Well, I decided to give you all a break. I thought you might enjoy some pictures instead of a lot of writing. So, here are some of the sites that Bryan and I saw yesterday in Samaria/West Bank.
The first picture is Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim. Mt. Gerizim is on the left. These are the two mountains that the people of Israel were suppose to go and stand on (1/2 on Ebal andf 1/2 on Gerizim) and shout out the curses and the blessings found in Deuteronomy 11 I believe. We stood on Mt. Gerizim and Dr. Wright had people shout out the blessings. It was really neat. We couldn’t get to Mt. Ebal so we didn’t do the curses.
The second picture is of Dr. Wright (on the right) and a Samaritan Priest. There are only two cities of Samaritans in the world, one here and the other near Tel Aviv. There are about 730 Samaritans left in the world. For different reasons they only read the first five books of the Bible. They think the rest is just tradition. They believe the Messiah is coming back to Mt. Gerizim. Basically what the Jewish people believe about Jerusalem they believe about Shechem/Mt. Gerizim. (Shechem was the name of the city below Mt. Gerizim in Bible times. Now there’s a city there called Nablus).
The third picture is where they do their sacrifices for the Passover meal. Each family has a lamb, they kill it, roast it, and eat it quickly.
The fourth picture is of my cute hubby at Shiloh. (Did I make you gag Jenna 🙂 ) Shiloh is where the Tabernacle was for sometime.
The fifth picture is one place where they believe the Tabernacle may have stood at Shiloh (where all the people are standing). Because it was just a tent there’s no way to know for sure.
Enjoy…
haha cute comment Er, and no, I did not gag. THAT kind of talk does not make me gag… 🙂
Thanks for the pics. It’s nice to see the places you talk about since SOME of us in our family haven’t been to Israel yet.
Love the pictures. Keep posting – I love reading. I saw Kara and Julie this weekend and we missed you!
just to let you know I’m reading your blog. I enjoy it. love ya mom n
I have to admit that the idea of them knowing that there’s only 730 Samaritans left in the world makes me a little queasy. Do they only marry other Samaritans? If so, for how long as the potential pool been at this size? How small did it get? It’s just weird to hear about a distinct people group that’s been around for that long be down to that small of a number.
Or is it a belief thing? Like, I’m Samaritan more because I only read Torah, not Tanach, etc?
Joel, they are Samaritans in the same way a Jewish person is Jewish. It’s not just a religion but a cultural identity. I don’t know of people converting, though, to the Samaritan religion. At one time they were part Jewish and part Gentile, now they’re just Samaritans. Does that make sense?
We think this is as small as the pool has been, and yes, that has to cause to issues. They only marry other Samaritans. Their group has probably gotten smaller through the years, and they too have been persecuted at times. Pilate massacred them before he got called back to Rome.
They are an interesting group to be sure. There still isn’t much interaction between them and Jewish people today.