Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Friday, August 26, 2022

Walking in the Footsteps of John the Baptist, Part 4 - Samaria


Walking in the Footsteps of John the Baptist,
Part 4 - Samaria

James McGrath has recently traveled to Israel to walk in the footsteps of John the Baptist. I thought it might be of interest that we journey with James as well to discover the early days of Jesus' ministry through his cousin John. Enjoy.

R.E. Slater
August 25, 2022



In the Footsteps of John the Baptist
Part 4: Samaria

by James F. McGrath
July 25, 2022


Another first for me on my recent trip to the Holy Land was visiting Samaria. I had the absolute best guide possible. Seriously, who could possibly offer more insight to the Samaritans and their way of life than Abood Cohen, the grandson of the Samaritan high priest? If you have seen documentaries about the Samaritans, you have probably already seen him. I will include a couple at the end of this post. Here is a link to where you can hire him as a guide. If you have, or may make plans, to visit the Holy Land, take a day to visit Samaria and have Abood as your guide. While it may not feature in every private tour he leads, this one included something that I could never have imagined would be part of my experience. I had the chance to briefly be introduced to his grandfather and to receive the Aaronic priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) from none other than the high priest. These Hebrew words are well known and are the oldest words from the Hebrew Bible/Jewish scriptures/Old Testament recorded anywhere, found as they were on an amulet from around the 6th century BC which today is in the Israel Museum. Seeing it there a little later in this trip was more special than on any previous visit due to having had them pronounced over me, my wife, and our niece who was with us, by none other than the high priest.

While Judaism says that the correct high priestly line remained in Judaism and the correct place of worship was in Jerusalem, these Israelites descended from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Levi have worshiped in this place since time immemorial. Before the efforts to centralize worship in one place, “the place that the Lord your God will choose” could be more than one place and/or could shift [places which the Lord had visited such as the Samaritan's] place of worship at Shiloh, among many other smaller local shrines. One place I thought about stopping at, but didn’t, while in Jerusalem is Tel Motza, not far from Jerusalem, where there was a full-fledged temple that was active as a place of worship throughout most of the era of the Israelite monarchy. Pre-exilic Israelite religious beliefs and practices did not all simply disappear after the exile. We can see how some ideas and names persist into Mandaeism, and one of the questions I have is whether John the Baptist served as a link in the chain, and if so how that came about. (See my previous posts on the blog about this subject, the Talk Gnosis podcast I was on, and the YouTube video I recorded as a backup in case I had internet issues when giving a paper on this subject at an Enoch Seminar conference.)

Abood took us to Mt. Gerizim to visit the archaeological site there. Given the interchangeability of terms for tabernacle and temple in how Samaritan literature refers to their place of worship, it is a possibility that historically they had a tent according to the Levitical specifications rather than a temple made of stone, at least for part of their history. It is difficult to determine. Today they worship on the site without either building or tabernacle.


We also visited the Samaritan Museum which features contemporary and historical materials related to the Samaritans, including the model of Mount Gerizim and their worship there and the Torah scroll written in Samaritan script seen below. The museum also contains artifacts and texts, genealogies, paintings, and much more.



Abood also took us to his family’s tahini factory, quite possibly the only one in the world to feature a Samaritan mezuzah above the door. Har Bracha Tahini is genuinely the best I’ve ever tasted. As someone who has given up all unnecessary carbs it was a delight to taste their tahini in a tiny paper cup and realize that the flavor I used to like in halva when I ate sweet things can be enjoyed, and appreciated even more, without the sugar added. Although I haven’t placed an order yet I was glad to see that you can order Har Bracha Tahini on Amazon!


We also visited the church built over Jacob’s well in Sychar. Since that location features on the cover of my book What Jesus Learned from Women I had to give Abood a copy of my book there and get a photo of us at the well.


We also went to Sabaste where there is a site that is supposed to be the tomb of John the Baptist. Even if not the actual place he was buried, the fact that such a tradition arose, the fact that Gnosticism traces its origins to disciples of John’s from Samaria, together with things in the New Testament all raise questions about John and Samaria, and how that relates to his vision for all Israel and his conviction that God offered forgiveness of sins rather than exclusively in either the temple in Jerusalem or on Mt. Gerizim.


