Part 8 (2/2)

It is impossible now to give the actual date when the Samaritans began to use a different copy of the Scriptures from the Jews. The Israelitish city of Samaria was captured by Sargon, king of a.s.syria, in 722 B.C.; but although he carried away the most important inhabitants captive, a great number of the poorer people remained on the land, and when Sargon filled the country with new and heathen settlers, so many marriages took place between the two races that the Children of Israel lost their old name and were known to the Jews of Judah as 'Samaritans.'

Yet the Samaritans still clung to the Jews' religion, and the separation did not probably become complete until Nehemiah expelled all those Jews from Jerusalem who had married heathen wives. (Nehemiah xiii. 23-30.)

Now Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that among these exiles was a man named Mana.s.seh, a grandson of the high priest, and that, indignant at being cast out, he fled to Samaria. Here he determined to set up a separate wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah, and, having obtained permission from the king of Persia to erect a Temple, he built a Holy Place on Mount Gerizim, which became the centre of a new form of religion.

It is thought that Mana.s.seh had carried away a copy of the Books of the Law from Jerusalem, and by means of certain alterations in the words he made it appear that G.o.d had chosen Mount Gerizim in Samaria for the site of His House, instead of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.

Now at this time all the Jews still wrote in the ancient style, forming their letters as we see them on the Moabite Stone; but not long afterwards they adopted the square letters of Hebrew writing such as are still in use to-day.

The Samaritans, however, in their hatred of everything Jewish, refused to follow their example. The Jews had cut them off, and they would take nothing from the Jews; they would keep to the old style of letters; they would not allow a single word of the Books of the Prophets or the Psalms or History Books to have a place among their sacred writings. The Jews accepted these Books as inspired; therefore the Samaritans rejected them.

Thus Jewish pride and Samaritan littleness raised a terrible barrier between the two nations, which grew more hopeless every year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SAMARITAN BOOK OF THE LAW AT NABLOUS]

Yet these hidden Samaritan doc.u.ments, falsified as they had been, have had a work to do for G.o.d's Word within comparatively recent times.

For in the year 1616 A.D., just as some people were beginning to attack the Bible, and to declare that they could find no evidence that the Old Testament was so ancient after all, the world was suddenly startled to hear of a great discovery--an ancient copy of the Law had been found in Syria.

Other copies soon afterwards came to light: the world had rediscovered the Samaritan Bible!

At Nablous, in Samaria, known in Old Testament times as Shechem, a traveller was allowed to look at the oldest Samaritan copy of the altered books of the Law. Its queer letter signs are traced on parchment rolls, which are said to have been formed from the skins of rams offered in sacrifice. They are kept in a silver cylinder, covered with crimson satin, heavily embroidered with gold.

But out of this discovery a new difficulty arose. Some of the critics decided that this was the original copy written by Moses, and therefore more correct than the Jewish Scriptures. They would have done better to wait, and to have trusted the Bible a little more.

True, the discovery was of great importance, for these doc.u.ments proved beyond all doubt that the Book of the Law dated back to a time when the ancient form of letters were still in use, and so they bore a strong witness to the great age of the first five Books of our Bible.

But learned scholars were soon able to prove that the oldest Samaritan copy was probably not older than the tenth or eleventh century of our era, and that the form of the letters was so ancient merely because the Samaritans refused to imitate the improved Jewish writing. A hundred years ago, for instance, books with long 's's' were printed in England; but the old form of letter was tiresome to read, and is now entirely out of date.

Now the Samaritans had not only refused to accept the new and improved form of letters--they had rejected as well all the fresh light and inspiration which G.o.d was continually giving to His people through the Holy prophets. According to the Samaritans, Moses was the only true prophet. Thus they cut themselves adrift from further light, and little by little the nations had dwindled away.

Yet because so many of the Samaritans in the time of Christ were faithful to the measure of light they had, and kept alive in their hearts the hope of a coming Messiah, G.o.d made for them a wonderful way of escape.

Every Bible reader knows and loves that beautiful scene by the well of Sychar, in Samaria, where the Saviour began by asking a woman for water to drink, and ended by explaining to her some of the deepest truths of G.o.d's Kingdom.

We understand now why the woman was so surprised that a Jew should condescend to speak to her, and why the Jews would have '_no dealings with the Samaritans_.' As we have seen, a great barrier divided her from all ordinary Jewish teachers--she had been taught to believe in an altered Bible.

Not merely a different translation, remember, for the Bible should be the same in every language, but a Book of the Law in which some of the words had been changed and the original meaning destroyed.

So the woman said to our Lord, '_Our fathers wors.h.i.+pped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to wors.h.i.+p._' (John iv. 20.)

The Saviour had not said so, but she felt sure that He, as a Jew, would certainly contradict the old traditions of his countrymen.

But the Lord Jesus Christ had come to show the world that it was no longer a question of this mountain or that. Such matters had been but a shadow of the good things to come. '_G.o.d is a Spirit: and they that wors.h.i.+p Him must wors.h.i.+p Him in spirit and in truth._' (John iv. 24.)

With these words Jesus, the Messiah, for whom both Jews and Samaritans were waiting, threw down the barrier of ages, and united the two nations in a spiritual wors.h.i.+p.

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