Alan Crown, born in Leeds, England 9/28/1932 studied Talmud Torah to age 18. His Masters Thesis on Samaritan Studies was prepared under Professor John Bowman. Crown trained as a teacher, instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps, a schoolmaster at Bramley County Secondary School, Leeds. Migrating to Austria, he taught at Mount Scopus College, Melbourne, Appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Semitic Studies at Sydney University in 1962 under Prof. E.C.B. Maclaurin. He earned his B.A. in Leeds and his Ph.D. in Sydney in 1967. He was professor and head of the Department of Semitic Studies at the University of Sydney.

Crown retired in 1996, still continuing to inspire, encouraged and wrote. He held many scholarly and honorary appointments. His books, translations, chapters and contributions to books and articles will always be with us. Among his greatest works were The Samaritans (Edited by Alan Crown), Samaritan Scribes and Manuscripts, A Bibliography of the Samaritans (continued today by friend Reinhard Pummer).

Alan was the husband of Sadie, loving father of Aviva and Jacqui, and father-in-law of David and Kevin. Adored grandfather of Carolyn, Stacey, Richard, Julia, Emma and Ben, and Michael.

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Shemaryahu Talmon (1920-2010)

 Prof. Shemaryahu Talmon (1920-2010) passed away on Dec. 15th. Prof. Talmon (90) was the chief editor of the Hebrew University Bible Project for many years.

 http://www.hartmaninstitute.com/SHInews_View_Eng.asp?Article_Id=594

also see http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Judaic&month=1012&week=c&msg=fwv3d0KIwtgHfSRVF6U5Aw&user=&pw=

also see  http://www.sbl-site.org/publications/article.aspx?ArticleId=869

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http://www.amazon.com/Israelite-Samaritan-Version-Torah-Translation/dp/0802865194/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp_T2

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GEO International Spanish Article & Photos

 http://www.mundo-geo.es/gente-y-cultura/vida-e-historia-de-los-samaritanos?image=3

http://www.mundo-geo.es/gente-y-cultura/samaritanos-la-tribu-perdida-de-israel

http://www.mundo-geo.es/gente-y-cultura/vida-e-historia-de-los-samaritanos

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A New Samaritan Website

Guy Joshua from the Samaritan community in Israel has 2 web sites, one in Hebrew and one in English about the Samaritan community.

http://www.shomronim.com/

http://www.shomronim.co.il/

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Recent Discovery in Egypt of Importance

One Passage of the Manuscript Translated

It Differs from the Present Hebrew Scriptures

Additional Passage Immediately Follows the Decalogue

   Cairo, Feb 4- The extraordinary Biblical find, the discovery of which already has been reported, is a manuscript of four books of the Pentateuch, written in Samaritan characters on parchment. The manuscript contains 255 folios in excellent state of preservation with the exception of the first page, which has been restored. The folios are 38 centimetres long, containing twenty-four lines to a page. A page containing the date, 116 Moslem era, which is equivalent to A.D. 735, is well preserved. The manuscript is the oldest of any of the Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible yet discovered. The owner is reported as already negotiating the sale of it to Mr. Ayer of Chicago Museum.

   Comparing the present Hebrew Bible with this manuscript there are found several notable differences. Immediately after the Decalogue there is a passage of some fifteen lines not in the actual version. These lines translated into English are as follows:

   “It shall come to pass when the Lord your God, shall bring you into the land of Canaan, whither ye are journeying and which ye are to inherit, that ye shall set up for yourselves large stones, built together with lime, and shall write upon these stones all the words of this book, and it shall come to pass that after the passage of the River Jordan ye shall also set up the same memorial as I have already commanded you on Mount Gerizim, and ye shall build there to the Lord your God an altar of stones rough hewn and not touched with iron tools.”

   George Zeldan, a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, a noted author and historian, is temporary custodian of the manuscript, which belongs to Khale el Sabra. Pending its final disposition Biblical scholars are offered all opportunity to study it.

.......

Just Interesting

The use of numbers, imported from India, was known in late eighth century Baghdad, spreading to Muslim Spain by the end of the tenth and from there into the Christian world.

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Samaritans Separation?

'When the Samaritans separated from the Jews during the 5th -4th century ...' This statement has been written over and over again. Another phrase used, is Samaritan Jews" Another typical sentence, 'The Samaritan faith and that of other Jews diverged over a millennium ago.' And let us not forget the most used words,, "Samaritan schism." Are there any truths to these statements?

