May 20th, 2004  

Vol.  III - No.20

• The Samaritan Passover

• The Seventh Conference

• A Biblical and Archaeological Perspective

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The Samaritan Passover

From the Editor

The Samaritan Passover Sacrifice took place recently on May 3rd on Mount Gerizim. The Holy Days  were quiet on the mount this year.  The first two photos came from Osher Sassony. The second pair was given to us by Benyamim Tsedaka. All four photos are from this past Passover. Little information was sent this year to the Samaritan Update. No articles so far on the Passover event have been seen on the internet or papers around the world.

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The Seventh Conference of the Société d’Etudes Samaritaines:

The Samaritans: Current State of Research

5-8 July 2004, University of Haifa

 יום שני, טז בתמוז    Monday, July 5

 14:00 – 14:30  הרשמה Registration

14:30 – 15:00  ברכות  Greetings

מושב ראשון  15:00 –16:30  First Session

Chang Choon Shik (Paichai University, Korea) 

The Status of the Samaritans in the Tannaitic Literature

Friedheim Emmanuel  (Department of Jewish History, Bar Ilan University)

The Samaritans and the Rabbinic Class in the Mishna and Talmud Periods - Between Cooperation and Eviction

Shahar Yuval (Department of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University)

The Samaritans in the Mishnah and in the Tosefta: From 'am ha-aretz to non-Jew

הפסקת קפה  Coffee Break

 מושב שני  17:00 –18:30 Second Session

 Van der Horst Pieter W. (Utrecht University)

Jacques Basnage on the Samaritans or: How much was Known about the Samaritans in the Netherlands Three Centuries ago?

Jamgotechain S.H. (Institute of Oriental Studies, Armenia, Erevan) 

Vasily Levison: The Earliest Russian Account on Samaritan

קבלת פנים 19:00  Reception

 יום שלישי, יז בתמוז    Tuesday, July 6

 מושב שלישי  9:30 –11:0 Third Session

Amitai Uri (University of Haifa)

Gerizim and Zion between Persia and Alexander

Pastor Jack (Oranim College)

The Contribution of the Samaria Papyri from Wadi Daliyeh to the Study of Economics in the Persian Period

Tamuz Oded (Ben Gurion University)

Will the Real Sanballat Please Stand Up?

 הפסקת קפה   Coffee Break

 מושב רביעי  11:30–13:00 Fourth Session

Lehnardt Andreas (Mainz University)

Massekhet Kutim and the Resurrection of Dead at the Samaritans

Shahal Rivka (Ashkelon Academic College, under the academic auspice of Bar Ilan University) The Sanctity of Mount Gerizim as Queried in the Literature of Hazal

 הפסקת  צהריים   Lunch Break

מושב חמישי  14:30–16:30  Fifth Session

Fine Steven (Department of Judaic Studies University of Cincinnati)

Between Tiberias and Gerizim:  Studies in Jewish-Samaritan Relations During Late Antiquity

 Hjelm Ingrid (University of Copenhagen, The Carsten Niebuhr Institute)

Samaria and Samaritans in Recent Research: Ancient Literature and Historical Realities

Mor Menachem (University of Haifa)

Recent Studies about the Samaritans in Ancient Times

 הפסקת קפה   Coffee Break

 יום רביעי, יח בתמוז    Wednesday, July 7

 מושב שישי  9:30 –11:0  Sixth Session

 פלורנטין משה (אוניברסיטת תל אביב)

המשקל בפיוט השומרוני לדורותיו : עיונים ראשונים

Morgenstern Moshe (University of Haifa)

הברכה המשולשת בתורה  - Samaritan Biblical Interpretation in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic

 Schorch Stefan (Kirchlichen Hochschule Bethel)

A New Critical Edition of the Samaritan Torah – Outline of a Joint Project

 הפסקת קפה  Coffee Break

 מושב שביעי  11:30–14:00 Seventh Session

 Zsengellé József (Reformed Theological Academy of Papa)  

