Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-11-08

church. came along and seeing his
plight passed by on the other side Of
the road; and then g negro came by
and cared for him. This would be the
modern version of the parable. IT will
at least help the reader to appreciate
its full significance.
A PECULIAR PEOPLE.
These Samaritans are a peculiar people.
/ They occupy a separate quarter in the
. city of Shechem They claim that their
high priest, Jacob, or Yakob, as they
spell it, is of the tribe of Levi. They
take only the Pentateuch-or the five
books of Moses, Genesis, Leviticus
Numbers and .Deuteronomy--as their BIZ
! bic. They discovered in the 18th CEN
fury, manuscript of the Pentateuch
which they claim was copied by
Abishua, the great grandson of Aaron.
! IT has round Hebrew letters and schol-
! ars say 1t written in the fourth
century 4. D. The general style OF
writing is similar to that in the Greek
manuscripts of the New Testament,
| ten in the fourth century a. D. Besides
the Pentateuch, their literature consists
| of prayers and hymns
PILGIMAGE TO Mt. GERIzM.
They offer sacrifices at the feast of
tabernacles they make a pilgrimage to
| the top OF Mount Gerizim TO the old
| temple of which | spoke last week Mr..
| William L. Curtis calls this the oldest
sanctuary in the world" But the Jews
would dispute the claim. The Samari-
tans a that time meet in their syna-
gosue at the foot Of the mountain, in the
city, PROSTATE themselves before the
Pentateuch, bow to the eastern summit
OF Mount Gerizim, where the temple is
situated, form a procession. march to the
top and sacrifice seven white lambs. As
II said last week in telling of our visit
10 this old Samaritan temple there is a
large stone there which the Samaritans
claim is the place where Abraham was
about to offer up Isaac when the hand
of the Lord stayed him aud a ram was
offered instead. Under the southern wall
of the old temple there is a line of rocky
slabs which they call the ten stones !
and which they claim were brought there /
by Joshua and by the ten tribes, except
Judah and Benjamin. These two tribes
represent the Jews. The Samaritans you
know, have NJ use for the Jews and
they are not willing TO accord them a
share in anything which the Samarltans
regard as good. The Samaritans not only
believe that the place where the old tenn
pie is located marks the spot of Abra-
hams sacrifice, but that it is the Bethel
of Jacob, thus proposing to take from
the Jews the honor of having that sa-
cred spot within their boundaries This
only shows the absurd lengths to which
rivalry and jealousy will carry people.
It would have been utterly preposterous
for Jacob on his Journey to Padan Aram
TO cliplb mountain like Mount Gerlzim
to spend the night. II was out of his
way and very difficult of access-at least
If 1t was then anything like it Is now.
In fact, / wondered why a temple should
be located where this old Samaritan tenn
pie was, it seems so inaccessible sup
pose though, they must have gone to 1t
in olden times. as they do now, only a
few times d year
The Sunday after we were in Sheehem .
was the Samaritan passover, and they
were to have procession of the kind
have described to the temple I should
like to have seen Il. I wondered though |
how they could manage to climb that
rough, rocky road, path, in any sol i
of order. and ] imagine they would not
care to try il very often.
MONITHEISTIC.
The Samarftaus. like the Jews. like
Christians and like the Mohamedans. are
monotheistic in their belief. They be-
lieve in only one God. They abhor i'm |
ages pictures and symbols of worship !
and object to the ascription of human !
attributes to God. They look for a mes
siah to come 5000 years after the foun !
dalton of the world. which, according to (
their calculation. will be towards the end /
of the next century.
DYING OUT.
But they will hardly live TO see that |
time I mean not simply the individual i
Samaritans now living, but the race OF ,
Samaritans. They are dying out. II 100
A. D., soon after the Christian era be- |
gan, there were 1000 of them. They had |
colonies in Ashkelon, Caesarea and Dam /
ascus. and later in GAIA and in Cairo |
In 1902 there were 40. They now claim /
200, but I doubt IL there are $50 of them |
The cause of this diminution in num-
bers is intermarriage among themselves.
Their rule is to marry the next of kin. |
On account of the scarcity of population
they marry at a very early age. boys at I
Is. girls at T. No wonder they are /
dying out
VISITS TO THE SAMARTTANS
\ visit to these peculiar people was
quite interesting, but could hardly be /
called pleasant. The quarter of the city
in which they live is very squalid. The
streets leading to it are narrow and
unspeakably filthy. Ii was almost neces-
sary to hold ones nose as we went
through them. Some of the party did ;,
hold their handkerchiefs to their nose.
The present temple is small and en-
tirely unpreposses ing, both outside and
inside We were met at the door by a
troop OF children, In the center of the
temple we were received by the high
priest. Yakob, with a dignity becoming
his rank. Knowing the small number
of his followers and their poverty, we
could hardly keep from laughing I'm his
face his assumed dignity seemed so RI !
diculous. He is man somewhat over
20 years Of age. tall with long flowing
white beard, and has n rather pleasing
appearance. Two sons much younger,
probably So or 80 years of age, are hand
some fellows. One of them is to be
his fathers successor as high priest.
They are all evidently very poor. ] I'M
derstand that they do not work, but
depend upon tourists to support them.
We asked to sec a copy of their manu-
script of the new pentateuch. We had
to give backsheesh before they would