More unconvincing denials by Samaritans

[Zvi]

~ All glory be to YHWH ~

Chief Samaritan scholar Ben Sedaka has recently written a status in
which he pits traditional Samaritan claims against archaeological
findings in the Mt. Gerizim area.

Mr. Sedaka:
"The Israelite Samaritans never rebuilt the Temple because simply they
had not a building as a temple. The Israelite Samaritan tradition
recognize first as the Temple the only authentic one that made by
Moses in Sinai desert under the instructions of the Almighty - It was
not a building, it was not a wooden house, it was a tent with a yard
around it and in all the utensils to make a daily worship. "

--Archaeologists have found solid evidence of a Samaritan temple atop
the mount considered by the Samaritans to be Mt. Gerizim built circa
136 AD and destroyed by the Byzantines around 474 AD.
Also, scant remains -- a few mere rocks -- have been found of the
Samaritan temple constructed in the 5th century BCE and destroyed by
Yohanan Girhan (John Hyrcanus) in 128 BCE.

Mr. Sedaka:
"When the People of Israel lead by Joshua Bin Nun entered the Promised
Land they carried the Tent of Covenant to the Top of the Chosen Place
where the Almighty dwelt His Name there - Mount Gerizim."

--The Book of Yehoshu`a (Joshua) informs us in so many words in ch. 24
that the 1st location of "the Place YHWH Chooses" was Shekhem.

Mr. Sedaka:
"Jusephus [sic] and the writer of the book of Maccabeans are
responsible for the Jewish tradition about that the Samaritans built a
temple on Mount Gerizim, but we have to take this testimony as a false
one in the frameworks of the great polemic that was in the last
centuries B.C.E. and the first centuries C.E. between the Jews and the
Israelite Samaritans. I suggest that the tendency of these false
tradition was to tell that Mount Gerizim tradition is later to the
Jerusalem tradition."

--Given that archaeologists have found remains of that Temple along
with living quarters of kohanim nearby, I believe we should reject Mr.
Sedaka's contentions even as we note that Josephus placed the temple's
construction a century later than it was built.

Mr. Sedaka:
"In Samaritan tradition there is no any [sic] testimony in their
writing nor in the historical memory in poetry and other kinds of
literature about building a Temple or destroying it by the Hasmoneans.
Such an awful event of destroying a central temple should have found
hints to it in the memory of the people that his temple was
destroyed."

--I believe Mr. Sedaka is forgetting a very central fact, that no
written Samaritan records survive whatsoever from before the 3rd
century AD.
It's noteworthy that Roman emperor Hadrian destroyed all Samaritan
writings his troops could find in Samaria.
Therefore I believe Mr. Sedaka's argument here isn't sufficient to
discount the possibility that the loss of this temple was mentioned by
Samaritan authors from 127 BCE till 130 AD.

Mr. Sedaka:
"Also when we read carefully the reports of the excavator Dr. Yitzhaq
Magen, who followed the "stories" of Jusephus [sic] and dug in Mount
Gerizim for 25 years till 2008, he admitted that he never found the
Temple Jusephus reported about although as a tradition about events
happened or not 400 years before his time."

--What Mr. Sedaka omits here, probably on purpose because of his
religious bias, is that Dr. Magen's excavations were conducted in less
than 10% of the mountain. So his findings do not prove that a
Samaritan Temple didn't exist on that mount in the Second Temple era
until 128 BCE.

Mr. Sedaka:
"There is also a basic different [sic] in attitude between Samaritans
to Jews in regard to temple buildings. The Jews imitated the pagan
nations by marking a place of worship by buildings when the Israelite
Samaritans worshiped in simplicity on ground altars according the
commandments of the Torah not to do like other nations did.

--His argument amounts to a non-squitor after I've shown that
Samaritans erected temples on their holy mountain. What's more, our
ancestors were directed by YHWH Himself by prophets to build the 1st
and 2nd Temples which is another reason why his contention doesn't
make real sense.

Mr. Sedaka:
"For them [the Samaritans] the Temple of Moses was and still the only
sacred temple."

--We've already refuted this claim. See also the page of results when
performing a Google search of the terms "gerizim yitzhak magen
hyrcanus 5 century BC".

~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS: Now that Mr. Sedaka unsurprisingly doesn't allow me to write on
his Wall (it was only a matter of time until he'd lose his patience),
I hope he at least has the decency not to polemicize against me there.
(I hope this will also be kept in mind by pro-Samaritan members here
before they show him this entry.)