To the Editor: THE SAMARITANS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 221, 18 September 1928, Page 8

To the Editor:

THE SAMARITANS

Sir, —I should like to thank “Old Pakeha” for his courteous answer. I must still maintain, however, that the Samaritans in Palestine arc not descended from the Ten Tribed Kingdom wf Israel, but are the half-castc descendants of the first return from Babylon of the Jews, and the people that the King of Assyria placed in the empty country, after all the, Israelites had been carried away. There were three deportations of Israel, by the Assyrians—one by Pul, another by Tig-lath-Pelescr, and the third by Shalmaneser, who besieged Samaria and took it after a siege lasting three years.

Kings 17.18 states: “There was none left.” It was a very small deportation, if 27,000 were taken, and 60,000 landed proprietors w< re left. “Old Pakeha’s” authority must have got confused with the remnant left of Judah, after deporting Judah to Babylon. We read (2 Kings 25.12): “That the Captain of the Guard left of the poor of the land, to be vinedressers and husbandmen.” These were not lauded proprietors, but the “poor of the land,” and these were of Judah, there were none left of Israel. The Assyrian inscriptions were more inclined to exaggerate their conquests than to minimise them. If 60,000 were left, why should these pagan settlers, placed by Assyria in the land, need to have asked for some one to teach them the religion of the God of this land! The thought strikes us that this alleged remn ...t of the ten tribes, must have been eminently successful in concealing its identity from the newly appointed inhabitants, to make it necessary for them to send all the way to Assyria, nearly 1000 miles, with great rivers to cross and no proper roads, to obtain the services of one man to supply the instruction which they desired.

When the King of Assyria commanded says, “Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had taken away from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught lheni how they should fear the Lord.” When this priest went to teach them, he, of course, would take a copy of Pentateuch, from which to teach them the Law. The pagan settlers seem to have adopted the Law of the Lord, while still continuing to worship the gods of the different countries from which they came. When the first Jews returned from Babylon and took wives from among these people, the> would no doubt expect to be absorbed among the Jews, but this was most emphatically forbidden by Ezra. The subsequent history of those people shows that when Palestine was under the Grecian Empire, or the Roman Empire, and the Jews were in trouble with that Power, the Samaritans disclaimed any relationship with the Jqws, but if anything was to be gained by the conne- , they talked about “our father, Jacob.”

After the, 70 years capitivity of the Jews had expired and they were in their own land again, and the Benjamites were wanting to go to Jerusalem to the feasts, they had to pass through “a village that was called Ginea, which was situated in the limits of Samaria and the great plain, where certain persons therto belonging, fought, with the Galilieans and killed a great many of them.” (Josephus, Antiquities). This shows the hostility between the Samaritans and the Israelites. After living in A \yria, the speech of the Israelites would of course approximate to the country in which they lived. There are in these days, English Jews, German Jews, French Jews and Russian Jews. These arc all Jews, but they speak the language of the country they live in. If language were a test of race, all the negroes in America would be AngloSaxon, for they speak the English of America, not any language Africa. I have not measured the skull of a Samaritan, neither have I ever met a person who has, so that 1 am not in a position to speak of its shape, but it is a well-known fact that the British Museum is the happy hunting ground of British Israelites, for there it is found the ancient inscriptions supporting British Israel truth. At the last conference of Prime Ministers in London, the King commanded that a photograph be taken of himself surrounded with his Prime Ministers. This picture shows the fulfilment of God’s un(•ouditional Covenant with Jacob Israel, that “a nation and company of nations should be of him.” It also shows the fulfilment of God’s unconditional Covenant with David, “That his descendants should reign over Israel for ever.” With he confirmation of the British Israel position continually being acquired it seems somewhat “eccentric” to refuse to believe that God has kept His Oath, though some people seem to prefer to believe that He has broken it, and transferred His promise to the Gentiles. ELIZABETH ASHTON. Wa nganui, Sept. 15, 1928.