Pilgrimage, Book 2 · Chapter 9
CHAP. IX.
Of the Samaritans.
IT remaineth to speake of the Samaritane Sects.
Samaria was the Citie royall of the ten Tribes, after that Omri (who, as other his predecessors, had raigned before at Tirzah) had bought the mountaine Shomron a1.Reg.16.24.of one Shemer, for two Talents of siluer, and built thereon this Citie, which hee called after the name of Shemor, Lord of the Mountaine. In vaine therefore is it to seeke the name of the Samaritans from the signification of the bEpiph.haer.9. chytr.Onomast.word (which is keeping) seeing they were so called of the place, and the place of this their ancient Lord. It remained the chiefe seate of the kingdome as long as the same indured, and namely till the dayes of Hosheae their last King, in whose time c2.Reg.17.Salmanasar the Assyrian carried the Israelites thence. Esarhaddon the son of Senacherib, otherwise called Osnappar (thus saith Hezra: dEzr.4.2.10.and therefore Epiphanius was deceiued in ascribing this act to Nabuchodonosor in the time of the captiuitie fortie yeeres before the returne) sent to inhabite that region, Colonies from Babel, and from Cuthan, and from Aua, and from Hannah, and from Sepharuaim. Babel is knowne: Cutha and Aua eTremel.annot. in Reg. 2.17. Iosephus thinketh Cutha to be Persian.are esteemed parts of the desert of Arabia, the other of Syria and Mesopotamia. It seemeth that most of them were of Cutha, because all of them after passed into that name, and were of the Iewes called Cuthaei, as witnesseth Iosephus.fIoseph.Antiq. l.9.14. & l.11.4
These heathens serued not the LORD, and therefore the LORD sent Lyons among them which slew them: Wherefore they sent to the King of Assyria, who sent thither one of the captiued Priests of Israel to teach them how to worship GOD (Epiohanius, calleth his name Esdras. gThe Hebrewes cal him Dosthai, as Drusius citeth. Senacherib sent to Samaria R. Dosthai, the son of Iannai to teach them the Lawe. Drus.l.3. de sec.c.4. Tertullion cals him Dositheus and so doth Hierom, fathering the Samaritan sect on him.) He dwelt at Bethel: and as some conceiue, taught rather that idolatrous worship, whereof Bethel had before been the Beth-auen, where Ieroboam had placed his golden Calfe, then the true worship of the True Iehonah. Howsoeuer, eueryevery Nation (saith the Text) made them Gods, & put them in the houses of the high places, which the Samaritans had made. The men of Babel made Succoth Benoth: and the men of Cutha made Nergal, and the men of Hamath, Ashima: and the Avims, Nibhaz, and Tartak: & the Sepharusaims burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech, and Anammelech their gods. Thus they feared the LORD, and serued their gods after the manner of the Nations, and so continued: a mungrell religion begotten of a bastard or haereticall Iudaisme, and wilde paganisme. What those gods vvere, it is vncertaine, and interpreters agree not. Of Succoth Benoth is spoken hL.1 c.13.already: Wolphius interpreteth iWolph. in 2. Reg.17.Nergal a wilde hen, Ashima a goate, Nibhaz a Dogge, Tartak an Asse, Adramelech a Mule, Anaemelech a Horse: thus (saith he) the Hebrewes expound them: and he supposeth these creatures vvere among them Canonized and sacred: as the Persians are said to worship a Cocke; the Proembari of Africa, a Dogge: other people, other creatures. Thus their Religion continued till after the returne of the Iewes from captiuitie, to whom they would hauehave beene officious helpers in building of the Temple: which being refused they became their enemies, and hindred the building a long time. Ezra.4.But the Temple being built, and religion established among the Iewes, and their state flourishing, Sanballat gaue lIos.Antiq.11.7.his daughter Nicaso to Manasses, the brother of Iaddus the High Priest, in the time of Darius the last Persian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chased him from him, of which some mWolph. in Nehem.descant whether it were by exile, or excommunication, or some other punishment. R. Salomo interpreteth it of exile, Pelican of excommunication.
