Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T21:07:30.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The Other Israelites

Samaritans, Hebrews, and Non-Jewish Israel

from Part I - Israel’s Disputed Birthright

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Jason A. Staples
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Get access

Summary

Discussions of the post-exilic period have too frequently assumed that after the Assyrian campaigns of the eighth century, "Israel" was effectively redefined, as those from the kingdom of Judah were all that remained, with the result that "Israelite" and "Jew" became synonymous in this period. This chapter argues that the presence of a competing "Israel" in the region of Samaria and Shechem made this impossible, as the group that eventually came to be known (to outsiders) as Samaritans claimed to be Israelites descended from the northern tribes of Joseph. Neither Jews nor Samaritans, however, regarded Samaritans as Jews, further highlighting the continued distinction between these terms and providing compelling evidence of the persistence of non-Jewish Israelites throughout the Second Temple period and beyond. The chapter concludes with an examination of the ethnonym "Hebrew," arguing that this term, which could apply to Samaritans and Jews alike, served as a linguistic marker in the Second Temple period and therefore overlaps with both "Jew" and "Israelite" but is synonymous with neither.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism
A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity
, pp. 54 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×