Samaritan Prophet

• ANCIENT SOURCES: see Samaritan Prophet (sources)
• SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:Samaritan Prophet (subject)

The Samaritan Prophet was a Samaritan Messiah claimant (around 36 CE).

Overview

Around 36, an unnamed Samaritan prophet gathered a large crowd on Mount Gerizim. According to a Samaritan belief a prophet whose coming Moses had predicted in Deuteronomy 18.14-18, would reveal his identity by showing Moses' sacred vessels. This belief was shared by members of the Sect of Qumran, who knew that a treasure could be found on top of this mountain (Copper Scroll, 12.4).

The Roman procurator Pilate decided to intervene and disperse the crowd. In the turmoil, many were killed or taken prisoners and executed.

The Samaritan council protested before the Roman governor of Syria Vitellius against what they considered an excessive use of force that had unjustly involved also innocent people. Vitellius send his legate Marcellus to Jerusalem and forced Pilate to resign.

The Samaritan Prophet in Ancient Sources

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities

Ant 18:85-89 -- The Samaritan nation too was not exempt from disturbance. For a man who made light of mendacity and in all his designs catered to the mob, rallied them, bidding them go in a body with him to Mount Gerizim, which in their belief is the most sacred of mountains. He assured them that on their arrival he would show them the sacred vessels which were buried there, where Moses had deposited them.

His hearers, viewing this tale as plausible, appeared in arms. They posted themselves in a certain village named Tirathana, and, as they planned to climb the mountain in a great multitude, they welcomed to their ranks the new arrivals who kept coming.

But before they could ascend, Pilate blocked their projected route up the mountain with a detachment of cavalry and heavily armed infantry, who in an encounter with the first comers in the village slew some in a pitched battle and put the others to flight. Many prisoners were taken, of whom Pilate put to death the principal leaders and those who were most influential among the fugitives.

When the uprising had been quelled, the council of the Samaritans went to Vitellius, a man of consular rank who was governor of Syria, and charged Pilate with the slaughter of the victims. For, they said, it was not as rebels against the Romans but as refugees from the persecution of Pilate that they had met in Tirathana.

Vitellius thereupon dispatched Marcellus, one of his friends, to take charge of the administration of Judaea, and ordered Pilate to return to Rome to give the emperor his account of the matters with which he was charged by the Samaritans. And so Pilate, after having spent ten years in Judaea, hurried to Rome in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, since he could not refuse. But before he reached Rome, Tiberius had already passed away.

Related categories

• Messiah -- Messiah Claimants

External links

• [ Wikipedia]
• Livius