. They never call him Messiah — that name not being in the law — but Tahehuh, iTlSlir, or the Arabic equivalent, Al- Mudy, the Restorer. They believe him to be a man, a son of Joseph, of the tribe of Ephraim, according to the words of Moses (Deut. xxxiii, 16). The promise of his coming was made by Moses — " The Lord thy God will raise up uiito thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken" (Deut. xviii, 15). He is to be not a king and conquer- or, but a great teacher. His mission is not to shed blood, but to heal the nations; not to make war, but to bring peace. He will restore the law to its purity, preach it to the world, and bring all the nations over to its practice. In fact, he will be a great reformer, ex- pressly sent by the Almighty, and endowed with the necessarj' qualifications to perform so great and glori- ous a work. Following his direction, they believe that the congregation will repair to (ierizim, where, under the "twelve stones," they will find the Ten Command- ments, and under the stone of Bethel the golden vessels of the temple and the manna. After one hundred and ten years the Prophet is to die and be buried beside Jo- seph in the valley. Soon afterwards, on the conclusion of seven thousand years from its foundation, the workl is to come to an end.