   First, the Samaritan never have and never will say they were once Jews. Since the Jews originated from the southern kingdom known as Judea, it would therefore be incorrect to say that the origins the Samaritans were Jewish, since the Samaritan beginnings derived from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In the fourth century CE most all of Israel belonged to the northern kingdom except for the territory of Judea (see the The Survey of Western Palestine from the Palestine Exploration Fund 1881). at this time there was over 1,200,000 people of the Northern Kingdom.

   The division of Israel 1st come about with Eli, this is the most important issue on the splitting of Israel. Israel has been split from this time, even under Solomon there were those that apposed the original location of the Tabernacle. It is therefore can be said since the Northern Kingdom remained faithful to the location where Joshua pitched the Tabernacle and built the Altar as instructed. If this location was incorrect then, would not the God of the Israelites informed him or the High Priest? Since the Samaritan can prove that they are of the Northern Kingdom, then there cannot be a schism that came from them!

   The Jewish version of say in 2 Kings 17 that the Samaritans intermarried with foreigners. There were only 27, 290 people taken from the Northern Kingdom, a small percentage of the populous of the land. One must admit that there were some pagans living in the land at the time and even some Jews in the north. But still today the Samaritans do not marry outside of the faith except when taking Jewish wives that convert to their faith.

   Most scholars other than Samaritan Scholars and many authors do not investigate when making statements concerning the Samaritans but revert to old statements made by uninformed age old articles.

By Shomron

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Samaritan Resources

New Articles

 

Modern Samaritans Sacramento Daily Record-Union -Monday July 10, 1882  

At the Congregational Church yesterday Rev. H.E. Jewitt, of Redwood City, officiated in the absence of Rev. Dr. Dwinell, the pastor. In the evening a missionary concert was held, and on that occasion Mr. Jewitt, who has the advantage of extended personal observation in Palestine, spoke of “The Modern Samaritans, as Seen by an Eye-witness.”

 

Pharmaceutical Record And Weekly Market Review  1891

There are at Neapolis two very ancient copies of the Samaritan Bible which were written before the time of Solomon. We happened to arrive there on Saturday, and therefore were enabled to attend their services and to see these copies of the Old Testament. The Scripture parchment is rolled on two round sticks covered with carved silver.

 

THE CHURCHMAN: (1839) Printed by Leonard Seeley, Thames Ditton, Surrey. (Page 48d)  With respect to the Samaritans, Mr. Elliott states that, at Nablus, they are reduced to eighty persons, and in their physiognomy exhibit proofs or not being of the same blood as Israel. Yet the remains of Jewish opinions were very discernible in the requisition that a party entering the Temple should take the shoes from their feet, and in their veneration of the burial-place of Jacob and Joseph. Two copies of the Pentateuch were shown to Mr. Elliott; but we have doubts whether the ancient Samaritans, as it is commonly reported, received no other part of the Sacred Books:

 

The Cradle of Christianity: Chapters on Modern Palestine by Rev. D. M. Ross, M.A. Hodder and Stoughton (1891) In the time of our Lord the Samaritans occupied parts of the central district of Palestine between the Plain of Esdraelon and Judaea, and must have numbered many thousands. The feud between the Samaritans and Jews was fiercer than that between Romanists and Orangemen in Ireland. The Jews of Jerusalem could think of nothing more contemptuous to say to Christ than this: “Thou art a Samaritan.”

 

The Fringe of the East a Journey Through Past and Present Provinces of Turkey by Harry Charles Lukach (1913) In the south-west part of the town is the little Samaritan quarter. There, in a small whitewashed house which contains synagogue, school, and High Priest’s residence, we were received by the High Priest and his family. The High Priest’s name was Jacob, the son of Aaron, the son of Solomon; he was a tall, thin man of 70, whose sad and dignified mien betrayed weariness and dejection.

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Curiosity sometimes gets the best of me by the Editor

   I recently found some information on a Samaritan and conversion in the Inventory of the of Oriental manuscripts of the Library of the University of Leidon, vol 1, compiled by Jan Just Witkam, Ter Lugt Press, Lieden 2007.

   Among the manuscripts, some Samaritan, is an Arabic manuscript, Or. 789 (page 330) arranged with collections of letters with questions and answers. (29) ff 104b-154 a gives "a question and answer on 'a Samaritan who had freely converted to Islam and then continued with his former ugly religion', as it says.

It would be interesting to read more about this section!!!!