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Mount Gerizim

Coordinates: 32°12′3.1″N 35°16′23.73″E / 32.200861°N 35.2732583°E / 32.200861; 35.2732583
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Gerizim
Old view of Mount Gerizim
Highest point
Coordinates32°12′3.1″N 35°16′23.73″E / 32.200861°N 35.2732583°E / 32.200861; 35.2732583
Geography
Gerizim is located in State of Palestine
Gerizim
Gerizim
Location of Mount Gerizim within Palestine
Gerizim is located in the West Bank
Gerizim
Gerizim
Location of Nablus within the West Bank
Parent rangeSamarian mountains
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Trilingual road signs directing toward Mount Gerizim and Kiryat Luza (Shomronim – Samaritans in Hebrew)

Mount Gerizim (/ˈɡɛrɪˌzɪm/; Samaritan Hebrew: ࠄࠟࠓࠂࠟࠓࠩࠆࠝࠉࠌ ʾĀ̊rgā̊rīzēm; Hebrew: הַר גְּרִזִים‎ Har Gərīzīm; Arabic: جَبَل جَرِزِيم Jabal Jarizīm or جبل الطور Jabal al-Ṭūr) is one of two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the key West Bank city of Nablus, and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the northern side being formed by Mount Ebal.[1] The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 881 m (2,890 ft) above sea level, 70 m (230 ft) lower than Mount Ebal.[2] The mountain is particularly steep on the northern side, is sparsely covered at the top with shrubbery, and lower down there is a spring with a high yield of fresh water.[3]

The mountain is mentioned in the Bible as the place where, upon first entering the Promised Land after the Exodus, the Israelites performed ceremonies of blessings, as they had been instructed by Moses.[4]

In Samaritan tradition, it is the oldest and most central mountain in the world, towering above the Great Flood and providing the first land for Noah’s disembarkation.[5] Mount Gerizim is sacred to the Samaritans, who regard it, rather than Jerusalem's Temple Mount, as the location chosen by Yahweh (God) for a holy temple. The mountain continues to be the centre of Samaritan religion to this day, and most Samaritans live in close proximity to Gerizim, mostly in the small village of Kiryat Luza. Passover is still celebrated annually by the Samaritans with a lamb sacrifice on Mount Gerizim,[6] which they consider the location where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac.[7] Jews, on the other hand, consider the location of the near-sacrifice to be Mount Moriah, traditionally identified by them with the Temple Mount.

The Samaritan village of Kiryat Luza and an Israeli settlement, Har Brakha, are situated on the ridge of Mount Gerizim.[8][9]

Biblical account

Old City of Nablus and Mount Gerizim in background

According to the Hebrew Bible, as related in Deuteronomy, when they first entered Canaan, the Israelites celebrated the event with ceremonies of blessings and cursings: the ceremonies of blessings took place on Mount Gerizim, and the cursings on nearby Mount Ebal.[10][11] The Pulpit Commentary suggests that these mountains were selected probably "because they stand in the center of the Land both from north to south, and from east to west". It has been suggested that "Ebal was appointed for the uttering of the curse, and Gerizim for the uttering of the blessing, because the former was barren and rugged, the latter fertile and smooth", but the Pulpit Commentary editors state that "this is not borne out by the actual appearance of the two hills, both being equally barren-looking, though neither is wholly destitute of culture and vegetation".[12] The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges argues that "the [north] face of Gerizim, the mount of blessing, is the more fertile; the opposite face of Ebal, the mount of curse, much the more bare."[13]

The Masoretic text of the Torah - compiled between the 7th and 10th centuries of the Common Era and followed by modern Jews as the authoritative Biblical canon - further says that Moses had also commanded the Israelites to build an altar on Mount Ebal, constructed from natural (rather than cut) stones, to place stones there and whiten them with lime,[3] to make sacrificial offerings on the altar, eat there, and write the Mosaic Law in stones there.[14] The Samaritan version of the Torah, however, as well as an ancient manuscript of the Biblical text found in Qumran,[15] both bring the same excerpt as the Masoretic text, with the only difference being the name "Gerizim", instead of "Ebal", therefore stating that Moses commanded the building of the altar on Mount Gerizim.[11][16] Recent work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Biblical text, further supports the accuracy of the Samaritan Pentateuch's designation of Mount Gerizim, rather than Mount Ebal, as the first location in the Promised Land where Moses commanded an altar to be built.[17]

