Early Christian Authors on Samaritans and Samaritanism: a Review Article1

JSJ 37,2_334_241-259 3/22/06 6:19 PM Page 241

EARLY CHRISTIAN AUTHORS ON SAMARITANS AND SAMARITANISM: A REVIEW ARTICLE1



LEAH DI SEGNI The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Samaritan studies have known a very great increase in the last twenty- five years, both in the quantity and in the scope of published research. The boost that began in the Sixties and Seventies of the last century, with the publication of a number of basic works dealing with Samaritan history, philology and theology, and with the first timid appearance of archaeological evidence of the Samaritan ethnos, broke out into a ver- itable flood of scholarly works in the Eighties and Nineties and in the first years of the Twenty-First century. Partly this is due to a natural process of fructification: scholars who made their first steps in the field in the third quarter of the last century now yield the mature fruit of their work; but it is also apparent that not a few students and scholars have become interested in the various aspects of Samaritan studies, if only because the newly published researches have suddenly brought the Samaritan phenomenon into their consciousness. Students of late antiquity, who until recently viewed the history or the theological strife of the period as a confrontation of pagans, Jews and Christians (or at most of pagans, Jews, Christians and “heretics”), now identify another contestant in the arena, one whose character, social status, motivations, and general Weltanschauung, are far from well known. Therefore, there was a keenly felt need for a collection of texts that would put at the disposal of the public, in accessible form, as many relevant sources as possible, and the present book worthily fulfils that desideratum. The selected sources are offered in the original language and in English

1 The book reviewed here is Reinhard Pummer, Early Christian Authors on Samaritans and Samaritanism: Texts, Translations and Commentary (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 92), J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2002, xiv, 518 pp., hardback, € 129, ISBN 3-16-147831-2.

242   

translation, accompanied by a philological and historical commentary; not less important, the texts are preceded by a presentation of the author and a discussion of any aspects of his work that may reflect on its meaning and significance. Experienced scholars who are already acquainted with most of the sources will find in this volume a convenient inventory of references, both textual and bibliographical, while the less knowledgeable student will be assured of receiving at once access to all the basic material and a helping hand to guide him through the often intricate problems presented by the same. Each of the 47 chapters of the book is dedicated to a different author, from second-century Hegesippus to Nicephorus Callistus, a Byzantine historian of the late thirteenth-early fourteenth century. The bulk of the corpus, however, dates from the period between the mid-fourth to the late sixth century, and sources later than the mid-seventh century do not provide first-hand information but only quote from earlier writers. Each chapter opens with an account of the life of the author, the dat- ing of his work (or works) and the circumstances of its composition. Then the various passages are presented and explained, sometimes briefly, sometimes at great length. After that come the selected texts (198 in all) in the original language—usually Greek or Latin, but some Syriac, Georgian, Ethiopic, Coptic and Arab texts are also included. The numbers of pages and lines of the edition used are inserted in the body of the text, which is slightly disconcerting at first sight—even visu- ally disturbing—but makes for a clearer reference to the critical apparatus. The latter is most conscientiously given in full, even when variant readings are irrelevant for the understanding of the text (e.g., variant spellings of the same word, like aemulatores/emulatores in Jerome, Chron. VIII Olymp. = text 77). As the apparatus is reproduced from the critical edition adopted in each case, it appears in different forms and languages in the different texts—Latin, German, French, besides the original language of the text—and I wonder of what possible use it may be to the less experienced reader in this form. Even the most experienced, if he really wants to profit from the apparatus, will have to turn to the original editions, since no list of the abbreviations used by the editor is attached. Seeing that one of the main aims (and advantages) of this volume is making the texts accessible, it would have been more reasonable to reduce the apparatus to the minimum necessary for a critical reading of the contents, and to standardize its form by using English as connecting language and an agreed-upon list of abbreviations.