It was very sunny. I blinked. Sorry. But this was an amazing day, just one of many, but definitely among so many wonderful experiences on this trip still very much a highlight.

As promised, here are a couple of documentaries in which Abood appears and shares his perspective on his people and their heritage.

Samaritan | Documentary | 2018
Feb 23, 2020  2018 | 52 minutes | Documentary
Director: Julien Menanteau

Samaritans, the world’s only holders of dual Israeli-Palestinian nationality, are a unique religious minority on the verge of extinction. In the heights of Nablus, Abdallah Cohen, the high priest’s grandson, seeks to find his own way.

Dying Out: The Last Of The Samaritan Tribe
| Full Documentary | TRACKS
Aug 8, 2019

The Samaritans are one of the most ancient tribes in the world - they’ve been around for over 3,000 years. But the population is now fragile and the tribe at risk of finally dying out...

Their population consists of just four extended families, around only 800 people in total (in Roman times there used to be over a million). They have three men to every one woman. To keep the tribe going they’ve tried bringing in women from afar, including a number from the Ukraine. But is it too little, too late?

Subscribe to see more full documentaries every week: https://bit.ly/2lneXNy

TRACKS publishes unique, unexpected and untold stories from across the world every week.
From How To Save A Tribe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TRACKSTravel...


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Samaritans

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Samaritans
ࠔࠌࠓࠉࠌ
שומרונים
السامريون
Samaritans marking Passover on Mount Gerizim, West Bank - 20060418.jpg
Samaritans marking Passover on Mount Gerizim near Nablus
Total population
~840 (2021)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Israel (Holon)460 (2021)Total [sic] in 2021 - 840 souls[1]
Total in 2018 – 810 souls[1]
Total number on 1.1.2017 - 796 persons, 381 souls on Mount Gerizim and 415 in the State of Israel, of the 414 males and 382 females.[1]
 State of Palestine[a] (Kiryat Luza)380 (2021)[1]
Languages
Modern spoken languages:
Israeli HebrewLevantine Arabic
Liturgical languages:
Samaritan HebrewSamaritan Aramaic
Religion
Samaritanism
Related ethnic groups
Jews; other Semitic-speaking peoples (Levantine ArabsMandaeans, etc.)

Samaritans (/səˈmærɪtənz/Samaritan Hebrewࠔࠠࠌࠝࠓࠩࠉࠌ‎,[3] romanized: Šā̊merīmtransl. Guardians/Keepers [of the Torah]; HebrewשומרוניםromanizedŠōmrōnīmArabicالسامريونromanizedas-Sāmiriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group whose traditions affirm they descend from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic and ethnic religion.

Samaritan tradition states that they descend from the northern Israelite tribes who were not deported by the Neo-Assyrian Empire after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. They believe that Samaritanism is the true religion of the ancient Israelites, preserved by those who remained in Palestine during the Babylonian captivity;[4] this belief is held in opposition to Judaism, the ethnic religion of the Jewish people, which Samaritans see as a closely related but altered and amended religion brought back by Judeans returning from Babylonian captivity. Samaritans consider Mount Gerizim (near both Nablus and biblical Shechem), and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to be the holiest place on Earth.[5][6]

Once a large community, the Samaritan population shrunk significantly in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire (mainly in 525 CE and 555 CE). Mass conversions to Christianity under the Byzantines, and later to Islam following the Arab conquest of the Levant, also reduced their numbers significantly.[7] In the 12th century, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela estimated that only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in the regions of Palestine and Syria.[8]

As of 2022, the total Samaritan population stands at less than 1,000 people. The Samaritan community is divided between Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritan compound in Holon.[b][10] The head of the community is the Samaritan High Priest. Samaritans in Holon primarily speak Israeli Hebrew, while those in Kiryat Luza speak Levantine Arabic; for the purposes of liturgy, the languages of Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic are used, written in the Samaritan script. There are also a small number of Samaritans living outside the Levant, in Brazil and in Catania (Sicily), Italy. [11]

Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice-versa, largely due to interfaith marriages. While Israel's rabbinic authorities came to consider Samaritanism to be a sect of Judaism,[12] the Chief Rabbinate of Israel requires Samaritans to undergo a formal conversion to Judaism in order to be officially recognized as Halakhic JewsRabbinic literature rejected Samaritans unless they renounced Mount Gerizim as the historical Israelite holy site.[c] Samaritans possessing only Israeli citizenship in Holon are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, while those holding dual Israeli and Palestinian citizenship in Kiryat Luza are exempted from mandatory military service.