All versions of the Biblical text then have Moses' specifying how the Israelites should split between the two groups that were to pronounce blessings from Mount Gerizim and to pronounce curses from Mount Ebal. The tribes of Simeon, of Levi, of Judah, of Issachar, of Joseph, and of Benjamin were to be sent to Gerizim, while those of Reuben, of Gad, of Asher, of Zebulun, of Dan, and of Naphtali, were to remain on Ebal (Deut 27:11–13Template:Bibleverse with invalid book). The group told to stay in Mount Gerizim included both sons of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, and four of the sons of Jacob's other wife, Leah; the group told to go to Mount Ebal included all the sons of Jacob's two concubines', Bilhah and Zilpah, as well as Jacob's firstborn, Reuben, whose right of primogeniture had been revoked by Jacob. No explanation for the division is given in the Biblical text, and none of the proposed theories has been consensually accepted.[16]

In the Biblical text, the altar to God is again mentioned in the Book of Joshua, when, after the Battle of Ai, Joshua built an altar of unhewn stones, the Israelites made peace offerings on it, the law of Moses was written onto the stones, and the Israelites split into the two groups specified in Deuteronomy and pronounced blessings on Mount Gerizim and curses on Mount Ebal, as instructed in the law of Moses written there.[18] Biblical scholars believe that the sources of the book of Joshua predate those of Deuteronomy, and hence that the order to build the altar and make the inscriptions is likely based on these actions in the sources of Joshua, rather than the other way around, possibly to provide an origin explanation for the events narrated in Joshua.[19]

Samaritans' Passover pilgrimage on Mount Gerizim.

Much later in the Book, when Joshua was old and dying, he gathered the people together at Shechem (present-day Nablus) and gave a farewell speech, and set up "a stone as a witness", placing it "next to the sanctuary of Yahweh, under the oak tree", which indicates that a sanctuary to God existed there.[20][16]

History

Passover on Gerizim in the 1890s

By the 5th century BCE,[11] an Israelite temple existed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, and one in Jerusalem, in Judea.[21] By that point, the former Israelites were divided in "Samaritans" and "Jews", both claiming descendance from the Biblical Israelites and preaching adherence to the Torah, but diverging on the place where the main temple should stand: Mount Gerizim, for the Samaritans, and Jerusalem, for the Jews.[3] By the middle of 5th century BCE, the Samaritans' main temple stood on Mount Gerizim arguing that this was the real location of the Israelite temple.

Religious tension between the Jews and the Samaritans led to the temple on Mount Gerizim being destroyed by Jews on orders of the Jewish High Priest in the 2nd century BCE.[22] The date of the Samaritan temple destruction, the 21st of Kislev, became a holiday for the Jews during which it is forbidden to eulogize the dead.[23]

Even after the destruction of their temple by the Jews, Mount Gerizim continued to be the holy place for the Samaritans, as it is mentioned as such in the New Testament.[24] Coins produced by a Roman mint situated in Nablus, dated to 138–161 CE, seemingly depict the destroyed Samaritan temple, showing a huge temple complex, statues, and a substantive staircase leading from Nablus to the temple itself.[25]

In the Book of John in the New Testament, in his discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus reveals his feeling about worshipping in either Mount Gerizim (as the Samaritans did) or Jerusalem (as then did by the Jews):

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

— John 4:21–24

Eventually, when Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire, Samaritans were barred from worshiping on Mount Gerizim. In 475 CE a Christian church was built on its summit.[26] In 529, Justinian I made Samaritanism illegal, and arranged for a protective wall to be constructed around the church.[3][26] As a result, the same year, Julianus ben Sabar led a pro-Samaritan revolt, and by 530 had captured most of Samaria, destroying churches and killing the priests and officials. However, in 531, after Justinian enlisted the help of Ghassanids, the revolt was completely quashed, and surviving Samaritans were mostly enslaved or exiled. In 533 Justinian had a castle constructed on Mount Gerizim to protect the church from raids by the few disgruntled Samaritans left in the area.[3][26]

Archaeology

As a result of the fortified church and previous Samaritan temple, extensive ruins still exist at the somewhat plateau-like top of Gerizim. The line of the wall around the church can easily be seen,[3] as can portions of the former castle, and initial archaeological study of the site postulated that the castle built by Justinian had utilised stones from an earlier structure on the site (probably the Samaritan temple).[26] In the centre of the plateau is a smooth surface, containing a hollow, which archaeologists consider to be reminiscent of dolmens found in southwestern Syria, and which Samaritans consider to be a portion of their former temple.[26]

Ruins on Mount Gerizim c1880.

