Samaritans in Early Jewish Literature

While Samaritans claim descent from the northern tribes of ancient Israel, rabbinic tradition traces the origins of the inhabitants of ancient Samaria (near Shechem) to Cutha and related areas of Iraq, hence the use of the term Cutheans as a derogatory name in some of the texts here. To this day, a small group of remaining Samaritans continue to practice circumcision, observe the Sabbath, and revere a version of the five books of Moses—the Samaritan Pentateuch—even as they reject the rest of the Jewish canon. (For more, see From Collection to Canon.) Rather than Jerusalem, they identify Mount Gerizim as the place chosen by God for sacrificial worship, and they maintain a functioning cult and priesthood there. In the Persian period, when the Jewish people were permitted to return to the land of Israel, the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah report that the Samaritans clashed with the returning exiles, presenting them as adversaries of the Jewish community seeking to establish its roots in the land. The later attitude of rabbinic texts toward the Samaritans ranges from ambivalence to full censure, primarily as a response to their differing legal interpretation, practice of the Torah, and rejection of rabbinic tradition.