This is an extensive article and may be completed here:


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Samaritanism

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Samaritanism
הדת השומרונית
السامرية
Mezuzah IMG 2124.JPG
Samaritan mezuzahNablus
TypeEthnic
ClassificationAbrahamic
ScriptureSamaritan Torah
TheologyMonotheistic
Samaritan High PriestAabed-El ben Asher ben Matzliach
RegionKiryat LuzaPalestine
HolonIsrael
LanguageSamaritan HebrewSamaritan Aramaic
HeadquartersMount Gerizim
Separated fromJudaismYahwism
Membersc. 840 (Increase 3.7%, 2021)[1]

Samaritanism is the Abrahamicmonotheisticethnic religion[2] of the Samaritan people, an ethnoreligious group who, alongside Jews, originate from the ancient Israelites.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Its central holy text is the Samaritan Pentateuch, which Samaritans believe is the original, unchanged version of the Torah.[9]

The Samaritan religion is internally described as the holy faith that began with Moses, unchanged over the millennia that have since passed. Samaritans believe that the Jewish Torah, and Judaism by extension, have been corrupted by time and no longer serve the duties that God mandated to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. While Jews view the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as the most sacred location in their faith, the holiest site for Samaritans is Mount Gerizim near Nablus.[10]

History

Samaritanism holds that the summit of Mount Gerizim is the true location of God's Holy Place, as opposed to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as defended in Judaism. As such, Samaritans trace their history as a separate entity from the Jews back to soon after the Israelites' entry into the Promised Land. Samaritan historiography traces the schism itself to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the first Israelite altar in Canaan, and building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh. The dissenting group of Israelites who had followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who in later years would head south to conquer Jerusalem (the Jews), whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.[11]

Abu l-Fath, who in the 14th century wrote a major work of Samaritan history, comments on Samaritan origins as follows:[11]

A terrible civil war broke out between Eli son of Yafni, of the line of Ithamar, and the sons of Pincus (Phinehas), because Eli son of Yafni resolved to usurp the High Priesthood from the descendants of Pincus. He used to offer sacrifices on an altar of stones. He was 50 years old, endowed with wealth and in charge of the treasury of the Children of Israel. ...

He offered a sacrifice on the altar, but without salt, as if he were inattentive. When the Great High Priest Ozzi learned of this, and found the sacrifice was not accepted, he thoroughly disowned him; and it is (even) said that he rebuked him.

Thereupon he and the group that sympathized with him, rose in revolt and at once he and his followers and his beasts set off for Shiloh. Thus Israel split in factions. He sent to their leaders saying to them, Anyone who would like to see wonderful things, let him come to me. Then he assembled a large group around him in Shiloh, and built a Temple for himself there; he constructed a place like the Temple [on Mount Gerizim]. He built an altar, omitting no detail—it all corresponded to the original, piece by piece.

At this time the Children of Israel split into three factions. A loyal faction on Mount Gerizim; a heretical faction that followed false gods; and the faction that followed Eli son of Yafni in Shiloh.

Further, the Samaritan Chronicle Adler, or New Chronicle, believed to have been composed in the 18th century using earlier chronicles as sources, states:

And the Children of Israel in his days divided into three groups. One did according to the abominations of the Gentiles and served other gods; another followed Eli the son of Yafni, although many of them turned away from him after he had revealed his intentions; and a third remained with the High Priest Uzzi ben Bukki, the chosen place.

Modern genetic studies (2004) suggest that Samaritans' lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally proximate to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel, and are probably descendants of the historical Israelite population,[12][13] albeit isolated given the people's reclusive history.

