Samaritanism

**Samaritanism** is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, religious, and legal traditions of it's followers and adherents, known as Samaritans or **Israelite Samaritans** as they prefered to be known as, who are known for being exceptionally devout and religious, are the indigenous people of Samaria, which is their ancestral homeland and is a historical region of ancient Israel and Judah, that comprises the northern half of the West Bank of Palestine. Currently, patriarch Aabed-El ben Asher ben Matzilach has been the high priest of Samaritanism since he assumed office on 29 April 2013.

Samaritanism is well known for being one of the smallest religions worldwide, and there are only around 874 to 1,000 followers and adherents of the religion, known as the **Samaritans**, currently, most of whom live in Israel and the West Bank of Palestine. Around 840 Samaritans live either in the city of Holon (in Israel) or in the small village of Kiryat Luza (in the West Bank of Palestine) alone, meaning that virtually all followers of Samaritanism live in this city and village alone. In the past, Samaritanism was a much larger and diverse religion than it is today, reaching as far as Syria, and with a population of 1,900 followers in the 12th century, but rapidly declined over time mostly due to persecution from the Islamic government in the Middle East and because many Samaritans converted to Judaism and married Jews and had children with them, thus rapidly declining members of the religion and group.

Both the Samaritans, followers of the religion, and the Jews originate and descend together from ancient Hebrews and Israelites, but the Samaritans and Jews slowly began to seperate and split into relatively distinct ethnic groups with different religions and traditions after the Kingdom of Israel was invaded and conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE, during the Iron Age. Therefore, Samaritans and Jews are closely related ethnic groups and cousins. Mount Gerizim, a mountain located in the West Bank of Palestine, is considered the holiest site of Samaritanism and is where Samaritans celebrate Passover here annually and built an altar here, and also one of the places where Samaritans gather for worship here. The Samaritans belive that Mount Gerizim is the location where the prophet Abraham offered to sacrifice his son Issac, in contrast to the belief in Judaism that it was in Temple Mount in Jerusalem instead.

The scripture and the holy book of Samaritanism is the Samaritan Pentatuech, which the Samaritans belive is the true, original, unchanged, and sacred form of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. While the Samaritan Pentatuech is very similar to the masoretic Hebrew Bible, there are around 6,000 differences between the two scriptures, namely the Samaritan Pentatuech has only 5 books in total and accepts only the Torah, while the Hebrew Bible has 24 books in total, and while the Hebrew Bible states that the prophet Moses was given ten commandments by God for the people of Israel, the Samaritan Pentatuech states that Moses was given eleven commandments by God for the people of Israel instead. The additional eleventh commandment is **You shall set up these stones which I, the Lord, command you to on Mount Agarizem (Gerizim).**