#7 The Truth Behind Israel's Claims to Israel - Who Owns (or should have rights) to the Holy Land? The Samaritans survived as a tribe, intact, but number around 500

The Samaritan Bible consists simply of the Pentateuch or Five books of Moses, which at one time was the sum total of the Jewish Holy Scripture.

SHOOT: So you have a group of people who strictly adhere to their religion, and strictly do not interbeed with other races. Naturally one can expect this small group to sukkel (struggle). This struggle then results in an even deeper sense of commitment to faith and isolation from others. But that doesn't mean their faith is justified, merely that it is self-reinforcing. And the idea that if you're God's chosen people, and you breed with a heathen, well then you lose that status don't you. And you risk being expelled by your community lest the whole community be branded not-genuine stock of God's people.

clipped from www.westarinstitute.org But going even much further back are the Samaritans. They claim to be the descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, which established their capital at Samaria. When the Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile there was a century or so in which the returning Jews developed an association with them, just as they did with the Jewish peasantry round Jerusalem, who had never gone into exile. This is shown by the fact that the Samaritan Bible consists simply of the Pentateuch or Five books of Moses, which was at that time the sum-total of the Jewish Holy Scripture. The Samaritans also have synagogues and celebrate the Passover. But in the fourth century bce a schism developed between the Jews and Samaritans. That is why we read in the New Testament (John 4:9) that 'the Jews have no dealings with the amaritans'. It is this fact that adds poignancy to the famous parable of the Good Samaritan.