Conflicts between the Samaritans and the Jews were numerous between the end of the Assyrian diaspora and the Bar Kokhba revolt. Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan also gives evidence of conflict. The great Temple of the Samaritans, on top of Mount Gerizim, was destroyed under the orders of Jewish leader John Hyrcanus.[14]

Following the failed revolts, Mount Gerizim was rededicated with a new temple, which was ultimately again destroyed during the Samaritan revolts. Persecution of Samaritans was common in the following centuries.[citation needed]

Beliefs

The principal beliefs of Samaritanism are as follows:[15][16][17]

  • There is one GodYahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets. Faith is in the unity of the Creator which is absolute unity. It is the cause of the causes, and it fills the entire world. His nature can not be understood by human beings, but according to his actions and according to his revelation to his people and the kindness he showed them.
  • The Torah is the only true holy book and was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world and whoever believes in it is assured a part in the World to Come. The status of the Torah in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes Samaritans to reject the Oral TorahTalmud, and all prophets and scriptures except for Joshua, whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish Bible. Essentially, the authority of all post-Torah sections of the Jewish Bible, and classical Jewish Rabbinical works (the Talmud, comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara) is rejected. Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
  • Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the one true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans do not recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem and do not recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the binding of Isaac took place.
  • The apocalypse, called "the day of vengeance", will be the end of days, when a figure called the Taheb (essentially the Samaritan equivalent of the Jewish Messiah) from the tribe of Joseph, will come, be a prophet like Moses for forty years and bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Taheb will then discover the tent of Moses' Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, and will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

Festivals and observances

The Samaritans preserve the proto-Hebraic script, conserve the institution of a High Priesthood, and the practice of slaughtering and eating lambs on Passover eve. They celebrate PesachShavuotSukkot[18] but use a different mode from that employed in Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.[19] Yom Teru'ah (the Biblical name for "Rosh Hashanah"), at the beginning of Tishrei, is not considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep. The Counting of the Omer remains largely unchanged; however, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses. Shavuot is characterized by nearly day-long services of continuous prayer, especially over the stones on Gerizim traditionally attributed to Joshua.

During Sukkot, the sukkah is built inside houses, as opposed to outdoor settings that are traditional among Jews.[20] Samaritan historian Benyamim Tsedaka traces the indoor-sukkah tradition to persecution of Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.[20] The roof of the Samaritan sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits and the branches of palmmyrtle, and willow trees, according to the Samaritan interpretation of the four species designated in the Torah for the holiday.[20]

Religious texts

"Shema Yisrael" written in Samaritan Hebrew calligraphy

Samaritan law differs from Halakha (Rabbinic Jewish law) and other Jewish movements. The Samaritans have several groups of religious texts, which correspond to Jewish Halakha. A few examples of such texts are:

Samaritan High Priest Yaakov ben Aharon and the Abisha Scroll, 1905
  • Samaritan Pentateuch: There are some 6,000 differences between the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic Jewish Pentateuch text; and, according to one estimate, 1,900 points of agreement between it and the Greek LXX version. Several passages in the New Testament would also appear to echo a Torah textual tradition not dissimilar to that conserved in the Samaritan text. There are several theories regarding the similarities. The variations, some corroborated by readings in the Old Latin, Syriac and Ethiopian translations, attest to the antiquity of the Samaritan text,[21][22][23] although the exact date of composition is still largely unclear. Granted special attention is the so-called "Abisha Scroll", a manuscript of the Pentateuch tradition attributed to Abishua, grandson of Aaron, traditionally compiled during the Bronze Age. However, testing on the scroll revealed it was created no earlier than the 14th century CE, in fact around a century younger than the world's oldest Torah scroll.
  • Historical writings
  • Hagiographical texts
    • Samaritan Halakhic Text, The Hillukh (Code of Halakha, marriage, circumcision, etc.)
    • Samaritan Halakhic Text, the Kitab at-Tabbah (Halakha and interpretation of some verses and chapters from the Torah, written by Abu Al Hassan 12th century CE)
    • Samaritan Halakhic Text, the Kitab al-Kafi (Book of Halakha, written by Yosef Al Ascar 14th century CE)
    • Al-Asatir—legendary Aramaic texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, containing:
      • Haggadic Midrash, Abu'l Hasan al-Suri
      • Haggadic Midrash, Memar Markah—3rd or 4th century theological treatises attributed to Hakkam Markha
      • Haggadic Midrash, Pinkhas on the Taheb
      • Haggadic Midrash, Molad Maseh (On the birth of Moses)
  • Defter, prayer book of psalms and hymns.[24]
  • Samaritan Haggadah[25]

