The Samaritans. By James Alan Montgomery, Ph.D. (John C. Winston
Company, Philadelphia. 8s. net.)—The story of the origin of the Samaritans is eminently characteristic of the time and place to which it belongs. Immigrants from a distant province terrified into the worship of a Power which they associate with their new abode is exactly what we should expect to find. Probably the denudation of the country was not so com- plete as we might suppose. The people which- occupied the northern region after the fall of Samaria was more akin to the Southern Hebrews than the latter chose to believe. All the early history, however, is obscure. The Samaritans never stated their side of the question. When we get genuine information about them we find them neither more nor less than a Jewish sect. Their chief heresy was the substituting of Gerizim for Jerusalem. In the interest of this tenet they went so far as to falsify the text of Scripture. Their present religious position is very much that of the Sadducees of New Testament times. The Samaritan Creed is this: "My faith is in Thee, Yahweh ; and in Moses, son of Amram, Thy servant; and in the Holy Law ; and in Mount Gerizim Beth-El ; and in the Day of Vengeance and Recompense." They deny the resurrection of the body, but not the immortality of the soul, as the last article of their creed testifies. It is doubtful, however, whether the sect as it now is keeps strictly to the Sadducoe position. It certainly acknowledges the existence of angels. Professor Montgomery gives us here a complete account of this very interesting community. We commend to our readers his volume, which is one of the contributions to theology which we owe to the Bohlen foundation.
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