Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>]

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.