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The Israelite religion of northern Palestine so dear to the Nazarenes seems to have absorbed much of the worship of the Syrians and Phoenicians. This older faith carried folklore and ideas and usages foreign to its southern neighbour, and the preChristian Nazarenes of the north are shown by Epiphanius to have had an affinity with the gnostically inclined Samaritans, and the Samaritans with the Essenes.15

Thus, the northern Israelite religion, although ostensibly Yahwistic, was also "Pagan," following the old polytheism "of the fathers" and having greater correspondence to Gnosticism and Christianity than the Judean religion.

In addition, the biblical story concerning the split between the kingdoms is related by members of the Jerusalem or Judean priesthood in the "books of the prophets," which were rejected by the Israelites/Samaritans, who accepted only the Pentateuch, also known as the Torah or "Book of Law."

According to these Judean books of the prophets, two centuries after the kingdom divided the entire Israelite population of Samaria was removed by the Assyrians and replaced with Persians or "Cutheans," who are portrayed by the Jews as the diabolical Samaritans. However, the Samaritans claimed they themselves were the original Israelites and true keepers of the law, and, like the Judeans, they maintained the right to interpret the Torah in their own favor. Lockhart describes the Samaritans and their side of the story:

. . . the Samaritans were a mixed population of Israelites and descendants of Assyrian colonists, and although professing a form of Judaism, slowly broke religious ties with both Galilee and Judea over the centuries. This break with Judaism also meant a break with the Temple cult at Jerusalem, and resulted in the Samaritans' building an independent temple on Mount Gerizim at the time of Alexander.... Viewing themselves as of a single, homogenous race, they claimed that they were actually the descendants of the Ten Tribes, utterly denying that the latter were ever deported en masse to Assyria as the Old Testament relates. 16

It seems that the "lost tribes" story was created by the Judeans to explain why the northern kingdom inhabitants, although "Jews," had a very different interpretation of Mosaic Law and worshipped after the manner of the original "Pagan" inhabitants. The story of the Israelite population being replaced also provided an excuse for the Jews to enslave the inhabitants of the northern kingdom, which, according to the scriptures, they did.

Furthermore, while the Jews considered the Samaritans to be "dogs," the feeling was mutual, and the Samaritans would claim their own right to serve as rulers over Israel, using the passage at Genesis 49:10: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." Shiloh, as noted, is a northern kingdom sacred site, also referring to the Messiah. In fact, the Samaritan Israelites were expecting their own Messiah, who in Greek was called "Dositheus," or "Gift of God." In addition, the early Christian texts the Clementine "Recognitions" "state that Dositheus was the founder of the sect of the Sadducees, which means probably nothing more historically than that Dositheus, as was to be expected of a Samaritan, rejected all the subsequently canonical books, and held to the Pentateuch alone."17 Thus, the Clementine Recognitions associate the Sadducees with the Samaritans, as does the Pharisaic Talmud. Indeed, after their explusion from the Sanhedrin, the remaining Judean Sadducees joined the Samaritans against the Judean Pharisaic priesthood.

The Zadokites/Sadducees

The rivalry between the priesthoods of Israel and Judah continued for centuries, extending into Galilee. At the end of the second century, Galilee was violently subjugated by the Judeans: "Conquered by Aristobolus I in 104-103 BCE, Galilee was forcibly converted to Judaism,