A more substantial archaeological survey was undertaken in the middle of the 20th century, while the site was in the possession of Jordan, in the region of the mountain known as Tel el-Ras, situated on the northernmost peak at the end of the northern ridge. This excavation, which continued under Israel's jurisdiction, uncovered Corinthian columns, a large rectangular platform 215 ft by 145 ft (65m by 44m) surrounded by 6 ft (2m) thick and 30 ft (9m) high walls, and a 25 ft (8m) wide staircase leading down from the platform to a marbled esplanade.[25] The complex also has a series of cisterns in which Late Roman ceramics were found.[25] These discoveries, now named "Structure A", have been dated to the time of Hadrian, due to numismatics and external literary evidence, and are believed to be a temple dedicated to Zeus.[27]

Underneath these remains were found a large stone structure built on top of the bedrock. This structure, now known as "Structure B", nearly half cubic (21m by 20m in width and length, and 8.5m high), consists almost entirely of unhewn limestone slabs, fitted together without any binding material, and has no internal rooms or dividing walls.[27] The structure was surrounded by a courtyard similar to the platform above it (being 60m by 40m in size with 1.5m thick walls), and was dated to during or before the Hellenistic period by ceramics found in a cistern cut into the bedrock at the northern side.[25] The excavating archaeologist considered "Structure B" to be the altar built by the Samaritans in the 5th or 6th century BCE.[27]

Etymology and possible pre-Canaanite origins

It is possible that the name of the mountain may mean mountain of the Gerizites, a tribe in the vicinity of the Philistines that, according to the Hebrew Bible, was conquered by David.[16]

Another possible straightforward etymology for Gerizim would give the meaning of mountain cut in two.[26]

According to the narrative about Jotham in the Book of Judges, Shechem was a site where there was a sanctuary of El-Berith, also known as Baal-Berith, meaning God of the covenant and Lord of the covenant, respectively;[28] scholars have suggested that the Joshua story about the site derives from a covenant made there in Canaanite times.[29] In the narrative of Judges, the pillar that was in Shechem is seemingly significant enough to have given its name to a nearby plain (Judges 9:6Template:Bibleverse with invalid book), and this pillar is thought to be likely to have been a totem of El-Berith; the Joshua story, of a stone being set up as a witness, simply being an attempt to provide an etiology in accordance with later Israelite theology.[26]

See also

Notes and citations

  1. ^ "Mount Gerizim". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
  2. ^ Matthew Sturgis, It aint necessarily so, ISBN 0-7472-4510-X
  3. ^ a b c d e f Jewish Encyclopedia
  4. ^ Deuteronomy 11:29–30
  5. ^ Anderson, Robert T., "Mount Gerizim: Navel of the World", Biblical Archaeologist Vol. 43, No. 4 (Autumn 1980), pp 217-218
  6. ^ "Photograph of this". Archived from the original on 2016-05-12. Retrieved 2014-05-01.
  7. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre (11 October 2017). "Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans". Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  8. ^ "Har Bracha - The Community". Yeshivat Har Bracha. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  9. ^ "Not Muslim, Not Jewish: Ancient Community in the West Bank Feels Increasingly Israeli". Haaretz. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  10. ^ Deuteronomy 11:29–30
  11. ^ a b c Yitzakh Magen, 'The Dating of the First Phase of the Samaritan Temple on Mt Gerizim in Light of Archaeological Evidence,' in Oded Lipschitz, Gary N. Knoppers, Rainer Albertz (eds.) Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, 2007 pp. 157ff, 183.
  12. ^ Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 11, accessed 2015-11-25.
  13. ^ Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Deuteronomy 11, accessed 2015-11-25.
  14. ^ "D'varim (Deuteronomy): Full Text". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  15. ^ "An Unknown Dead Sea Scrolls Fragment of Deuteronomy James H. Charlesworth". Ijco.org. Archived from the original on 2011-12-10. Retrieved 2014-05-01.
  16. ^ a b c d Peake's Commentary on the Bible
  17. ^ Charlesworth, James H. (2012-07-16). "The Discovery of an Unknown Dead Sea Scroll: The Original Text of Deuteronomy 27?". OWU Magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-11-26.
  18. ^ Joshua 8:31–35
  19. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible; Jewish Encyclopedia, Book of Joshua, Deuteronomy, et passim
  20. ^ Joshua 24:1–27
  21. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, et passim
  22. ^ Berlin, Adele (2011). The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Oxford University Press. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-19-973004-9. John Hyrcanus I, who embarked upon further territorial conquests, forcing the non-Jewish populations of the conquered regions to adopt the Jewish way of life and destroying the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.. See also: Jonathan Bourgel, "The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration", JBL 135/3 (2016), pp. 505-523; Idem, |title=The Samaritans during the Hasmonean Period: The Affirmation of a Discrete Identity? |journal=Religions |date=November 2019 |volume=10 |issue=11 |pages=628 |doi=10.3390/rel10110628
  23. ^ "Megillat Taanit". attalus.org.il. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  24. ^ John 4:20
  25. ^ a b c d W.J. Bennett and R. Bull, Tell er-Ras, Publication of Archaeological Materials and Data from Mt. Gerizim, West Bank, 1998
  26. ^ a b c d e f g Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  27. ^ a b c Robert J. Bull, The Excavations of Tell er Ras
  28. ^ Judges 9
  29. ^ Judges 9; Peake's commentary on the Bible et passim
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