Who were the Samaritans?

[FireDragon76]

Religion for Breakfast is a Youtube channel full of scholarly overviews of religions and religious topics, researched and presented by a religious studies professor. Andrew Henry is a scholar of religion who focuses on early Christianity. Recently, he posted a documentary about the identity and origins of the Samaritans:

I knew a little about Samaritans from reading about them in Christian sources and hearing about them at church, but Henry goes into alot more detail. It sounds like Samaritans were a sect from northern Israel and were part of a plurality of Canaanite monotheistic theologies, and not some kind of corrupted religion, and that these groups disagreed about what mountain to worship God on (likely for political reasons).

 

[Lavaduder]

In Ezekiel 16 Samaria & Sodom were used to show how corrupt Israel was.
45 "Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite."
46 "And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters."
Immorality & Pride being the bigger kicker.
51 "Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done."

 

[FireDragon76]

In Ezekiel 16 Samaria & Sodom were used to show how corrupt Israel was.
45 "Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite."
46 "And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters."
Immorality & Pride being the bigger kicker.
51 "Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done."

There's no reason to take that at face value as accurate to the Samaritan's religion. That sort of rhetoric was the result of polemicism on the part of the authors. It was common in the ancient world to accuse rivals of having the wrong religion, or to exaggerate religious and cultural differences. Politics and religion were often one and the same.

 

[tampasteve]

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[Halbhh]

Religion for Breakfast is a Youtube channel full of scholarly overviews of religions and religious topics, researched and presented by a religious studies professor. Andrew Henry is a scholar of religion who focuses on early Christianity. Recently, he posted a documentary about the identity and origins of the Samaritans:

I knew a little about Samaritans from reading about them in Christian sources and hearing about them at church, but Henry goes into alot more detail. It sounds like Samaritans were a sect from northern Israel and were part of a plurality of Canaanite monotheistic theologies, and not some kind of corrupted religion, and that these groups disagreed about what mountain to worship God on (likely for political reasons).

Since I'm more a reader than a watcher when I have a choice, I went to the wiki, which has an opening section that is fairly brief and detailed both (much more detail than what I'd had):
Samaritans - Wikipedia
Curious to hear your comparison of the wiki information to what you got from the video.

Does Henry's view in the video accord with the information in the wiki?

 

[FireDragon76]

Since I'm more a reader than a watcher when I have a choice, I went to the wiki, which has an opening section that is fairly brief and detailed both (much more detail than what I'd had):
Samaritans - Wikipedia
Curious to hear your comparison of the wiki information to what you got from the video.

Does Henry's view in the video accord with the information in the wiki?

More or less, though Henry's perspective is as a secular scholar of religion.

 

[Semper-Fi]

At the time of Christ

In Samaria, north of Jerusalem, lived a Gentile people whom
the Jews of Christ’s day spurned, calling them ‘dogs.’

They had been moved there, about 700 b.c. by various kings,
(2Kings 17:18, 21-24, etc.) from areas of the Babylonian Empire.

The people of Samaria were not Israelites; they were largely Babylonian
by birth. After Israel was taken into captivity from there homeland, people
from five Babylonian tribes were moved into Samaria.

They brought their Babylonian and Assyrian gods, and their pagan
practices with them. These Babylonians were attacked by lions.
(verse 25)

The newly settled Samaritans asked the Assyrian king to send back a
priest from Israel to teach them how to worship the God of the land.

The king complied (verse 27), but what they received was a priest
who taught them the pagan practices of northern Israel.

The Samaritans began to worship Israel’s God using the false
teachings of the evil King Jeroboam.

He formed his own religion. He forced true priests of God to
flee to Jerusalem and Judea (2Chronicles 11:14). He established
calf worship at Dan and Bethel (1Kings 12:28-30).

He changed the fall holy days from the seventh to the eighth month.
He made priests of the lowest of the people, those who were not of
the tribe of Levi (verse 31).

So the Samaritans were deeply deceived by an Israelite priest who
taught them pagan practices while showing them God’s name.
While the northern tribes where scattered abroad by time of Christ.
-

Acts you’ll read of their religious leader in the time of Christ,
Simon Magus the Sorcerer