Drusius nDrus.de 3.sec. l.3.c.2.hath a discourse out of a Iewish Author, which relateth the forme of that first Anathema and iudiciall curse, (not vnmeete heere to be mentioned) denounced against the Samaritans for hindring the worke of the Temple. Zorobabel and Ioshna (saith he) gathered all the Congregation into the Temple of the LORD, and brought three hundred Priests, and three hundred Trumpets, and three hundred bookes of the lawe, and as many children, and sounded. And the Leuites singing and playing on instruments cursed with all kinds of Anathema's the Chutheans, in the secret of the name Tetragrammaton, and in Writing written vponupon tables: and with the Anathema of the house of the higher iudgement, and the Anathema of the house of the lower iudgement, that none of Israel should eate the bread of the Chuthean (wherevpon it is said he which eateth a Samaritans bread, be as he that eateth swines flesh) and that a Chuthean should not be a Proselyte in Israel, nor should hauehave part in the Resurrection of the dead. This they writ, and sealed, and sent vntounto all Israel which were in Babylonia, which heaped vponupon them Anathema vponupon Anathema. That, concerning their becomming proselytes, Drusius doubteth whether it may not bee translated, that a stranger Chuthaean should not abide in Israel: which is more likely. The other had been more impious: their zeale to make proselytes of all Nations is knowne.
To returne to Manasses, Iosephus saith that the high Priest and the Elders put him from the Altar, who therefore went to Sanballat his father in lawe, and told him that he loued his daughter well, but would not for her loose his Priesthood. Sanballat replied, that if he would retaine his daughter, he would not onelyonly maintaine him in his Priesthood, but procure him a high Priests place, and make him Prince of all his province: and would build a Temple like to that of Ierusalem in mount Garizin, which looketh ouer Samaria, higher then the other hils, & that with the consent of K.Darius. Hereupon Manasses abode with him, and many Priests and Israelites being intangled with like mariages reuolted to him, and were maintained by Sanballat. But now Alexander preuailing against Darius, Sanballat (whose Religion was Policie) rebelled, and tooke part with Alexander, and in reward thereof obtained leaue to build his Temple, whereof Manasses enioyed to him and his successors the pontificall dignitie. Then was the Circumcision diuided, some (as said the Samaritan woman) o…ub.4.20.worshipping in this mountaine, others at Ierusalem. The Zeale which the Samaritans had to their Temple appeared pIos Antiq.l.13.c.6.in the time of Ptolomens Philometor, when at Alexandria Sabbaeus and Theodosius, with their Samaritans, contended with Andronicus and the Iewes, these challenging to Ierusalem, those to Garizin, the lawfull honour of a Temple, both parties swearing by GOD and the King, to bring proofe of their assertion out of the law; and beseeching the King to doe him to death that should not make his part good: and thereupon the Samaritans failing in proofe, were adiudged to punishment.
The Samaritans in the prosperitie of the Iewes professed themselues their kinsmen & allies: in aduersitie disclaimed them, & their GOD also, as appeareth qAntiq.l.12.c.7.in their Epistle to Antiochus that figure of Antichrist & persecutor of the Iewish religion, in which they call themselues Sidonians dwelling in Sichem, and say, that moued by ancient superstition they had embraced the Feast of the Sabbath, and building a Temple of a namelesse Deity had offered therein solemne sacrifices: whereas therefore their originall was Sidonian and not Iewish; pleased him to enact that their Temple might beare name of Iupiter Graecanicus, and they might liue after the Greekish rites. These things Antiochus easily granted.
Hircanus by force tooks both Sichem and Garizin. Two hundred yeares after the foundation of this Temple, as testifieth Iosephus, rAnt.l.13 c.17.hapned this desolation thereof. The zeale yet continued as appeareth by many testimonies of Scripture. The Iewes medled not with the Samaritanes, which made the sIo.4.9.woman wonder that CHRIST asked drinke of a Samaritane. Another time the Samaritans would not receiue him because his tLuk 9.52behauiour was as though he would goe to Ierusalem, for which fact of theirs the sons of thunder would hauehave brought lightning frō heauen vponupon them. And the Iewish despite could not obiect worse in their most venemous slander, then, uIob.8.42.Thou art a Samaritane. This Ierusalem-iourney through the Samaritans countrey caused bloudy warres and slaughter betwixt the Galileans xIos.Antiq.l.20.5.& them, in the time of Cumanus, to the destruction of many. And before that in the daies of Pilat, a cousning Prophet abused their zeale, bidding them to assemble in mount Garizin yAntiq.l.18.c.….with promise there to shew them the sacred vessels, which, said he, Moses had there hidden. Wherevpon they seditiously assembling, & besiedging T…rabatha, Pilat came vponupon them with his forces, & cut them in peeces.
