Sichem made the the Sama ritans. By this time the Samaritans, who daily increased in number, ftrength, and wealth, by the continual concourse of apoftate Jews, made Sichem their metropolis, which they enlarged and beautified. As they were neither fo capital of fcrupulous about their oaths of allegiance, nor fo tenacious of the precepts of the Mofaic law, as their rivals of Judæa were, they seldom failed to fide with the strongest, and, if occafion required, to comply with the will of their princes, even in things which were abfolutely forbidden by their law. This policy, which they never loft fight of, freed them from the many perfecutions which the Jews underwent; fo that from this time, not only those who fled from Judæa to escape punishment, but a much greater number, went over to them, to avoid either perfecution on account of their law, or the tyranny and oppreffion of their governors. As therefore this fect became fo numerous and powerful, as to make a confiderable figure in the Jewish history, our readers will doubtlefs expect to be informed, how far their religion agreed or differed from that of the Jews; and by what arguments they have, ever fince their feparation, endeavoured to prove their claim of precedence to, and to retort the imputation of fchifm upon them; fince we have already feen, that they were originally a mixture of Cutheans, and other foreign nations, fent thither by the Affyrian kings, instead of the ten tribes carried away captive by them; and now become a more mixed and mongrel nation, by the constant refort and incorporation of all the renegade Jews (Z). The following articles contain a fhort fummary of their An account of the Samaritans. of the Maccabees is an epi- This Jewish colony grew in (Z) The Samaritans, in opposition to that which we have from the facred books concerning them, boast themselves defcended from Jofeph by Ephraim; they pretend, that when Joshua entered into the Promifed Land, he caused a temple to be built upon Mount Garizzim, and appointed Ruz, of the feed of Aaron, to officiate as high-prieft, from whom they boaft to have an exact genealogy, and uninterrupted fucceffion down to this very time. faith in common with, and in oppofition to, that of the Jews. 1. They believe in one God, and his fervant Mofes; Their reli and that Garizzim is the only place of God's wor- gion. (A). fhip 2. They always circumcife their males on the eighth day, never deferring it upon any account, as the Jews do, fome of them till the hour of death. 3. They never allow themselves two wives, or to marry their nieces; but the Jews do both. 4. They are bound to wash themselves every morning, after either matrimonial converfe, or any accidental defilement; fo that they look upon every veffel and the houfhold-stuff they touch, before fuch an ablution, to be polluted. 5. They obferve the fabbath with the greatest strictnefs, abftaining from matrimonial commerce on that night, lighting no fires, nor ftirring from their houses, unless to go to the fynagogue, where they read fome portion of the Pentateuch, offer up their prayers to, and fing the praises of God. 6. Of all their folemn feftivals, the Paffover is by them esteemed the chief; they likewise obferve the other two of Pentecoft, and of Tabernacles, with great exactness, and the grand faft of Expiation with uncommon ftrictness. 7. They never offer any facrifice but on Mount Garizzimi. i Vide Int. al. Bafnag. ubi fupra. (A) The Jews, fay they, follow other teachers, other precepts, taken from their other books, traditions, and expofitions; we adhere to the five books of Mofes, and reject all other writings, all other authority and interpretation, and. guide our faith and practice folely by the precepts of our lawgiver. Accordingly they never admitted any other books but the Pentateuch. In confequence of this maxim, they reject all the prophetical and hiftorical books, as written in favour of the Jews, and efpe- They value themselves for (1) Vide Bafnage Hiftoire des Juifs, tom. ii. parti. chap. 3 & 4. lib. vii, chap. 25. 8. They Two ver fens of the Pentateuch. 8. They boast a continued fucceffion of priests, from Ruz, the fon of Phinehas, the catalogue of which is preferved by them with the utmoft ftrictnefs; and their high-prieft always makes his refidence at Sichem, now called Naploufe; from whence he iffues out his directions to the whole fect for keeping their festivals, and whatever relates to the Mofaic obfervances (B). From this fhort account of their faith and practice, one would be apt to conclude, that, except thofe points which related to their fchifm, they had been much stricter obfervers of the Mofaic law than the Jews; but whatever they may have proved in later times, we fhall meet with fuch flagrant inftances of the contrary in the fequel of this and the next fection, as will eafily evince how ready they were, upon the leaft danger of perfecution, or fevere ufage, from their governors, to facrifice their religion to their interest and fafety. k How and when the manufcript of the Pentateuch came into the hands of the Samaritans, is hard to guess. The general opinion is, that it was brought into Samaria by the priest, whom Efarhaddon fent to inftruct the new inhabitants of that country. The book was not unknown to feveral ancient fathers, particularly Origen and St. Jerom, who both understood the Hebrew tongue; but they have given us no light about it. The opinion of fome learned moderns is, that it was brought to Samaria by Manaffes, Sanballat's fon-in-law lately mentioned; and that it was transcribed from that of Ezra, fince we find in it all the emendations and explanations which that infpired fcribe is fuppofed to have made to those five books; and confequently could be of no older date, much lefs have been brought by that Hebrew priest above mentioned. However, each