See also

References

  1. ^ The Samaritan Update Retrieved 28 October 2021
    "Total [sic] in 2021 - 840 souls
    Total in 2018 – 810 souls
    Total number on 1.1.2017 - 796 persons, 381 souls on Mount Gerizim and 415 in the State of Israel, of the 414 males and 382 females."
  2. ^ Shulamit Sela, The Head of the Rabbanite, Karaite and Samaritan Jews: On the History of a Title, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 57, No. 2 (1994), pp. 255–267
  3. ^ Mor, Reiterer & Winkler 2010.
  4. ^ Coggins 1975.
  5. ^ Pummer 2002, pp. 42, 123, 156.
  6. ^ Grunbaum, M.; Geiger, Rapoport (1862). "mitgetheilten ausfsatze uber die samaritaner". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: ZDMG. Vol. 16. Harrassowitz. pp. 389–416.
  7. ^ David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 5:941 (New York: Doubleday, 1996, c1992).
  8. ^ See also: Saint Epiphanius (Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus) (1 January 1987). The Panarion of Ephiphanius of Salamis: Book I (sects 1–46). BRILL. p. 30. ISBN 978-90-04-07926-7. Paul Keseling (1921). Die chronik des Eusebius in der syrischen ueberlieferung (auszug). Druck von A. Mecke. p. 184. Origen (1896). The Commentary of Origen on S. John's Gospel: The Text Rev. with a Critical Introd. & Indices. The University Press.
  9. ^ Tsedaka 2013.
  10. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans"UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  11. Jump up to:a b Anderson & Giles 2002, p. 11–12.
  12. ^ Shen, P; Lavi, T; Kivisild, T; Chou, V; Sengun, D; Gefel, D; Shpirer, I; Woolf, E; Hillel, J (2004). "Reconstruction of patrilineages and matrilineages of Samaritans and other Israeli populations from Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA sequence variation" (PDF)Human Mutation24 (3): 248–60. doi:10.1002/humu.20077PMID 15300852S2CID 1571356.
  13. ^ Kiaris, Hippokratis (2012). Genes, Polymorphisms and the Making of Societies: How Genetic Behavioral Traits Influence Human Cultures. Universal Publishers (published 1 April 2012). p. 21. ISBN 978-1612330938.
  14. ^ "Samaritan | Definition, Religion, & Bible | Britannica"www.britannica.com. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  15. ^ "Religion of the Israelite Samaritans : The Root of all Abrahamic Religions".
  16. ^ "Religion of the Israelite Samaritans".
  17. ^ "Samaritan - Encyclopedia.com"www.encyclopedia.com.
  18. ^ Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme, Before the God in this Place for Good Remembrance: A Comparative Analysis of the Aramaic Votive Inscriptions from Mount Gerizim, Walter de Gruyter, 2013 ISBN 978-3-110-301878- p.52
  19. ^ Sylvia Powels, ‘The Samaritan Calendar and the Roots of Samaritan Chronology,' in A.D. Crown (ed.) The Samaritans, Mohr Siebeck, 1989 ISBN 978-3-161-45237-6 pp.691-741.
  20. Jump up to:a b c Lieber, Dov; Luzi, Iacopo. "Inside the Samaritan high priest's fruity sukkah, literally"www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  21. ^ James VanderKam, Peter Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity, A&C Black, 2nd ed. 2005 p.95.
  22. ^ Timothy Michael Law, When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible, Oxford University Press, USA, 2013 p.24.
  23. ^ Isac Leo Seeligmann, The Septuagint Version of Isaiah and Cognate Studies,. Mohr Siebeck 2004 pp.64ff.
  24. ^ Samaritan Documents, Relating To Their History, Religion and Life, translated and edited by John Bowman, Pittsburgh Original Texts & Translations Series Number 2, 1977.
  25. ^ זבח קרבן הפסח : הגדה של פסח, נוסח שומרוני (Samaritan Haggada & Pessah Passover / Zevaḥ ḳorban ha-Pesaḥ : Hagadah shel Pesaḥ, nusaḥ Shomroni = Samaritan Haggada & Pessah Passover), Avraham Nur Tsedaḳah, Tel Aviv, 1958

