"Brit-Am Now"-49
Contents:
1. Christian Zionist communities in Samaria?
2. Christian Support for Israel is Selfless
3. Brit-Am in need of funding
4. Samaria
5. Samaritans and Britain
Date: 07/01/2002 3:06:23 PM Central
Daylight Time
Contents:
1. Christian Zionist communities in
Samaria?
2.Christian Support for Israel is Selfless
3. Brit-Am in need of funding
4. Samaria
5. Samaritans and Britain
1. christian zionist communities in
Samaria?
From: steve omega
Subject: A new idea?
Israel should establish christian zionist
communities in Samaria. This
will dilute islamaniac influence, allow
a greater democracy in the area
and deflect attention from the jewish
settlements.
Comment: The time is not right but the
day will come when people from the
Lost Ten Tribes will begin to establish
settlements in Samaria and other
parts of Israel.
I hope to write more on these matters
in a couple of weeks.
2.
Christian Support for Israel is Selfless
Subject: Re: "Jerusalem News"-62
In reference to the Time article, I
can understand the trepidation posed to
both parties. But there is only one
factor why I as a Christian support
Israel and feel it is important to
protect the Jewish people in this crisis.
Its the right thing to do. Period. And
a good Christian does things
unconditionally.
Sincerely
Jim Linduff
3. Brit-Am in need of funding
Brit-Am is in need of funding for matters
that are important to us and to
you and for which Brit-Am exists.
Please contribute if you can
by sending a check to
Yair Davidiy
POB 595
Jerusalem 91004
Israel
4.
Samaria
Encyclopedia Judaica
> Also: Sebaste (city, Isr.); Ephraim Mountains (Er. Isr.)
> SAMARIA (modern: Sebaste), capital
of the kingdom of Israel in the
ninth-eighth centuries B.C.E. The ancient
city was founded by Omri, king of
Israel, in c. 880 B.C.E. on the hill
belonging to one Shemer (I Kings
16:24); hence its Hebrew name Shomron.
Its history as known from ancient
sources has been supplemented by excavations
carried out by an expedition
of Harvard University, directed by
G. Reisner, C. S. Fisher, and D. G. Lyon
in 1908 and 191011, and by the
British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem
and the Palestine Exploration Fund
under the direction of J.W. Crowfoot,
with the assistance of G. M. Crowfoot,
E. L. Sukenik (on behalf of the
Hebrew University), and K. Kenyon in
193135. A few traces of Early Bronze
Age and early Iron Age settlements
were uncovered.
>Omri paid two talents of silver for
the site and proceeded to clear the
summit to bedrock, quarrying the latter
for the foundation walls of an
acropolis, which is rectangular in
shape and measures c. 290 ft. (90 m.)
from north to south and c. 585 ft.
(180 m.) from west to east. It was
originally enclosed by a wall of fine
ashlar masonry, and at a later period
was enlarged to the north and west
by a casemate wall, which served both as
a fortification and as a retaining
wall for the palace and storerooms. A
lower town protected by a massive wall
of ashlar stones surrounded the
acropolis. The acropolis contained
the palace of Omri and Ahab. In its
ruins were found ivories of Phoenician
workmanship in style that was a
mixture of Mesopotamian and Egyptian
motifs; this was probably the "ivory
house" Ahab had built for Jezebel,
his consort. In the western part were
the storehouses, in which 63 ostraca
were found, bearing inscriptions
concerning the delivery of wine and
oil. Their exact date is disputed,
> The fortunes of Samaria varied with
those of the Israelite kingdom,
reaching apogees in the reign of Omri
and Ahab and again in the time of
Jeroboam II. In 722/21 B.C.E., the
city, then the capital of a much smaller
kingdom, was taken by Sargon II of
Assyria and its inhabitants deported.
Colonists from Babylon, Cutha, and
Hamath replaced the deportees and with
an Israelite remnant, they formed the
nucleus of the Samaritan population.
The city remained the seat of an Assyrian
governor.
> [Michael Avi-Yonah]
5. Samaritans and Britain
Extract from "Ephraim" chapter
nine:
THE SAMARITANS
After the Ten Tribes had been exiled,
"THE KING OF ASSYRIA
BROUGHT MEN FROM
BABYLON, AND FROM CUTHA, AND FROM AVA,
AND FROM HAMATH, AND FROM
SEPHARVAIM, AND PLACED THEM IN THE
CITIES OF SAMARIA INSTEAD OF THE
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL...(2Kings 17;24).
The new heathen
settlers were known as "Samaritans" after the capital of
the former kingdom of northern Israel,
"Samaria", that the Assyrians placed
them in. The Samaritans were attacked
by a plague of wild lions*e. It was
consequently reported to the king of
Assyria that the Samaritans "Know not
the manner of the God of the land"
(2Kings 17;24).
"THEN THE KING OF
ASSYRIA COMMANDED, SAYING, CARRY THITHER ONE OF THE
PRIESTS WHOM YE BROUGHT FROM THENCE;
AND LET HIM 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 CARRIED AWAY FROM SAMARIA CAME AND
DWELT IN BETHEL, AND TAUGHT THEM HOW
THEY SHOULD FEAR THE LORD” (2Kings
17;2728).
"HOWBEIT EVERY NATION MADE GODS OF THEIR OWN” (2Kings 17;29).
"SO THEY FEARED THE
LORD, AND SERVED THEIR OWN GODS, AFTER THE MANNER OF
THE NATIONS WHOM THEY CARRIED AWAY
FROM THENCE (2Kings 17;32).
"SO THESE NATIONS
FEARED THE LORD, AND SERVED THEIR GRAVEN IMAGES, BOTH
THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S
CHILDREN: AS DID THEIR FATHERS, SO DO
THEY UNTO THIS DAY (2Kings 17;41).
Some of the Samaritans
intermarried with some few of those northern
Israelites whom the Assyrians had not
exiled (Eliyahu Zuta 2;1). Jews from
Judah also to some degree later intermixed
with them. At some stages they
came under heavy Jewish influence,
both Orthodox-Pharisaic and sectarian.
According to Josephus, when the Jews
were powerful the Samaritans
emphasized their "Hebraic" connections
but when the Jews were persecuted
they claimed to be of Phoenician stock.
They were once very numerous and
numbered in the millions though today
there are only a few hundred left.
They use the old Israelite "Phoenician
" script.
In the course of
time the "Samartians" came to identify themselves as the
Israelite Tribes of Ephraim and Menasseh.
They believed their priests were
descendants of Pinchas son of Elazar
son of Aaron brother of Moses13. In
the past, priestly families from Judah
had intermarried with them and in
some matters they may have preserved
genuine traditions.
Mills (1864) writes:
"There was a tradition
amongst them which has yet hardly died out that
large numbers of their brethren were
dwelling in various parts of the world
in England, France, India, and elsewere"14.
The Samaritans attempted
to identify themselves as northern Israelites
from the Tribes of Ephraim and Menasseh.
Some few of them may have been
descended from the ancient Israelites
and this may explain their claimed
link to England and France. The Samaritans
still highly revere Joshua ben
Nun and regard him as their founder.