Early Christian Authors on Samaritans & Samaritanism
Texts, Translations & Commentary
By Reinhard Pummer
December 2002
Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 3161478312
529 pages, 6 ¼ x 9 ¼"
$210.00 hardcover
Samaritanism is an outgrowth of early Judaism that has survived to the present day. Its origins as a separate religious entity can be traced back to the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C.E. Samaritans were found not only in their sore area in and around Schechem-Neapolis (modern Nablus) and on neighboring Mount Gerizim, but also in other parts of Palestine and other Mediterranean countries.
Oppression at the hand of Jews, Christians & Muslims decimated the Samaritan population and obliterated all Samaritan manuscripts written prior to the 10th/11th centuries C.E. For the early period of Samaritanism, we must rely on Christian authors. The present volume assembles those Christian sources from antiquity, i.e., from the time prior to the Muslim conquest of Palestine.
The literature incorporated in this work was originally written in Greek or Latin. Some of the texts are extant only in translations into Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic or Ethiopic. They are presented in this book in the languages of the oldest or best preserved versions.
Religious history; Judaism
Texts & Studies in Ancient Judaism No. 92
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