Was He a Bad Samaritan? Ascensio Isaiae and the Early Jewish and Early Christian Anti-Samaritan Polemic

 Talgam Rina (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem) 

“Depiction of Sacred objects in Samaritan and Jewish Art: A Comparative Study

 Morabito Vittorio  

The History of Samaritans in Syracuse

הפסקת צהריים

 מושב שמיני  15:30–17:00 Eight Session

 צדקה ישראל (חולון)

בן גוריון, יצחק בן צבי והשומרונים

 Tsedaka  Benyamim (A.B.- Institute of Samaritan Studies, Holon/Israel)

Samaritan Israelite Families and Households that Disappeared

Haseeb Shehadeh (University of Helsinki)

A Case of Palestinian Arab Justice between Minority and Majority, the Samaritan High Priest Salama b. Sadaqa and the Arab Tailors of Nablus in the 19th Century

Thursday, July 8

 סיור Trip 

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A Biblical and Archaeological Perspective in Relation to the Israelite Location in the Land of Egypt Part 1

By Shomron

   The Exodus that the Israelites had taken from Egypt has been debated for many years. Most people believe that the journey of the Israelite people began in the mist of the land of Egypt near the Nile River. Most people believe that the Israelites built the Egyptian pyramids, which is incorrect. Even the true location of mount Sinai has been a subject of controversy. No positive evidence has come to life in either case. All evidence has been purely speculation. Some believe that the Passover and the journey is clearly fiction. Many books and documentaries have given  proposed information on this subject, yet all have been speculative. But what is about to be written is also speculation but for me, it makes so much more sense than what I have seen in the past. No one to my knowledge has ventured in the direction I have gone concerning the location of Goshen of the Exodus. Because of the amount of information I will be given I will add them in parts to the future Samaritan Updates.

   To get a clearer understanding of the area  we must begin to look back thru the borders of the tribes beginning with the sons of Noah for the land of Egypt and then a history in the book of Genesis.

   The land given to Noah (Genesis chapter 10) was divided into territories among his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. Shem’s territory, which included his sons and grandsons, was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east. Japheth and his sons received the isles of the Gentiles. Ham’s parcel of land was divided to his descendants into four sections to Cush, Mizraim (Gen. 10:6), Phut and Canaan. Mizraim’s territorial bordered the land of Canaan (Exodus 23:31). The word Egypt never actually appears in the scriptures. The Hebrew word is Mitsrayim, this can be readily seen in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance # 4714that shows the spelling 'Mitsrayim.' The territory in question was the name of one of the sons of Ham, the grandson of Noah, Mitraim. Gerar was a border town of the land of the Canaan. One of Mizraim’s sons was Casluhim who was the father of the Philistim, which became the Philistines. This land was the border of the territory of Abimelech, king of the Philistines having had his residence at the border town of Gerar on the Gaza strip. This is where Isaac dwelt for a time and was told not to go any further. The Israelites were not lead into the land of the Philistines.

   If the land were actually Egypt, it would state this name in the Hebrew Scriptures. The land of the Philistines to the south is where the Israelites dwelt before the journey to occupy the land of Canaan. The Israelites would inherent the land of Canaan which went from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar unto Gaza.

   The common concept that the Israelites built the pyramids began around 450 B.C., a Greek historian named Herodotus visited Giza. He was informed that a hundred thousand men built 2,000 years prior the pyramid of pharaoh Khufu. The builders of the pyramids were the local inhabitants. Harvard archaeologists Mark Lehner’s and Zahi Hawass confirm the pyramids were built by ordinary Egyptian citizens.

   Now when they Greeks translated the Pentateuch many years ago, they read the story of the Israelites being in bondage. The Israelite’s location would have been Gaza, while written without vowels, as the text originally read, ‘gz,’ the Greek translators thus connected the story from Herodotus’s Giza. Herodotus knew the royal fortress in Gaza, as Kadytis.

Thank you!