The Samaritan Museum, West Bank, Palestinian Territories

5Drs. M.& V.T. 5:00 PM Feb 10, 2019

One of our Highlights raveling through the Holy Land
This was one of the highlights of our trip. I loved the Samaritan Village and Museum and found it fascinating. One of the world’s only remaining Samaritan village. There are less than 800 Samaritans remaining worldwide, and about half live in this village, the only one of its kind. The people are so kind and welcoming and the young man who did the tour through the museum went out of his way to explain everything we wanted to know, his grandfather is the High Priest. Many tourist dont want to visit there because they told it could be unsafe but our guide got us there safely. The Samaritan Museum, which is a small but very interesting place where we learned about the Samaritans, their lifestyle & scriptures, and who was only too pleased to spend time with us and answer questions. Impressive that they only had one divorce in 100 years, they must do something right!!

5Ian P 5:00 PM Oct 22, 2015

A truly unique experience
The Samaritans now number only some 750 persons, a poor remnant of what was the dominant power in the 'Biblical' age. The museum is easy to find and welcoming. The person in charge, the brother of the present High Priest, speaks excellent English, and has a couple of lady assistants who help out. He has a friendly manner, and spends a short time giving a talk on the Samaritan faith, and shows a few artefacts, including a Torah scroll written in Samaritan. This is of course a copy (only 150 years old!), the original is well locked up! The little village, on the edge of Mt Gerizim, is very pleasant and has a few cafes. Our trip to Mt Gerizim, which I had been looking forward to, was pointless as the Israelis have put a fence around it and will not let people in. As Mt Gerizim is clearly in Palestinian territory near the administrative centre of Nablus this is incredibly wrong. But the guards lolling about were clearly not going to open up. The world needs to wake up to this. Samaria was the leading power, completely eclipsing 'Judea' until the 2nd century BCE. They had their own Temple, on Mt Gerizim, which was destroyed by the Maccabees. The two countries had been feuding for years, and this act of aggression made it worse, as can be seen by the NT's (composed in Judea) attitude to Samaritans. However, the region and history are crucial for Christians as clearly Jesus had dealings and affection for Samaritans, and brought them into his movement. The site has been rebuilt upon several times, so not much can be expected of this original Temple, but it is important that it is properly excavated. This is NOT going to be done by the Israeli 'archaeologists' who have their own agenda. (I do not include all Israeli archaeologists of course - some very brave people have principles). While the agenda is to prove that Palestine was uninhabited before 1948 and that Solomon/David were the magnificent and towering personalities the Judean OT claims, rather than insignificant as the evidence suggests, then it is in their interest to keep Samaria in the shadows. The present situation is the desecration of a site of world interest. The archaeological world needs to stop hiding its head in the sand.