The Mixed Population of Samaria and What Developed From All That Mixing

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

                                                         Mount Samaria 

Date trees mixed with fir trees, such lovely green for the landscape,  and such lovely blue skies; where would you ever hope to see such a sight?  

  The Northern tribes had gone through a huge population shift.  This northern part of the original Israel took on the name of Samaria, in Hebrew, Shomron.  Samaria had been the capital after King Solomon had died in 920 BCE and there had been a civil war between them and the tribe of Judah, the southern tribe containing Jerusalem. Samaria was founded in 880 BCE by King Omri of Israel on a hill bought from Shemer (I Kings 16:24)  The city covered 25 acres.  Sargon II of Assyria had resettled it with Cutheans who then intermingled with the remnants of the former population, and became the ancestors of the Samaritans.     

 The Kutim is the Talmudic term for Samaritans, alluding to their reported origin (II Kings 17:24); the term was used occasionally to denote any persons or group rejecting the Oral Law.  It is also the name of one of the minor tractates appended to the Talmud in which the relationship between Samaritans, Jews and Gentiles are discussed.                          

Ten of the twelve Tribes of Jacob lived in Northern Israel.  They were:  Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Manesseh, Gad, Ephraim, Reuben, Simeon, part of Benjamin.  Assyria with Shalmaneser in the lead,, held a siege of Samaria and capture in 721 BCE the lands.  Sargon II, the next Assyrian in line, then deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media, and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.                                     

One hundred thirty-five years later, Babylonia pulled the same move.  They had taken Assyria's place and deported many more Jews to Babylonia in 586 BCE from Judah which would have been from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Simeon.  .  They were able to join and blend in with the earlier Jews that had been kidnapped.  That caused Jews from all 12 tribes to be found in Babylonia, but what in Samaria?

Samaria would have had the remnant left from the first exchange of population of all 10 of the 12 tribes and the new population of Syrian and native Babylonian former prisoners.  Originally, the 10 tribes were true to their religion and to Jerusalem's holiness, but not with the zeal of the Judeans whose land Jerusalem resided.  With a foreign population now neighboring them,  the interest waned even more, though it was given a rush by Ezra, who had returned from Babylon to cause the interest.               

Ezra was a member of the priestly family (Cohens-J1's Y haplogroup) of the Zadok family, born in the 5th century BCE.  He had served as a scribe in the employment of the Persian government.  When he heard that the Jewish community, his homeland, was deteriorating even though it had been re-organized some 60 years before by the original group of returning Jews that Cyrus had allowed, even insisting that they go back to rebuild the Temple.  They had returned from Babylon under Zerubbabel.  So Ezra decided to lead a new party of Babylonian Jews who would firmly establish the Mosaic law in Judah. In 458 BCE, he received permission from Arataxerxes I of Persia and went to Jerusalem with 1,734 returning exiles.  He and Nehemiah persuaded the people to keep the Torah, to observe the Sabbath and the sabbatical year, to pay their Temple dues, and to reject intermarriage with gentiles by 444 BCE.

The Talmud credits Ezra with reintroducing biblical laws after it had been forgotten and notes that Ezra and his group introduced the many ancient laws as well as the square Hebrew letters, the precise determination of the text of the Pentateuch, and the establishment of the great Assembly (Knesset ha-Gedolah).  Actually, they tried to cover all that Moses had originally taught.  Many of these people had not been a part of the Israelites at all and never knew a thing.  

Nehemiah, also born in the 5th century BCE, was the Governor of Judah.  while acting as cupbearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes I, he heard of the deplorable conditions in Jerusalem and asked permission to go there.  The king agreed and appointed him the governor of Judah in 444 BCE.  When he reached Jerusalem, he organized the repair of its walls-and the job was finished in 52 days despite interference by neighboring peoples.  

Then he devoted himself to social reforms, such as practicing Sabbath observance which evidently had been stopped.

He reinstituted the cancellation of debts owed by the poor.  the leaders of the people had to pledge themselves to maintain the temple regulations and pay their tithes.

The security of Jerusalem was ensured by arranging for a tenth of the people to take up residence there. 

After 12 years, Nehemiah returned to Susa, Persia, but later returned to Jerusalem to renew his drastic activity.  In 433-432 BCE, he took steps against mixed marriages, etc., in conjunction with Ezra.  His work was decisive in the rebuilding of Judah.  Nehemiah's memoirs form the basis of the biblical Book of Nehemiah which is a continuation of the Book of Ezra in the Hagiographa.  

As for the best and brightest of the population that had been taken by the Assyrians from 721 to 715 BCE, they never appeared again to our new Northern tribes. They were spoken about as the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. 

 They became most important because of the prophecies by Ezekiel (37:16), which associated the final Redemption with the reunion of the whole House of Israel...the coming of the Moshiach with all of the Jewish people.  As long as the earth's surface was imperfectly explored, the Jewish world was periodically excited by reports of the discovery of the Lost 10 tribes in many different places. 

Eldad ha-Dani reported them in the mountains of Africa.  Benjamin of Tudela heard of them in Central Asia.  David Reuven claimed to be the brother of one of their rulers in some region of Arabia.  Antonio  de Montezinos found them in South America.   Shabbetai Tzevi appointed rulers over the various 10 tribes. They were associated with the Japanese, another theory had them in the Anglo-Saxon countries. 

In historical fact, some members of the 10 tribes had remained in Palestine, where apart from the Samaritans, some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population, which others were assimilated, while another group had presumably were absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597 to 586 BCE were deported to areas adjacent to the place of exile of the 10 tribes, such as Media, Assyria, and Mesopotamia. 

Now, we find it quite clear that the Pashtun people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India were members of our lost 10 tribes.  They have retained many of the Jewish elements of our culture, not realizing where their habits had originated from.  They of course at present are Muslims, and strict ones at that, though the also have their own creed of Pashtunwali, which seems to be the remnant of our Mosaic creed.   A group has traveled to Jerusalem for a visit.  There is a group on Facebook of Israelis and other Jews that talk with Pashtuns interested in their history.  

The past sum of years has been a time of the ingathering of our lost people, and it seems that all but the Pashtuns have settled down in Israel, even some American Jews.  Quite a few are from Great Britain, and other English-speaking countries.  They have created a group to help each other called Americans and Canadians of Israel (ACI). 

Update: 5/3/22 10:20am: 

Most half a million Jews and 1.8 million Arabs live in an area of about 2290 square miles, and in portions of that space they work together, shop together and battle the same chronic traffic jams.

Cousins are getting to know cousins.  We've been separated from each other for one heck of a long time. To figure how many great grandparents  we have, we start with our 2 parents and times (X) the number by 2 each time. So we have 4 grandparents.  From having 8 great grandparents, we can figure that by the 18th generation, we'd have 1,048, 576 great grandparents.  We have a lot of ancestors!  Psst:  a generation is 25 years.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-704160#:~:text=Almost%20half%20a%20million%20Jews,the%20same%20chronic%20traffic%20jams.