fyftem has its difficulties, which are not eafily folved; all that we fhall add concerning this book is, that, befides this copy written in their old character in the Hebrew tongue, they had another written in the vulgar language fpoken among them, because, like the Jews, they had forgot the old Hebrew, and were accustomed to a mongrel mixture of Affyrian, * F. Simon. Hift. Crit. V. T. lib. i. cap. 10. Prid. ubi fupra. (B) This fect is ftill very numerous, not only in their metropolis, but in Damafcus, Gaza, Cairo, and other parts of the Ottoman empire, befides those which are difperfed into the northern parts of Europe and Afia. Babylonish, Babylonish, and Chaldee. Befides this, they had a Greek verfion of it for the fake of their Hellenistical brethren, as the Jews had the Septuagint; and it is probable, that this was the version which is mentioned by feveral ancient fathers', fince they cannot be supposed to have underftood either the original, or the vulgar verfion. The old Hebrew copy afterwards remained unknown to the Chriftians, during near ten centuries. Scaliger was the How first modern who got intelligence of it; after which it was brought brought over into Europe, and printed in the polyglots of into EuParis and London; the latter of which is by far the best rope. and most correct, as well as the Latin verfion of it ". Yr. of Fl. 2036. Ante Chr. We return to Judæa, which we left in the poffeffion of Judea the king of Egypt, but which he was, about five years yielded to after, forced to abandon to Antigonus and his fon, who Antigonus. came against him with a fuperior army. Ptolemy contented himself with demanding the cities of Ace, Samaria, Joppa, and Gaza, and with carrying off an immense booty, as well as a great number of inhabitants, whom he fettled in Alexandria, and endowed with confiderable privileges and immunities, as Alexander had done before him. He was then defigning to make that city the metropolis of Egypt, and was fo well fatisfied with the fidelity and industry of the Jews, that he fpared no encouragement to allure them; infomuch that vaft numbers flocked continually thither from Judæa and Samaria, chufing to live under fo generous and friendly a prince in a foreign country, rather than in their own, under the fluctuating government of fo many contending tyrants. na 312. Seleucus very much imitated the clemency and generofity Seleucus's of the Egyptian king, a character which was quite oppo- friendship fite to that of Antigonus; who was of fuch a fierce to the ture, that he ftuck at no cruelty, falfhood, or tyranny, Jews. that ferved his turn. This made great numbers of the Jews fall away likewise from that tyrant to Seleucus, who gave them much the fame privileges and franchises that his competitor granted in Egypt. He built fixteen cities in Leffer Afia, which he, from his father, called Antioch; nine he called by his own name, and fix by that of his mother Laodicea; three from his first wife Apamea, and one from Stratonice his laft wife: in all these he fettled fuch confiderable colonies of the Jews, efpe 1 African. Eufeb. Diod. Tarfenf. & al. ap. Prid. ubi fupra. m Vide Scalig. de Emend. Temp. cap. 7. Uffer. Epift. ad L. Capel. Walton. Proleg. in Polygl. Morin, Prid. & al. Yr. of Fl. 2016. 202. Simon the dies. cially at Antioch in Syria, that they became almost as confiderable a part of those cities as they were at Alexandria. Hence that nation came to spread themselves over Syria and Leffer Afia, whilst Judæa grew thinner of inhabitants, till it was again recovered by Ptolemy; after which they came ftill over to him from the provinces of Antiochus, and increafed the number of thofe whom he found in Babylon; from all whom he received fuch confiderable fervices, that he fpared no favours for encouragement to bind them to his intereft. Soon after the recovery of Judæa by Ptolemy Soter, died Simon the Jewish high-prieft, in the ninth year of Ante Chr. his pontificate". He had fucceeded his father Onías, and had been fo eminent for his fanctity and integrity, which fhone in all his actions, that he was furnamed the Juft. high-prieft He was the firft pontiff of that name, and the excellent character which the author of Ecclefiafticus gives of him, fhews how highly he deserved the furname which his nation had beftowed. But he was no less remarkable for his other virtues, as a Jewish prince and governor; witnefs his repairing and fortifying the temple and the city. with high and ftrong walls, his famous ciftern covered with brafs, which he caufed to be made in Jerufalem, as a refervoir for water, of fuch capacious circumference, that the author above quoted compares it to a fea; but his most considerable work was the finishing the canon of the Old Teftament, of which we have already spoken (C). He n Eufeb. Chron. (C) It has been already obferved, that the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and of the Chronicles, could not have been inferted into the canon by those two writers; first, because there are in them fome marginal corrections, which muft have been inferted by fome of their fucceffors; and, fecondly, because fome genealogies are carried down far beyond. their time, fome even to that of Alexander the Great. The book of Efther likewife feems to have been written • Ch. 1. 1, & feq. lachi, As therefore this Simon the Juft is by all the Jews mentioned as the last of the great fynagogue, and was a man of fuch eminent piety and learning, it is not unreafonable to fuppofe, that he put the finishing ftroke to the facred code, either by inferting the books above mentioned, or, if they had been received before, by revifing and giving his fanction to them. From this pontificate is dated the completing of the facred canon of the Old Testament, which was thenceforward received and conveyed without revifal |