Bibliography



Walking in the Footsteps of John the Baptist - God Cannot Act Without Us

   


Walking in the Footsteps of John the Baptist
God Cannot Act without Us

James McGrath has recently traveled to Israel to walk in the footsteps of John the Baptist. I thought it might be of interest that we journey with James as well to discover the early days of Jesus' ministry through his cousin John. Enjoy.

R.E. Slater
August 25, 2022


PS - Here, James points out that God cannot act without us. I speak to this all the time, but contrary to my past evangelic faith (I am now a process-based post-evangelic re process theology), today's church deems such "action-readiness" to be militancy to society - among other cultural baggage.

Which may have been John the Baptist's intention, if not the assumption of the author of Revelation, however I would like to take my cue from Jesus instead of from the church's "Just War theories." That is, Jesus taught love, lived love, and allowed himself to be executed because of his teachings on love and resistance to all other forms of religious zealotry.

Hence the many articles here at Relevancy22 speaking to "Christian Humanism" - which was the old church term for Christianity in actionable service ministries to the community at large.

Other equivalent terms today would be "Social Justice," "Ecological Restoration/Justice," building "EcoSocieties & Supportive Socio-Politico Economies," and eccetera." This, to me, would be the "biblical" way of reading John the Baptist, and later, Jesus' actions of preparing his followers/disciples for "Kingdom fitness."

In terms of today's language the kingdom of God might be better thought of as a Commonwealth of God's people living in united solidarity with God in ministrations of love, mercy, forgiveness, resistance to lies and evil, and acting humanely in humanitarian mission to the world about itself. But not militancy, speaking wrath and condemnation upon the world. There is no ability to minister to others when we choose to ostracize ourselves from the world, or live in exclusion from the world in out own little theological bubbles.

Amen

R.E. Slater
August 25, 2022

In the Footsteps of John the Baptist
Experiential Learning: The Axe is at the Root of the Tree

by James F. McGrath
July 21, 2022

I blogged previously about what I learned about cherry-picking from the Bible by actually picking cherries. Today I’ll do something similar in relation to words attributed to John the Baptist in Luke 3:9 and Matthew 3:10. John says the ax is already at the root of the tree, and unfruitful trees will be cut down. You may consider this part of my series “in the footsteps of John the Baptist” although this insight occurred as I was working in my own garden, seeking to bring down a very small and recent tree that was growing at an angle and in a location that together posed the potential for problems later on. This work was relatively easy but not without effort being involved even so. This was much, much less strenuous than the process of bringing down a larger tree. We have some experience with that, but not doing the work ourselves. When there’s a large old tree near one’s house, sooner or later it will either be cut down or will fall and damage the house. We decided not to wait and hired a company. We did not pay extra to have the stump removed when we’ve had this work done, and such stumps are still there. I cannot help thinking about that in relation to John’s mention of the axe being at the root of the tree. I can’t make much of a dent in a large maple stump with a chain saw, never mind an axe.

My main takeaway from thinking about John the Baptist while working in my yard is that I am even less persuaded that John’s apocalyptic vision was of God intervening to bring about change without human assistance. If the “one who is to come” was a person, someone who was to arise from within his circle of followers, and not a reference to God (as seems likely to me, although interpreters disagree about this) then John was preparing his group to bring about judgment and radical change, not merely to witness it as God did all the work miraculously. There would likely be a miraculous sign of some dramatic sort to confirm that the time had arrived. But people would need to prepare for that moment, and they would need to act when it arrived.

