SAMARIA | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1881

SAMARIA.

In their territory the Samaritans certainly possessed some of the richest legacies of Jewish history. When the Israelites entered into the promised land after their long wanderings, it was their first duty, according to Moses' command, to rear on Mount Ebal an altar of stones, and on this altar inscribe the law. Then with six tribes posted on the slope of Ebal, and six on that of Gerizim, the Levites pronounced the curses and blessings of the law—the curses from Ebal, the blessings from Gerizim.

Ancient Shechem, regarded as the most beautifully situated city of Palestine, lay in the valley, directly between the two mountains, and was the frequent rallying-point of the nation. In that valley Joshua gathered the people in solemn assembly to renew their covenant with God; there the sanctuary was set up and revered even centuries later, when Jerusalem had become the sacred capital of the nation; there Rehoboam, son of Solomon, received his crown; there Jeroboam, first king of the ten tribes, set up his kingdom.

And after two hundred and fifty years, and after the destruction of the northern kingdom, a new race and sect—the Samaritans—came to revive there a temple and altar dedicated to Jehovah, and to claim title to the name of Israel, that rival kingdom to Judah which became an idolatrous and apostate nation, and utterly perished at the hands of the Assyrian invaders who carried its people bodily out of the country.—Sel.