Their opinions (besides those aforesaid) were, zEpiphan. har. 9.that onelyonly the fiue bookes of Moses were Canonicall Scripture, the rest they receiued not. They acknowledge not the Resurrection, nor the Trinitie: and in zeale of one GOD, abandon all idolatries, which it seemeth was receiued of them after the building of the Temple, and mixture with the Apostata Iewes; the Scripture testifying otherwise of their former deuotions. They wash themselues with Vrine, when they come from any stranger, being (for sooth) polluted. And if they hauehave touched one of another Nation, they diue themselues, garments and all, in water. Such a profanation is the touch of one of another faith. They hauehave a dead corps in abhomination presently.
The Samaritan aDr…s.de3.sect.l.2.if he meeteth a Iew, Christian, or Mahumetan, he saith vntounto them, Touch me not. Scaliger, out of the Arabian Geographer, bscal.de Em. T…m.l.7.telleth of an Iland still inhabited with these Samaritans, in the red Sea, which appeareth by their custome, when any comes on shore, forbidding to touch them. This arrogant superstition remaineth with them.
The Samaritan Chronicle is cited by Eusebius Chron. graec. l., 1. cScal.Annot.in Eus. Chron & in Isag.Can.Scaliger saith he had a copy of their Chronicle translated out of Hebrew into Arabian: it differeth somwhat from the Hebrew account. The Iewes confound the Samaritans and Sadduces, as if they were but one Sect. The difference hath appeared, for the Sadduces accept all the Bible; the Samaritans, Moses onelyonly. The Sadduces denied the soules immortalitie and reward. The Samaritans in their Chronicle acknowledge both a place of reward, & punishment after this life. But whether they beleeue the Resurrection or no, he doubteth. The Sadduces deny spirits, Angels, Diuels; the Samaritans confesse them. The Samaritans also vse still those ancient Letters called Phenician, which the Hebrewes vsed before the captiuitie, which who so lisleth to view, let him see their Characters, and Scaligers large notes thereon in his Annotations vponupon Eusebius Chronicle.
The Samaritans were diuided also into diuers sects, as Epiphan. dEpiph.hare.13rehearseth: one whereof were called *Dositbeans.Dositheans: if it be lawfull to reckon them Samaritans, which acknowledged (as Epiphan. acknowledgeth of them) the Resurrection of the Dead. They abstaine from such things as hauehave life: some of them from Mariage after they hauehave beene before maried, and some continue in Virginitie. They obserue Circumcision and the Sabbath: and they touch no man, but hold eueryevery man in abhomination. Report goeth also of their fasting and exercises.