This may be the reason for John’s question as to whether Jesus was this figure. I do get the impression that (i) John viewed Jesus as his right-hand man and likely successor in the movement at some point. I also get the impression that (ii) John began to doubt his earlier thinking about Jesus, most likely because Jesus was not enacting the kind of judgment that John preached about and was hoping for. Jesus took up John’s imagery of bearing fruit, but does not appear to have used it in precisely the same way or with precisely the same implications as his mentor.

These are the kinds of things I think about as a New Testament scholar when working in the yard. I imagine that some people will do yard work hoping to put their jobs out of their minds for a while. I’m happy to have the privilege of a job in which I do what I love, and I think about the questions that I research as part of my job all the time and not just during regular business hours.

What are your thoughts on John’s reference to the axe being at the root of the tree?

In another instance of online serendipity, Steve Wiggins also blogged about trees:
So did Brent Nongbri—more specifically about dendrochronology:
Also check out James Tabor’s new video about the likelihood that the original version of the Book of Revelation was a Jewish, non-Christian work.

See as well his follow-up blog post responding to an early response to his video…

Can We Recover a Pre-Christian Version
of the Book of Revelation?
Jul 20, 2022
In this interview with Derek Lambert, host of Youtube's #mythvision podcast, I discuss my work on restoring a pre-Christian version of the now very "Christian" book of Revelation that millions of Christians to this day reply on for their main eschatological interpretations.
As it turns out, it is very likely that we are able to do that by a carefully analysis of what appear to be later interpolations--likely inserted toward the end of the 1st. century CE.
In addition to this introductory video you can also access a full presentation and analysis, free of charge on-line, along with a sample of what the book might have looked like before the Christian scribes got hold of it. If this thesis has validity we would have here one of our earliest and only 1st century Jewish documents written before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, as an interpretation of Daniel 7-11, likely circulating during the reign of the emperor Nero!
Here are the links to the supplementary materials:


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July 20, 2022

July 21, 2021

February 22, 2017

October 17, 2017


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James Tabor

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James Daniel Tabor (born 1946 in Texas) retired in 2022 as a Biblical scholar and Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte,where he taught since 1989 and served as Chair from 2004–14. He previously held positions at Ambassador College (1968–70 while a student at Pepperdine University), the University of Notre Dame (1979–85), and the College of William and Mary (1985–89). Tabor is the founder and director of the Original Bible Project, a non-profit organisation aimed to produce a re-ordered new translation of the Bible in English.[1]

Background

Tabor was born in Texas but lived all over the world as the son of an Air Force officer. He was raised in the Churches of Christ and attended Abilene Christian University, where he earned his B.A. degree in Koine Greek and Bible. While earning his M.A. from Pepperdine University he taught Greek and Hebrew part-time at Ambassador College, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and president of the Worldwide Church of God.

Tabor earned his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1981 in New Testament and Early Christian literature, with an emphasis on the origins of Christianity and ancient Judaism, including the Dead Sea ScrollsJohn the BaptistJesusJames the Just, and Paul the Apostle. The author of six books and over 50 articles, Tabor is frequently consulted by the media on these topics and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs.

During the Branch Davidian siege in Waco in 1993, Tabor and fellow religion scholar J. Phillip Arnold "realized that in order to deal with David Koresh, and to have any chance for a peaceful resolution of the Waco situation, one would have to understand and make use of these biblical texts." After contacting the FBI, they sent Koresh an alternative interpretation of the Book of Revelation which persuaded Koresh to leave the compound, though it was stormed by Federal forces first.[2]

Major publications and research

His first book was a study of the mysticism of the apostle Paul titled Things Unutterable (1986), based on his University of Chicago dissertation. The Journal of Religion named it one of the ten best scholarly studies on Paul of the 1980s.[citation needed]

In 1992 Tabor turned to an analysis of attitudes toward religious suicide and martyrdom in the ancient world, the results of which appeared as A Noble Death, published by HarperSanFrancisco in 1992 (co-authored with Arthur Droge). Tabor's book has been used as a standard by ethicists, lawyers, and physicians who are participating in the current debate.[citation needed] Tabor has also published a wide variety of scholarly and more popular articles in books, journals, and magazines.

