The confusing story of the Samaritans and the Jews: Who split from whom?

On the 14th of Nisan, the Samaritan community gathers on Mount Gerizim, slaughtering lambs as prescribed in Exodus 12. This practice has been ongoing since the time of Joshua, approximately 3,300 years ago. With about 850 Samaritans, half residing in Holon near Tel Aviv and half in Kiryat Luza, the community maintains a unique identity separate from both Jews and Christians.

Traditionally, Jewish tradition claims that the Samaritans are not descendants of the Israelites but rather a separate people who never went into exile. The Samaritans, however, assert their own identity as the descendants of the northern tribes of Israel who remained after the Assyrian conquest of Samaria in 722 B.C.E. These two perspectives have led to a longstanding confusion regarding the origins of the Samaritans and their split from the Jews.

The traditional narrative, as recorded in 2 Kings 17, recounts that following the conquest of Samaria by the Assyrians, the Israelites were deported to distant lands, and the Assyrian king settled foreign peoples from various regions in their place. According to this account, the Samaritans are seen as foreigners who adopted the worship of the God of Israel, alongside their own gods, as their predecessors had done.

However, recent archaeological and scholarly findings suggest a different picture. The lack of a clear destruction layer dating to 722 B.C.E. in Samaria, coupled with minimal changes in local pottery types and the absence of significant material traces from the alleged imported peoples, casts doubt on the extent of the Assyrian deportations.

Additionally, the majority of the Israelite population is believed to have remained in the region, with only a small minority being deported. This challenges the notion that the Samaritans are a distinct group with a separate origin from the Israelites.