They had name of Dosithens: who being a Iew, and hauing well profited in their law, but not receiuing promotion sutable to his ambition, reuolted to the Samaritans, and hatched this sect amongst them. And when afterwards in a singularitie he had gone aside into a Caue, and there mewed vp himselfe, and persisted in hypocrisie & fasting, he there died (as the fame goeth) through his wilfull want of bread and water. After a few daies, some resorting to him found his dead body crawling with wormes, and compassed with flies. § Of this name Dositheus there were diuers. eDrus.de 3.sec.l.3.6.Two of them liued after the comming of CHRIST. One a lew, sonne of R. Iannai, the other a Samaritan which endeuoured to perswade his countreymen that hee was the CHRIST which Moses had prophecied of, as fOrig.cont.Cels.l 2.Origen reporteth, and saith: of him are the Dositheans named. Another is mentioned in gIohasin.Ab. zach.Iohasin, who liued in the time of CHRIST, the disciple of Sammai. And before these was another Dosthai, the sonne also of Iannai, of whom it is said in hLib.IlmedenuIlmedenu, that Senacherib sent R. Dostha to Samaria to teach the Samaritans the lawe. This seemeth to be he, whom before out of Epiphanius wee hauehave called Esdras, the first founder of the Samaritan heresie. And so Tertullian iTer.prescrip. aduers.…aer.lc1.saith of him; Dosubeus the Samaritan, was the first that reiected the Prophets, as not hauing spoken by the HOLY GHOST. The like testimonie Hierom giueth of him. His colleague and companion is said to be one Sebua, the supposed Author of the Sebvaeans. In Ilmedenn kAp.Drus.pag.260.he is called Sebaia: or Sebuia. lOrig.de princip.4.c.2.Dositheus also taught, that how and in what position of body he was in the Sabbath morning, in the same he ought to continue all that day, without change of gesture or place: that if he did sit, he should sit in the same place all day long, and so of lying or other habite of body. The Authour of this Dosithean sect, (properly so called) liued, as Scaliger qScal. Elench. Serarij.tribaer.15.thinketh, about or at the destruction of the Temple, and could not be that first Dustai or Dosthaei.
The Sebuaeans *Sebuaeans.you hauehave heard, in Drufius opinion, hauehave their name of Sebuia, the companion of Dosthai, sent by Senacherib, or rather by Esarhaddon: which if it be so, it seemeth this sect is auncient, haply nothing differing from the other Samaritans. Epiphanius maketh a difference, rEpiph.haer.11.but the cause he alledgeth, was the Iewes refusall of their helpe at Ierusalem, which was common to all the Samaritans. The difference he alledgeth is the transposing of their solemnities (for that quarrell betwixt them and the Iewes) from the Iewish times, so that they kept their Passeouer in August (which they made the beginning of their yeare) Pentecost in Autumne, and that of Tabernacles, when the Iewes kept their Passeouer: neither might they sacrifice in Garizin, obseruing such differing solemnities. Scaliger sScal.Canon. Isagog.l.3. pag.218.219.(whom I shame not thus often to name, in relation of these things too intricate for mine owne, or for common wits to finde) both in his Treatise against Serarius, cap.1. & 21. and in his Canons Isagog. l.3. dissenteth from Epiphanius: saying, that they dissented not from the other Samaritans, but that the name was a common name, which the Iewes ascribed to the Samaritans: It signifieth foreign Weekers: which name they gaue them because that eueryevery weeke betweene the Passeouer and Pentecost, they obserued that day of the weeke, in which the computation of the fifty dayes began, with as great solemnitie as the feast of Pentecost it selfe. This day, from which the reckoning began, was called foreign the second, because it was the next day after the Azyma or Feast-day. But the Samaritans reckoned the second after the Sabbath, and so in all that space of fiftie dayes, kept the first day of the weeke, that is, Sunday, holy. Thus they kept seuen Pentecosts in a yeare. And perhaps (hee but coniectureth) as they had these imaginarie Pentecostes, so they might at other times of the yeare hauehave such imaginarie solemnities of other Feasts. From that word foreign the second day, and next to the Feast of vnleauened bread, the Sabbaths, saith Scaliger in the same place, were called in order, the first foreign the second Sabbath after that day, foreign and so the rest: and thus he expoundeth those words of Luke c.6.v.1. secundo-primum Sabbatum, that is the first Sabbath after that foreign or first day of the fiftie which began to be reckoned the next day after Easter till Pentecost. A place hitherto very obscure. Epiphanius doth number for Samaritane sects, The Essens, *Esseni.of which is before shewed that they were Iewes, and otherwise heretical and idolatrous in respect of their morning-deuotions to the Sunne, for which it seemeth they might not, (certaine they did not) communicate with other Iewes in the Temple and sacrifices. These pertaine not to this place; as not Samaritanes. A fourth Samaritane sect he accounteth the Gortheni, *Gortheni. or Gortbaieni.which differed from the rest, at least from the Sebuians, in keeping their solemnities, Paschall, Pentecost, and of Tabernacles at the Iewish times, and obserued but one day holy: as likewise the fasting day.