In 1995, he published Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (University of California Press), which he co-authored with Eugene Gallagher, and which was one of the first books to explore what had actually happened during the Waco siege. In 1995 he testified before Congress as an expert witness on the siege.[citation needed]

The Jesus Dynasty

In 2006 Tabor published The Jesus Dynasty, which interprets Jesus as an apocalyptic Messiah whose extended family founded a royal dynasty in the days before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The form of Christianity that grew out of this movement, led by the apostle Paul, was, according to Tabor, a decisive break with the Ebionite-like original teachings of John the Baptist and Jesus.

Richard Wightman Fox, Professor of History at the University of Southern California, writing in Slate (April 2006) said, "Ultimately Tabor leaves the reader confused about whether he thinks the Jesus dynasty is a historical fact or merely an intriguing conjecture" and that "Tabor seems stuck in an endless loop, squinting across the sands of time as much as the terrain of Galilee and Judea, holding out for some imagined "real" contact with the historical Jesus".[3]

An extensive popular review by Jay Tolson appeared in the April 9, 2006 issue of U.S. News & World Report.[4]

Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte from the Theological University of Kampen writing in the Society of Biblical Literature Review of Biblical Literature (June 2007) was highly critical of the book saying, "Some books are written to spread knowledge, others to generate controversy. This book falls into the latter category. In his Jesus Dynasty James Tabor presents a reconstruction of the Jesus movement from a perspective that purports to be a neutral view at the facts. Unfortunately, Tabor’s view is not neutral and his ‘facts’ are not facts."[5]

Jeffrey Bütz in The Secret Legacy of Jesus (2010), says that The Jesus Dynasty is "a long overdue and most welcome addition to our knowledge of the historical Jesus, which has, not surprisingly, been widely denigrated by conservative scholars."[6]

Other activities

Tabor serves as Chief Editor of the Original Bible Project, an effort to produce a historical-linguistic translation of the Bible with notes.

Tabor has been involved in research on a tomb found in 1980 in Jerusalem in the area of east Talpiot. It contained ossuaries with the names Jesus son of Joseph, two Marys, a Joseph, a Matthew, and a Jude son of Jesus. In the book, The Jesus Dynasty, Tabor had discussed the possibilities that this tomb might be linked to Jesus of Nazareth and his family. He was a consultant for the film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus produced by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici and shown in March 2007. In 2012 Tabor published, with co-author Simcha Jacobovici, The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity (Simon & Schuster), which documents the recent exploration of a sealed tomb by remote robotic cameras, less than 200 feet from the first tomb.

Tabor has also appeared several times in all 3 seasons of The Naked Archaeologist, with Simcha Jacobovici.

Tabor's works are promoted by the educational charity United Israel World Union. He co-hosts tours of the Holy Land which are conducted by this organization.[7]

Controversial Views

In 2012, using a robot arm with a mounted camera, James Tabor explored a Second Temple-era burial cave in Armon Hanatziv along with the controversial film-maker Simcha Jacobovici. They claimed that the 2,000-year-old cave might be the burial site of Jesus's disciples - a claim which the majority of scholars reject.[8][9]

Books

References

  1. ^ "Introducing the Transparent English Bible"Transparent English BibleOriginal Bible Project. 2018.
  2. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (March 31, 2014). "Sacred and Profane: How not to negotiate with believers"The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  3. ^ Wightman Fox, Richard (April 13, 2006). "Jesus Nation"Slate. The Washington Post. p. 1. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  4. ^ Tolson, Jay (April 9, 2006). "The Kingdom of Christ"US News & World Report. Archived from the original on 12 November 2009. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
  5. ^ Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Bert (2007-06-23). "The Jesus Dynasty". Society of Biblical Literature. p. 1. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  6. ^ Jeffrey Butz, The Secret Legacy of JesusISBN 978-1-59477-307-5, p. 24.
  7. ^ Tabor & Nichols Israel Tour March 2021 – Walking the Ancient Paths
  8. ^ Hasson, Nir. "'Naked Archaeologist' Finds Signs Jerusalem Cave Was Used to Bury Jesus' Disciples"Haaretz. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  9. ^ Boyle, Alan. "Doubts about 'the Jesus Discovery'"NBC News. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  10. ^ "The Jewish Roman World of Jesus"The Jewish Roman World of Jesus.

External links