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  • From: "Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>
  • To: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>, "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, ihj AT hum.ku.dk
  • Subject: SV: [b-hebrew] Samaritan script/proto-hebrew
  • Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 14:22:10 +0100

The following is Ingrid Hjelm's summary of her treatment of the excavations
in her Currents article:
She is a research associate from the Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of
Copenhagen:

"Because of the excavations by Magen et al. in Samaria and on Gerizim since
1985, the question of the Samaritan temple(s) has gained increasing
importance as an indicator of the origin of the Samaritans. The finding of
temple structures beneath the Byzantine Mary Theodokos church that date to
the early Persian and the Hellenistic periods, along with about 450
dedicatory inscriptions and burned bones of year-old animals, indicates the
existence of a Yahwistic holy centre on Mount Gerizim for a period of more
than 400 years until its destruction around 111 BCE. The impact of these new
sources for understanding the early history of the Samaritans certainly will
affect the discussions as soon as excavation reports are available to a wider
audience. Four more volumes of MOunt Gerizim Excavations are projected to
appear in the next decade (subtitles are uncertain): vol. II: Mt Gerizim and
the Samaritans (forthcoming, 2005); vol III: The City of Luzah (forthcoming);
vol. IV: Coins and Seals (forthcoming`); vol V: The Byzantine Period and the
Greek Inscriptions (forthcoming). The existence of such a major holy centre
will affect discussions, not only about the Pentateuch, but also about the
ancient history of Israel, the Jewish canon, and the Samaritan literary
traditions, that are not part of their canon. Although these Samaritan
literary traditions date to a later time, they may preserve ancient
traditions, as can be inferred from the literature of the centuries around
the turn of the common era." cited from Ingrid Hjelm, "What do Samaritans and
Jews Have in Common? Recent Trends in Samaritan Studies," Currents in
Biblical Research 3.1 (2004), 9-59 [29-30].


From Ingrid Hjelm's larger article on recent Samaritan studies, I would like
to cite her abstract from p. 9:
"Apart from the later period of the Hasmonean kingdom, Samaritans and Jews
were always separate peoples who had either Gerizim or Jerusalem
[respectively] as their main cult place. While Jewish perspectives on
Samaritan origin[s] and history still prevail in recent research, future
research will have to broaden the perspective and take into consideration
Samaritan claims for authenticity in respect to origin, belief and
traditions. These claims have been recently substantiated by excavations on
Mt. Gerizim, which have unearthed structures of a major Persian period cult
place that may date as early as the 6th century BCE. These finds, as well as
finds of about 400 inscriptions and 13,000 coins, have just begun to be
published. The present article presents the most recent development in
research on Samaritan history and literature, in order to offer a base for
the necessary rewriting of both Samaritan and Jewish history."

I hope this will help the discussion,
sincerely,
Thomas

Thomas L. Thompson
Professor,
University of Copenhagen


-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Thomas L. Thompson
Sendt: sø 20-03-2005 12:21
Til: Peter Kirk; Yitzhak Sapir
Cc: B-Hebrew
Emne: SV: [b-hebrew] Samaritan script/proto-hebrew


Dear forum,
I had intended to point out that Hjelm argues that there was not a
split, but rather never had been a unity between these two distinct peoples:
Jews and Samaritans.
Thomas

In responding to Yitzhaq Sapir's remarks,

>I do not intend to enter a historical discussion with you,
unless you intend
>to be prepared to back up your objections and claims where
they differ
>from the currently established scholarly consensus or a
major scholarly
>position.


Peter Kirk had responded:

Well, on this issue there doesn't exactly seem to be an
established
consensus, from what Thomas Thompson and Kevin Edgecomb have
just said
on this list. (I am surprised to find myself in agreement
with Thompson,
but at least no one can accuse him of biblical
fundamentalism!) And I
don't accept that any one "major scholarly opinion" is
sufficiently
weighty that I have to argue against it in detail. But I have
presented
some of my own evidence for an earlier split, to which can be
added the
evidence from the excavations on Mount Gerizim. Of course
such an early
split was not necessarily complete, final and formalised
until much
later, and there may have been periods of mutual cooperation
over a long
period before that final split.






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